We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Debra Markowitz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Debra below.

Debra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I try to make every project I do meaningful in some way. I want to touch people and bring about real life situations in most of my films.
I want to give people something that will touch on situations they have lived through or are living through, and perhaps offer a solution or let them know that they are not alone.
The current feature that is in editing, Wait List: A Love-ish Story, is about a man who has always had a crush on his childhood friend’s mother, and when he finds out that she has gotten divorced, he decides to go for it. It starts out as a sexy, sweet comedy, but when they get involved, there’s a lot of heartbreak that comes out as they deal with their relationship in the real world.
I do think that the current feature I am writing, and will direct, Brimstone, will be much more dramatic. It’s the story of a college student determined to prove a link between trauma and addiction, and along the way she gets involved with a former heroin addict who is trying to heal the traumas from his abusive upbringing. It’s certainly not a feel-good movie, but it’s important to me to portray addiction, trauma, healing and be very clear that co-dependent relationships are not healthy. So it’s writing a responsible love story, but being very clear that people don’t always ride away into the sunset. Having lived through co-dependent relationships in my past, I want to get that information out there without hitting people over the head with it. That’s how art can heal, and I hope to do that.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Sometimes I get hired by others to write and direct, but when a film’s creative choices are solely my own, many people know what a Debra Markowitz film is.
What they are most of all, are heartfelt.
There are a few comedies and horror films, as I do like to work with most genres, but my spiritual films seem to touch people most of all.
From Leaving to The Waiting Room to One Last Time to The Prof – there are lessons for all about living in integrity and trusting in the universe and yourself.
Probably my favorite genre to date is “messy relationships.” We’ve all had them, and I’ve certainly had my share, so it’s navigating and growing and understanding that not everything is solvable. If it is, then I like to show the work involved about how the characters come to the solution.
My work is entertaining, but there is always a lesson. What the lesson is for you, is determined by where you are in your own life.
I wrote my first book at six year’s old, and was told bluntly by my father, “no, you won’t be a writer.” But that’s what his generation was about. I was supposed to marry well, have kids, stay home, cook etc, but that was never going to be me. I wrote some bad poetry and not-so-great screenplays in my 20s, but I didn’t start writing in earnest until my 30s. I always knew I was going to be a writer, even when I hadn’t written for years. When my job as the Nassau County Film Commissioner was in jeopardy, I was deciding what I wanted to do for the rest of my career. I’d always loved the law, and while I didn’t think going to law school was possible for a single mother of a small child, I thought I could certainly be a paralegal. I had a few months before I needed to enroll, and I realized that if I did go into that course of study, I would never write. But I was already not writing. I decided that if I didn’t write anything worthwhile in those few months, I would give up on that dream. Out of that ultimatum, I wrote the first draft of my novella, Naked in the Rain, in three weeks. I then decided to make that story into a present, past, and future life trilogy called the Karmic Wind Trilogy, which takes place in 2001, 1864 and 2070. Once research was done, I wrote the draft of the second book in the trilogy, Sarah and Caleb, also in three weeks. The third book, Karmic Wind, took me years as I was going through an awful, dragged out divorce. I felt like I had lost all heart. Once I got back to writing, though, I started writing screenplays nonstop. Some even getting into the screenwriting semifinals of academy award qualifying film festivals. I do plan to write more novels/novellas, but writing screenplays are my main story telling platform at this time.
The reason I direct movies, is because I want to make sure that they are told well. It’s just another type of storytelling for me.
We call our production company, Intention Films and Media, because the intention of what we do, is very important to us.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I mentor several young actors and filmmakers as well as speak at schools and organizations and am booked on panels at many film festivals.
The first lesson I always talk about is integrity.
I have to know that if I’m going to work with you, I can trust you at your word. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make a mistake, we certainly all do, but you let someone know, you fix it, and we move on. If you throw someone under the bus or attempt to hide an error that can be corrected, I won’t be able to work with you again, or refer you. Almost anything else can be worked out if you are upfront with what you know, what you need to know, and how to do the best job.
I don’t care what field you are in, integrity is first.
I had an entertainment attorney once say about me, Debra Markowitz is the most honest person I know in this industry, and that meant the world to me.
I’m not perfect, and I am not up there in Hollywood, but if I give you an answer, it is true to the best of my knowledge. I am a confidant to many talented filmmakers and even some name actors, because they know I won’t tell them what they necessarily want to hear, but if they’re looking for the truth, they will get it. I try to be kind, but always honest. This means a lot to me that I am perceived that way.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My journey is a long one, which has taken many turns in its path.
As I said before, I wrote my first book at six year’s old. I excitedly showed my father and said, “I’m going to be a writer.” He looked at it and said, “No, you’re not.” It told me at that time that I would never be one.
I was also the child who would direct friends in little plays, not realizing that I was being a director, or what that even was, but I was having fun making up little plays in my head and having my friends act them out.
I wanted to be an actor, so I took Drama in college, but after six months, I realized that I didn’t know how I would be able to pay my bills, so I changed to Business Management. I went to school at night so that I could work during the days and weekends (I always had two jobs).
After a myriad of jobs, I started in the position of Special Assistant to the County Executive in 1988. I got to start some cool programs such as the Senior Citizens’ Discount Program, did research for other projects, offered the idea of movies being show in our Parks (which is still done today), wrote press releases and speeches for the County Executive. I loved the work end of it, but did not like the working culture of being in that high office of government. Lots of people competing to get the attention of the high officials created a very toxic work environment. When I decided to look elsewhere in the government departments, I found an office called Commerce and Industry. They’d just had a large turnover, and we’re desperate for workers. I saw that they did some film permits, but I wasn’t sure what that was about. There were almost no records, but some photos of locations and a ton of trade magazines. I went through everything that I could find, and contacted someone from the NYS Governor’s Film Office to see what it was all about. After some discussions with them, I put together a proposal to start the Nassau County Film Commission. I was told by the County Executive, “fine, you have six months to get it going, and don’t embarrass me.” And I did. Over the years, Nassau County became the busiest film Commission outside of NYC itself and remained that way until I left the office four years ago to become a full time filmmaker. While running the Film Commission, I started the Long Island International Film Expo, one of Long Island’s First Film Festivals (LIIFE) in 1998 with cofounders Anne and Henry Stampfel and a few others who have since passed on.
About 14 years ago, I was contacted to cast a short film because the director knew that I knew certain name actors he wanted to contact. From there, I cast and produced my first feature. The third time out, I knew I wanted to write and direct a short film to see what made directors crazy. Now, I know. There was a year span where I seemed to be working on a new project almost every three weeks in some capacity. I was still working full time, but when most people took vacations, I’d be working on a movie set. When people would be sleeping, I’d be up at 3 AM doing whatever I needed to do for the next project, and be at work in the morning helping large film and television programs find locations and trouble shooting when they had issues within the different villages, towns and cities at the Film Commission.
My husband and business partner, John Marean, mentioned to me several years ago that I was turning down a job a day. While giving up sleep and vacation days and weekends, there’s still only so many hours you have available About four years ago, I decided to go into filmmaking and writing full time. And here I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.intentionfilmsandmedia.com/
• Instagram: @debramarkowitzfilm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DebraMarkowitzWriterDirector
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-markowitz/
• Twitter: @debramarkowitz
• Youtube: https://vimeo.com/debramarkowitz
• Other: https://www.longislandfilm.com