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The Project: A NEW INDEPENDENT FILM BASED ON THE LIFE OF WENDY J. WHITE

ROSES ARE BLIND

The Film

written by Vanessa Garcia and Wendy J. White

directed by Victoria Collado and Wendy J. White

Produced by Destino Pictures and Abre Camino Collective

It’s 1981, and Julie Janson is a pre-med track star at Barnard College. She’s also a regular college kid, partaking in a toke or two, here and there – it’s the 80s in New York, after all. When she’s confronted with the meaning of her life, her calling, things start to fall apart. That’s when her very-Scarsdale-NY roommate, Louise, sends her off to a famous New York City psychic, Addison Spellings. At first, Julie refuses, but when her track-star status starts to wane, alongside her pre-med track, she accepts.

Addison opens a door to Julie’s past with the story’s catalyst. Addison tells Julie she has a sister. Julie always knew she had a twin brother, but ... a sister? Julie starts to recall strange memories and runs (literally) all the way home to Long Island. When she confronts her parents, they act strangely – they are clearly hiding something. Julie’s mother, Ruth, calls her brother, Julie’s Uncle, the family doctor, who swiftly puts Julie away in a psychiatric ward.

What ensues is a nightmare. Inside the psychiatric ward, where she knows she doesn’t belong, Julie struggles to get out. She meets a gay dancer named Peter, who helps and guides her. She also witnesses John Lennon’s death, is straight-jacketed, over-medicated, you name it, it happens to her. But all along the way, she wants to find a way out, for good – and also she wants to find a way to the truth of the family secret. And she does, with the help of Dr. Mayer, a kind, young doctor, who wants to revamp the system, which he feels is broken.

Julie makes it out of the ward; others don’t. And that’s made clear. Julie can return to Barnard College, despite her parents’ dematriculation of her, with the help of Louise and her college track coach. Thirty years later, we catch Julie in her life: She’s a painter. Bloomed. Free.

Roses Are Blind Film