MY NAME IS DEBRA HOPKINS
feature biopic in development, co-written with Melanie Williams Oram
adapted from the true life memoir by Debra J. Hopkins
After a wrongful arrest, Black trans Baptist minister Debra Hopkins fights to clear her name while refusing to force her estranged daughter - her only alibi - to testify. As the case drags on, trauma fractures Debra’s reality, blurring persecution and paranoia, until she must confront what is haunting her - from within and beyond - in order to survive.
“My Name Is Debra Hopkins” is a film about being haunted - by the state, by memory, by the body itself.
Debra is an inspiring figure, but this is not a polite story of resilience. This film is about rupture and what happens when a person is erased in plain sight - misnamed, criminalized, violated - yet still insists on claiming her basic human rights.
The film begins in realism and then fractures. What appears stable - home, church, the law - reveals itself to be unreliable. Set in Huntsville, Alabama, the world is saturated with Southern charm: quaint homes, soft light, good manners. But beneath that surface is rot. The past is not past in Huntsville - it seeps through the walls, lingers in the body, simmers in the mind.
This is a Southern Gothic psychological thriller where fear does not come from jump scares or the supernatural, but from the violence embedded in everyday life. This film holds space for Debra’s contradictions: faith and rage, vulnerability and power.
“My Name Is Debra Hopkins” is not a story about a victim. It is a story about a woman who refuses to be defined by the world - and a film that resists erasure.
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Winner - Best Screenplay
Imagine This Women's Film Festival
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Finalist
Rhode Island International Film Festival
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Official Selections
Script Awards Los Angeles
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True Story Showcase
Oxford Screenplay Competition
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Semi-Finalist
Nashville Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Faith in Film Festival
Honorable Mention
Hollywood Script Awards
Big Apple Screenplay Competition
Unique Voices Screenwriting Competition