Meet Your Professors
Donna Bellorado, EdD
Lorraine Flett, MA
Donna has a unique voice. She lives in a multi-cultural/racial world, the child of immigrants.
She is driven to tell universal stories with strong female protagonists and diverse characters including race, gender, LBGTQ+, class and age.
An Educator/Behavioral Scientist with a post doc from The Mind Body Medical Institute at Harvard, her career in public policy included literacy development, prison reform, youth and social justice. Longing to pursue her creative side, she turned to radio becoming a Pacifica Radio apprentice. It is there she found her passion for feature storytelling winning a Peabody nomination. Donna has studied the craft of screen writing for almost two decades and has written fifteen screenplays: eleven features, a TV Pilot and two shorts. All have awards including a First Prize
Thriller, First Prize RomCom, numerous finalist positions across genres, and two positive reads from Nicholl Awards. She is an alumnae of:
the Community of Writers (formerly Squaw Valley Writer’s Group), Oaxaca Iff Industry Partners Program, and Nostos Writing Community.
In each of these fellowships Donna workshopped scripts under the tutalige of mentors and industry professionals perfecting log lines, treatments, overall structure and character development to maximize depth and emotion.
Two of her scripts were optioned: SHOOT by Delroy
Lindo/Ceiluna Productions and Details are Done
by Jesse Williams/Foreword Productions. A thirty second version of her short film, One Sound, received a MOBI award. Her work can be found on IMDbPro, BlackList, ISA, and Coverfly.
Recent Awards:
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Best Feature Script, Details Are Done, 2024 Palermo International Film Festival
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Best TV Pilot, Aging Out, Manchester UK Lift Off
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Best Feature Animation, Homero, Manchester UK Lift Off
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Best Coming of Age Feature, Jasper's Place,
Manchester UK Lift Off
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Semi Finalist, Short Thriller Category, Last Stop,
Austin International Art Festival
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Semi Finalist, Feature Drama Category, Madeleine, Austin International Art Festival
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Semi Finalist, Last Stop, Paris International Short Festival
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Semi Finalist, Surviving Childhood, Paris International Short Festival
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Quarter Finalist, Feature Comedy Category, Robbing To Write, Page Turner Screenplays​
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2022-Finalist, It's Not Always What It Seems,Best Script category, Oaxaca IFF;
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Juried Entry, Missing List, Nostos Writers Retreat, Tuscany.
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It's Not Always What It Seems,
a feature romantic comedy, written by Donna and Lorraine, was juried into the Squaw Valley Writers' Conference; garnered two positive recommendations in the prestigious Nichols Awards, and received glowing Hollywood coverage.
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The script garnered the writers recognition by the International Screenwriters Association as among the top Emerging Screenwriters of 2013.
The script was among 15 finalists in the 2022 Oaxaca Film Festival.
Lorraine began screenwriting in 1996 under the mentorship of author and director James Dalessandro, a leading screenwriting instructor in Northern California. After leaving her role as Director of Project Management at a global digital ad agency, she joined Dalessandro’s production company, San Andreas Films, where she spent over a decade writing script coverage, editing pitches and treatments, managing festival submissions, creating author opportunities, and serving as Production Coordinator on the award-winning documentary The Damndest Finest Ruins.
She continues to work with Mr. Dalessandro
and a group of talented writers in a weekly online Screenwriting As A Pro workshop in which everyone critiques each others scripts, pitches, treatments, and bibles, getting top industry pro's opinions and polishing our work until it dazzles.
A graduate of the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, Lorraine wrote and produced the indie feature MISMO, a film exploring identity, compulsion, and connection, and produced the award-winning short One Sound. In 2016 earned her Master of Arts in Filmmaking from Staffordshire University in the UK. She is a founding member of the Presidio Screenwriters Group, an alum of the Squaw Valley Writers Group, and a juried member of Nostos Writing Community.
She is a strong proponent of emotionally grounded, place-based storytelling.
A number of Lorraine's scripts have been recognized in script competitions, including Best Screenplay for Ode to Violeta in Toronto International Womens Film Festival 2024.
To see what San Miguel can inspire, Lorraine is offering her scripts to read upon request: Te Amo San Miguel, a romantic comedy, and Buried in Light, a neo-noir melodrama in the vein of Blood Simple.
She lives, writes, and collaborates between
San Francisco and San Miguel de Allende.