“Purple Church: With God All Things Are Possible” was originally scheduled to be filmed in Clarksdale in 2019, but obstacles have pushed the production back.
“Purple Church” is a 2011 novel written by Starner Jones about a lonely minister being lured into a double life. MVP3 Entertainment Group founder Marie Pizano acquired the film rights of the book, which she will be producing. The majority of the film was scheduled to be made in Clarksdale, while some of it was to be put together in the Germantown and Memphis, Tenn., area.
Pizano resides in Memphis area and is also the producer of “Shattered,” which played during the 2017 Clarksdale Film Festival. She had her own personal experience of watching children become traumatized and placed in the middle of family issues. That caused her plans to change and she took action.
She led the effort for TN HB2588 to pass in the Tennessee state senate in recent weeks.
The bill reads, “As enacted, requires that the parent educational seminar include at least one 30-minute video on adverse childhood experiences created by the department of children's services in conjunction with the commission on children and youth or as part of the Building Strong Brains Tennessee public awareness campaign; adds to that the requirement of attendance by parents at the parent educational seminar may be waived upon motion by either party and the agreement of the court upon the showing of good cause.”
“Really, it all boils down to adverse childhood experiences and watching unethical attorneys take advantage of adult people,” Pizano said.
She said she did not like watching people get destroyed.
“Now, the cycle continues to traumatize children off of what?” Pizano said. “Everybody going through divorce and all of that to be used as human trafficking for profit for the unethical attorneys.
“My movie got halted because of all the chaos of having the issues of the ripple effect from things that were happening within family law.”
While a timetable has not been set to film “Purple Church: With God All Things Are Possible,” Pizano said it will happen.
“I am in process right now of discussions to take many of my films to Atlanta and still keep my promise of using the talent in Clarksdale and the mid-south with the hope of creating a larger production ability with certain partnerships,” Pizano said.
“Basically, what I’ve got to do, like I always do, is I’ve got to hurdle over the mess that others create and go find that yes, regardless.”
Pizano hopes that her film brings a positive message and awareness to create change.
“I’ve been halted, but as I always do, I rise to the occasion to be part of the solution,” she said. “In the meantime, while this virus is going on and I can’t get into movie production and all this fighting and unethical practice is happening, I will take my anger for injustice and my dislikes to turn them into creating the positive solutions for change.”
