Genre
Synopsis
Convent-raised Magdalena carries to the United States a litany of saints and spells unknown to most. Throughout her struggle to find her place in this new world, she relies on her own idiosyncratic understanding of the Divine and her own savvy pluck.
Her Madonna smokes Lucky Strikes. Her red sweater becomes a flag she waves. Her waitress tips add up to the cost of freedom.
If the Godfather was arguably a male-fueled rags to riches story, NUBILE is what it was like for a woman without a gun in her pocket. And like the iconic Coppola work, it is also epic spanning the history of America's immigration as it tells the tale of one determined and savvy protagonist who resists the dominant narrative.
Bending a knee to the sacred is not an act of submission in NUBILE, but a pause in which Magdalena can plot. All good stories follow a plot, some genre-specific, some linear narrative, but in NUBILE, Magdalena must create a new plot, a new story for an unknown world, a hostile climate.
The episodic pilot draws on Magdalena's pursuit by an older man, and the conflict with her father to allow her the life she deserves.
Magdalena’s attempts at public education, and factory work don't provide the path out of her troubles, but represent further systemic inequality she must fight. Finding an ally in her beloved brother, who is a member of the Coast Guard ends in tragedy as he is drowned in an accident provoked by homophobia and racism. Now she is truly alone—or is she?
The streaming series will end in her abduction and a hasty marriage by a well-paid justice of the peace. Giving birth at 16-years-of-age to her first son turns Magdalena into something fierce, now she has something other than herself to fight for; and a second son soon after completes a new trinity of purpose. Tethered to her bootlegger/restauranteur/husband holds Magdalena down until she squirrels away enough tips in her brassiere to pay a divorce lawyer. The series ends in a New Deal with lingering family relationships to repair and the failure of all imagined saviors.
Director Identity
Bio
Donna Di Novelli has a writing career that spans film, opera, music-theater and stage. A multi-genre artist, Di Novelli attended the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as the co-writer with director Josephine Decker of the Indie narrative feature Madeline's Madeline, chosen as one of the top ten films of the decade by The New Yorker and distributed by NEON. Her director debut, the short, When Last Seen won finishing funds from the NYC Womens Fund through the office of the Mayor, 2023-24 and was screened at the NY International Shorts Fest (2024) and New Plaza Cinema, (2026.) She conceived and wrote The Good Swimmer, a Pop Requiem with Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange) presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival in the same year. Constructed completely of “found text” from lifesaving manuals, the music-theater piece, an adaptation of Antigone, was developed in workshops at Beth Morrison’s Prototype Festival of New Opera/New Music Theater and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. Her opera libretti includes: Florida, with Randall Eng; Oceanic Verses with Paola Prestini; and the San Francisco Opera commissioned, Heart of a Soldier, with music by Grammy-winning Christopher Theofanidis. As a screenwriter, she penned the award-winning short film, Stag directed by Kevin Newbury, starring Sarah Steele, ("Best of New York.") Her episodic pilot, Nubile, advanced to the final round of the 2021 Sundance Episodic Lab. She co-directed its proof-of-concept, 2025. She is a Assistant Arts Professor at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts.
Credits
Actor--Fina Strazza
