Following on from my Write Room Residency in 2020, and with the help of a NZWG Seed Grant in 2022, I am completing the next draft of my screenplay The Band of the true Prophet during “in between times”. These are currently very early mornings, late nights, and random headlong sprints. 
 
The Band of the True Prophet is about a cult. I’ve been obsessed with cults for some time, which might seem macabre, but I love the way in which they teach me about my own sheltered patterns of thinking.
 
Deep in remote wetlands, a community lives together in a settlement they call THE BAND. Having abandoned their families, they’ve taken a vow of silence to “outsiders”, wear uniforms, and lead a simple life. They’d be cut off from the world entirely, if it wasn’t for the women who wear white — BREEDERS — having to …interact … every so often with the local townspeople. 
 
The film centres on two of the first born in THE BAND, who both discover things about the outside world that test their belief in the community that raised them. This test incites a journey of self discovery and rebellion.
 
Part comedy, part drama, The Band of the True Prophet is a cult story told from the inside out. It is a unique undertaking.

Reference Imagery: Angela Ellsworth’s Sister Wives, Dogtooth, and The Truman Show