REEL SISTERS SCREENWRITING RETREAT - july 30-aug. 2, 2026
Reel Sisters New Orleans Retreat for Screenwriters 2026
A Meditation on Resilience
“New Orleans makes it possible to live your life with your heart open,” — Nina Simone
“Where every street sings a story,” — Anonymous
July 30-Aug. 2, 2026
Registration: $725, plus Eventbrite fees ($650 before 5/30/26, Code: NOLA2026)
Master Class & Retreat Registration: $850 ($775 before 5/5/26, Code: BIGEASY2026)
Bring A Pal Discount: $1,200 ($600 per pal)
DOWNLOAD & MAIL REGISTRATION FORM
Revise and write your screenplay in New Orleans — a city that has captivated musicians and artists worldwide. Reel Sisters is offering our second scriptwriting retreat in the Big Easy! Our New Orleans Retreat will offer you a chance to work passionately while enjoying moments to explore an enchanting city best known for its music and food. NOLA writers will experience a unique “staycation” and serve as hosts to visiting filmmakers.
Resilience is the theme for this summer’s retreat as New Orleans represents the epitome of renewal and restoration.
From the opening night dinner at Willie Mae’s to writing sessions at the Contemporary Arts Center, you will enjoy opportunities to feed your creativity and spirit. Highlights of our retreat include a Treme Walking Tour that will tap into New Orleans rich history as a cultural icon that has defined America’s musical traditions. Once experienced, New Orleans stays in your soul forever — it is a source of inspiration that fuels your muse. Let our retreat be the place where your characters come alive and your journey to revise your script begins.
Award-winning producer/director/writer Jennica Carmona will lead you in your goal to refine and prepare your script for production.
You must submit the first 10 pages of your script with a short synopsis to participate in Reel Sisters Scriptwriting Retreat 2026.
GOALS & OUTCOMES
Leave our retreat with script notes, a working elevator pitch and a network of professional accountability partners who will support you in completing your final script for tv, film or digital media. Have an opportunity to be one of four writers selected for a staged table reading of your work presented by Reel Sisters & BRIC in fall 2026.
- Work collectively with seasoned professionals to revise a script for professional production consideration for a major film, tv or streaming outlet.
- One on One script coverage and consultation with our instructor (Value: $250)
- Peer to Peer script note sessions
- Opportunity to enroll in Reel Sisters + BRIC’s 8 session Master Class for half price ($125 by 5/5/26)!
- Shared meal & social gatherings to create a nurturing environment and opportunity to bond with professional filmmakers in the field. Eat at Harlem’s famous Melba’s restaurant!
- Write in a cultural mecca that continues to inspire artists worldwide!
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
JENNICA CARMONA
Her first feature film, Millie and the Lords, won several awards on the film festival circuit and was sold to HBO/Cinemax shortly after its release. The film, which was inspired by the revolutionary Puerto Rican civil rights group, The Young Lords, has been screened at numerous colleges and universities throughout the country. In 2021, Jennica was commissioned by the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival to create a short documentary film, “Fuerza Y Poder”, with young Latino students in the South Philadelphia area. The film explored how the power of community helped them to overcome challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most recently, Jennica wrote and directed a short film, “The Fellowship”, with the senior students at Pace University, which explored issues of race, class, and privilege in an elitist private college.
Jennica has worked as a Film and Theater Educator for many years for various organizations, including Montclair Film, the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, Fleisher Art Memorial, Big Picture Alliance, and more. She has also worked as a Programmer for film festivals such as Reel Sisters Film Festival and the New Jersey Jewish Film Festival. Jennica currently works as the Documentary Programmer for the Atlanta Film Festival, and as an Associate Professor in the Film Department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is an active member of FILM FATALES, a national non-profit organization dedicated to creating equity for women in the filmmaking industry. Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and raised in Rochester, NY, she is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
She is a proud co-founder of Si Se Puede Productions, a theatre and film production company that creates material with social justice themes. Info: www.sisepuedeproductions.org.