When a single dad gets a life-altering diagnosis, his teen daughter partners with a spirited singer and psychic dog to unravel her family history and transform his perceptions of her from misguided to fiercely resilient.
Prodigy musician Natalia is forbidden from pursuing music by her ill and restrictive father. He believes his daughter is not good enough to break ceilings in worlds of professional musicianship, and he wants to make certain she will have all she needs to succeed in life, as he struggles with complications from his new illness and by his grief of abandonment by Nat's musician mother, who left to pursue her own thriving music career. Nat refuses to speak to him, and isolates in her bedroom, composing symphonies across her walls. She hears and sees the musical notes swirling around her as she transcribes them.. She is writing a special composition, an ode to her mother's musical legacy for her. Free-spirited singer Annie - and psychic dog Boozer - arrive to rent the empty lot next door, amping up the tension. They meet over a stolen iPod and decide to privately jam together in a covert girl band. When they combine their two original sounds, something entirely new is born. And it will go viral. Propelling Nat and her father into a battle for Nat's choices in life versus her loyalty to support her father's wishes for her.
Donna is a film and stage director and writer whose focus is stories about women with unusual and heroic skills, humanity, or insights. She explores cultural silencing, ancestral powers, and isolationism, versus community. Her projects are Nicholl SFs, Gotham No Borders, Slamdance Labs, Austin Film Fest, and MIPTV/Cannes Series selects, among others. Her family-mockumentary-mystery, Death of a Saleswoman, about glass ceilings faced by high-achieving women, took home wins from international festivals, sold at Cannes/ AFM/ Berlin markets, and streams globally on multiple platforms. Her short film, The Girl Next Door, about a voiceless harmonica virtuoso, screened at 56+ international and U.S. festivals. She's developing the feature version, Natalia Rising, in addition to other feature projects. Donna created and leads the #MentorLatinaDirectors Fellowship for Latina and Indigenous TV and Film Directors. She also directs theatre, and is a member of Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative. She develops her works with support from Film Fatales, Alliance of Women Directors, Stowe Story Labs, CA Center for Cultural Innovation, Sundance Collab, Reel Sisters/African Voices, PageCraft, and Women in Film. She's a former skydiver, rock climber, and experienced off-road driver. She has both science and legal backgrounds as well.
Stowe Story Labs 2021, 2022
Sundance Institute Workshop for Screenplay and Directing
DTLA Film Festival 2019 - Best Screenplay
Executive Producer - Forrest Murray
Casting Director - Sunday Boling
Writer - Donna Bonilla Wheeler
Director - Donna Bonilla Wheeler
