New year, new films for Merrick cineaste

Merrick filmmaker Debra Markowitz has a mind overflowing with potential screenplays, films to direct, actors to cast and— in general—stories she wants to tell. As director of the Nassau County Film Commission and the Long Island International Film Expo, as well as a filmmaker immersed in the tri-state area film festival circuit, Markowitz has devoted her recent years to the medium. In the New Year, she said, she will continue to foster this passion by making business decisions about past films and debuting new projects at festivals. She will also begin production on several ventures, including a web series called “Couple of Guys.”

When Markowitz outlined her future plans, she spoke fast and continuously, making sure she could fit each idea into her next sentence. She tries to make time for every pursuit she finds important — “even if I have to have a meeting during my lunch hour,” she said during her lunchtime interview with the Herald.

Starting this year, Markowitz will be pulling her three most successful films, “The Last Taxi Driver”, “Leaving” and “By Blood” from the festival circuit. She is considering uploading “The Last Taxi Driver” to a site like Vimeo and selling “Leaving” to distributors. Concurrently, she will submit a short film she directed called “Chosen,” about a recovering addict who learns he is the last remaining descendant of Jesus Christ.

In February, Markowitz will begin production on another project called “The Waiting Room.” This is part of a 72-hour challenge for the Actor’s Green Room, a New York City-based organization that sets up workshops for actors and directors. Television actor and former Rockette Jennifer Gilles contacted Markowitz to direct the film.

Markowitz said she is most enthusiastic about her first web series, called “Couple of Guys.” For the past two years Markowitz has been writing several scripts for the project, starting with a short screenplay she called “The Restaurant.” This developed into a story about two men who fall in love despite the complications in each of their lives that pull them apart. After showing it to friends in the film industry, she felt enamored by the characters, but not the story. “If you give me an actor,” she said, “I can look at that actor and make a whole story about them.”

All 12 episodes are now written, and in two weeks, Markowitz and her production team will start fundraising for the pilot. They plan to shoot this episode and then pitch the series to streaming networks like Hulu, Amazon and Netflix.

Markowitz added that, on top of her current projects, she is writing three feature films, two plays and a script for a comic book. Although she only started making films five years ago, Markowitz has always considered herself a writer. “If I could only do one thing it would be telling the stories,” she said.