As a filmmaker, please introduce yourself.

My name is Eric Ayala. I started out as a playwright and director for the theatre. I gradually moved into writing books.

In 2010, with 6 stage plays and 12 published books under my belt, I was prepared to tackle my first screenplay entitled Sunday Morning Rapture,  which can now be seen on Prime Video. Not only was I privileged to write the script,

I was tapped to serve as Assistant Director. The acclaim received for that film prompted me to pen my own project,

If I Should Die Before I Wake, also on Prime Video.

 

Why you became a filmmaker as director and producer?

My journey into filmmaking was sort of an accidental path, if you believe in accidents. Some may call it providence.

After facilitating a writer’s conference in 2009, I was asked to write a Black History month play from one of the attendees.

One of the principal actors in that play had an idea for a film and asked me to write the script.

That script became Sunday Morning Rapture. The seed was planted and I was hooked on the process of seeing

a film progress from the written word to the ending credits on the screen.  

Give some more information about yourself and the films you have made so far, about your experience?

Overcoming challenges might be part of the filmmaker's credo. I’ve come to discover that it is the determination

to do so that proves one's mettle. When I endeavored to write and direct If I Should Die Before I Wake,

I didn’t realize just how challenging that effort would be. I had been away from the stage for a number of years

and my first thought was to write this story as a stage play. It was suggested that I write it for film instead.

The same person that suggested the story be turned into a film also offered to finance the project.

Anyone who knows me knows that when you give me a green light I do not stand idle. As a very organized person,

by the time I left my meeting with this potential investor, I was already on the phone planning the auditions,

and my production team had begun to take shape. By August 2013, I’d received half the funds for the projected

budget with the promise that the balance would be paid at the close of filming. Sadly, the balance was not forthcoming,

but I’d made a promise and there were contracts that needed to be honored. I am, if nothing else, a man of my word.

It was a challenge to gather the remaining funds to get everyone paid, but that is exactly what I did.

A culmination of 28 awards, accolades, and the attendance at several indie film festivals later took the sting out of

what was surely a crushing blow. Landing on Prime Video wasn’t bad either.  

 

What are the films or people that had impacts on you and deeply inspired you to become a filmmaker?

I have been inspired by the talents and the struggles of Issa Rae, Lena Waithe, Denzel Washington,

Jordan Peele, Ava DuVernay, Donald Glover, and Viola Davis, just to name a few. I not only love and

respect their considerable contributions to film and television, their work, grit and determination continues

to inspire and push me forward regardless of the obstacles and opposition.