A transvestite, an illegal alien, a homeless man and a gothic girl driving around Southern California in a stolen hearse may sound like the setup for a joke, but it’s not. This is the premise of "Defying Gravity," a new movie produced by a Menifee math teacher.

The film focuses on Cassandra (portrayed by Alexandra Mathews,) a taciturn runaway with a penchant for black clothing. When she flees her violent stepfather, she meets the people who will save her from the life of abuse.

Lola (William Belli), a transvestite waitress, befriends Cassandra and helps her get to Southern California, where a dear family member’s grave lies in a Jewish cemetery.

While living secretly among the tombstones Cassandra meets Jorge (Mario Martinez), an undocumented maintenance worker, and Shore (Macauley Gray), a schizophrenic college dropout living in a van near the cemetery.

When Cassandra’s stepfather finds the cemetery and violently confronts the girl’s new friends they decide to protect her. They flee the cemetery and the aggressive stepfather in a stolen hearse.

This year, the movie has won the Director’s Choice Award at the Fallbrook Film Festival and the Best Story/Writing Award from the Digital Video and High Def Festival.

Not bad for a writer/co-producer who has no experience in the movie business.

Lisa Savy James is a geometry and pre-calculus teacher at Paloma Valley High School in Menifee. She began writing screenplays in 2000 as a hobby. "Defying Gravity" was one of her first.

James wrote the script after her mother died and the cemetery – the same one that appears in the film – became like a second home to her.

Unlike most other screenplays she has written since, James wrote "Defying Gravity" without adhering to any kind of structure, she said. Moreover, she filled the story with the most marginalized people in American society.

"On one Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] hand I’ve always identified with people on the fringe of society, and on the other hand I just started writing… and it just kind of came out," she said in an interview last week.

The story is less about differences than it is about people’s similarities, she said. The film shows how these four people could come together despite outward differences and overcome difficulties while forming friendships.

James’ screenplay writing crossed the line between devout hobby and side-profession in 2002, when she sold her first script for $5,000.

She never attempted selling the "Defying Gravity" script, however, for two reasons: the script was too personal and she thought others would be unable to relate to it.

Another unhappy event, the death of her father, gave James the drive to bring "Defying Gravity" to life. The inspiration that drove her to write the script returned to her as she found herself spending time at the cemetery again.

Her father’s death also gave her the means to create the film in the form of an inheritance, in addition to the advent of reasonably-priced high-definition recording equipment.

After seeing "Crackpot," which "Defying Gravity" director Michael Keller created with high-definition equipment, James realized the film was finally within her financial reach.

"I thought, ‘Wait a minute, if he can do that for $5,000 I know I can do mine for $5,000,’" she said.

James originally planned a $20,000 budget, but by the time she finished the film it had cost her $60,000.

James is now working on getting a distributor for the film, but she declined to give any details until the deal is finalized. She expects the film to be available at Blockbuster and through Netflix by February.

For more information on "Defying Gravity" and James’ additional work, e-mail lisa@

balancingactpictures.com or visit www.defyinggravitythemovie.com or www.myspace.com/defyinggravitythemovie.