ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A featured entry at this year’s Sunshine City Film Festival was written and produced by one of our own here at Spectrum Bay News 9.

Nathanael Paul started working as an executive producer in 2014 after moving from Orlando, where he was a part of our sister station, Spectrum News 13.

After moving to the United States from Trinidad when he was 12, Paul’s father was sentenced to prison. He got married young, had a child, and the couple later divorced.

“On the surface it felt like everything was going good. I was working a good job, but on the inside I was hurting,” he said.

 

It was one night in 2017, while sitting alone in a library, that Paul said he hit a low point.

“I was trying to decide if my life was worth living and then something in me said, 'if I’m feeling this way, then maybe someone else is feeling this way,' so I just decided to start writing,” he explained.

In just a few hours, he penned the script for what would later become the basis for a TV pilot episode he titled "Cicatrix." In Latin, "Cicatrix" means scars.

“My main character’s name is Sampson, and it was like writing about myself. The more I wrote, the healing process started to begin,” Paul said.

He took the script to his sister Natalia, who worked in TV production. Together, they began the months-long process of getting "Cicatrix" on the big screen.

The pilot was shot primarily in New York and New Jersey, and what started as a cast and crew of only 10 people quickly grew to more than 60.

The TV pilot is now complete and will be airing on Monday evening at the AMC Sundial in St. Petersburg.

“I hope that this film leaves some inspiration that no matter what scars you have, what damage has been done, that you still have a future,” Nathanael said.