Project One

Alexina Gillis

Currents in Global Literature

Nic Helms

“The Dew Breaker” Movie Proposal/Pitch

Title: The title for the movie would remain the same; “The Dew Breaker”

Characters: The characters would have everyone in the first chapter of the story; Ka, her father Papa, her mother Anne, and someone “famous” to buy Ka’s art. 

Log-line: A father’s dark past comes to light when his daughter uses him as her muse.

Description: I want to create a film based on the first and last chapter of “The Dew Breaker” by Edwidge Danticat. In the book, Danticat starts out with Ka and Papa traveling to deliver one of her sculptures to someone well-known in the area. We later find out that Papa left in the early morning and sank the sculpture in a river, destroying it in the process. He does this because it reminds him of his past, and he comes clean to Ka about the things he has done in his life. 

For this movie, It will start with Papa as a young boy in Haiti, when he first decides to join National Security. It will show (censored) some of the brutal things that he has done in his past as part of his job. For this part of the movie, Papa will be depicted as a truly evil man. There will be no sugar coating and the movie will then lead into how Papa got the life he has now, with Ka. 

To accomplish this new life, he must live a lie. The movie will show Papa meeting Anne, and manipulating her into thinking that he was a victim of the regime. They escape from Haiti to Brooklyn, New York and begin a drastically new life, ignoring their problematic pasts. 

It isn’t until Ka starts to be interested in art and using her father as her muse that he realizes he cannot keep his secret forever. That is around when the perspective of the movie will change from Papa to Ka, and how she views him in a completely different light than the viewers. 

This somewhat puts Danticat’s “the Dew Breaker” in chronological order, and lets the viewer make their own assumptions of Papa, without Ka’s interference. The movie will end with Papa telling Ka who he really is, and how she handles the whole situation. 

Reflection:

I chose to create a proposal to make Danticat’s “The Dew Breaker” into a movie that messes with the order of the book in some ways. I really like how Danticat organized the story, and it made me wonder about a lot of things. Like, why did we have to wait until the end to find out who Papa really is? Does it make a difference if the reader/viewer finds out before the story of Ka begins? What are the effects if you make this switch? I thought about rewriting just the first and last chapter in this way, but that felt like a bit too heavy of a work load. So, why not propose the idea and create a movie pitch! I did have to use outside sources to find out what needs to be included in a proposal, as I have only ever done one of these before. The site I used the most was a MasterClass article titled “Proposals and Treatments: Why are they necessary for filmmakers?” I also, obviously, used Edwidge Danticat’s book “The Dew Breaker” as inspiration for the movie pitch. The idea may be controversial, because there could be a chance that making these tweaks could change the view of the whole story. Maybe it won’t be told the way Danticat intended. But my goal is not to disrespect the original author, but simply build off of it and experiment with her fabulous work. I did think about having the movie include all stories from the book, because they are all linked together. But I found that I was most drawn to Ka, Papa, and Anne. the dynamic they have is very interesting and I really wish I could see it played out in another order. I have never read a book that was organized the way Danticat organized The Dew Breaker. I was worried that because the stories changed with each chapter, that I would get confused or bored. It ended up being the opposite! It actually kept me enthralled longer and there was no information overload like I was worried about. It has inspired me to think out of the box with my writing. I want to also try to write a series of linked stories and see where it could take me. But, the question burning in my head was “how does the order in which these stories are told affect how the reader sees the characters?” and in order to answer that, you have to do it!

Works Cited:

Admin. “How to Write a Film Proposal?” Filmboard Movies, 12 Apr. 2021, blog.filmboardmovies.com/how-to-write-a-film-proposal/. 

LitCharts. “The Dew Breaker Themes.” LitCharts, http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-dew-breaker/themes. Accessed 21 Oct. 2023. 

MasterClass. “Proposals and Treatments: Why Are They Necessary for Filmmakers? – 2023.” MasterClass, 2021, http://www.masterclass.com/articles/why-are-proposals-and-treatments-necessary-for-filmmakers#:~:text=A%20proposal%20is%20the%20most,material%2C%20biographies%20of%20your%20chief.