“It such an honour to be here on closing night, which is an honour in itself, but a very special one because, it is at such a prestigious festival. I just found out that I could come last night and I was so excited that I forgot my passport; so I just got here if you are wondering why I’m dressed so warmly. It was 30 degrees in New York just a few hours ago. My life was very different a year ago, and I’m still trying to make sense of it all. I get to work with people I’ve admired for many years, right here is one of them (pointing to Lenny Kravitz), and just when I was starting to make sense of it all, I find myself here still trying to make sense of it all.

Geoffrey Fletcher speaks at Bahamas International Film Festival closing night, December 17th, 2009.

Geoffrey on the film
‘Some people say that the book is more graphic and this and that. There is some physical violence that is here, but the great thing about cinema is that you can show people a little glimpse, another glimpse, and remind them to connect the dots and participate. So like the old horror films that were so scary, where you just imagined what was happening, in your mind, you could scare yourself more than any filmmaker can. But there are a lot of things that we do see as well.”
Geoffrey was asked about the brief fantasy scene in the movie when Precious looks in the mirror and sees a white girl, about how strong that was – it was there and it’s gone and then you never see it again.
Geoffrey says that it came up for three reasons:
• Precious’ escape
• In case the audience may need a little escape
• That visual cinematic element to it.

About a possible Oscar nomination
“Honestly, people ask me that, and the truth of the matter is that I’m still amazed that the film got made. I don’t mean to insult other films or anything, but there are no transformers in this movie; it’s a really hard, cold reality and people want to see it.
But if you think about a film and elements that you think may be commercial in a film…this covers a checklist of elements that you typically don’t go to the movies to see, I imagine. So I’m just thrilled.

Geoffrey says that many things had to have happened for the film to be made.
“In all the elements, there were so many weird things that had to happen for this to happen. For instance, the Magnesses, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, they funded the film. So can you imagine? They wrote a huge check for a movie with this subject matter, and thought maybe they would get their money back. I don’t even know if they thought they would get their money back, I don’t know. But it’s remarkable and there were so many different steps along the way. There was a lot of chaos and sometimes good things come out of chaos.”

Fletcher is the 1st African American screenwriter to take home an Academy Award

“PRECIOUS”
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Screenplay Written by: Geoffrey Fletcher and Sapphire (Adapted Material)
Produced by: Lee Daniels, Gary Magness, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Tom Heller, Lisa Cortes, Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey
Principal cast: Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introducing Gabourey Sidibe.

Erica Meus-Saunders, publisher of Nu Woman Magazine and Geoffrey Fletcher, screen writer and Oscar winner for Best Adapted screeplay for the movie Precious.

Written by Erica Meus-Saunders
Published in Nu Woman Magazine’s Winter/Spring 2010 issue
Photos by Dwayne Delancy

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