Lori Needleman, Raquel Esteban Martin and Santiago Gascón Santos join forces to produce the story which inspired what most believe is William Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet.
LORI NEEDLEMAN
With over 25 years working in the entertainment business, Lori Needleman began her career working for the well-respected casting director, Cherie Mann, in 1991. There she apprenticed in castings for various television and film projects. She then joined Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles working as an assistant in Packaging & Literary Agent Assistant in 1993. At CAA, she learned the fine art of searching out great stories to be made into television and films. She was asked to work as liaison in a joint venture between a new division of the agency, N.S. Bienstock, and Creative Artists Agency to search out new original programming in New York City.
In 1996, she joined a boutique start-up management company and packager of programming, The Willoughby Group as an Associate Producer. There she pitched programming to networks, cable companies and major advertisers. A few years later, she joined the agency, AEI, in Los Angeles where she supported the Executive Producer and Manager on film co-productions including 20th Century Fox/ Regency’s Joe Somebody, Warner Bros./Red Hour’s The Kill Martin Club, New Line/Zide-Perry production of Henry’s List of Wrongs, and New Regency’s Life or Something Like It. Needleman targeted buyers to pitch client screenplays and manuscripts, established relationships with studios, production companies, talent agencies, talent and directors, and pitched client projects to the studios, production companies and publishing houses.
She went on to work with a documentary photographer and filmmaker. There she coordinated, budgeted and oversaw various photography shoots as well as produce a museum show and publicity tour for the HBO Emmy award-winning documentary, THIN. She applied to over 80 film festivals and organized trips to over 20 festivals resulting in six international awards. Additionally, Needleman was a Production Associate on the award-winning multi-media film kids+money for the New York Times.
In 2016, Needleman created the production company, 1217 Films, with Raquel Esteban and Santiago Gascón.Currently, 1217 Films has three projects in development. The first project is a completed film script based on a 13th century Spanish legend about two young undying lovers. While reading a travel magazine 15 years ago, Needleman read a blurb about a small Spanish town that celebrates this story with a four-day medievalfestival, which was once believed to be the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.
The second project is a film adaptation of a sci-fi-thriller based on an international bestseller. Needleman has adapted this Latin American based thriller and is currently in discussions for a co-production with USA and Latin American directors and producers (Lost meets 2012).
Lastly, she is in the final stages of completing her first teenage novel about the coming of age of a quirky young girl who moves from Wisconsin to the wild streets of Los Angeles (Heathers meets Slums of Beverly Hills).
As a graduate of Boston University with a Bachelor of Science in Communications & Public Relations, she continued her education in photography and writing at University of California, Los Angeles and Otis College of Design.
RAQUEL ESTEBAN MARTIN
For centuries, the townspeople in Teruel had heard rumors about the legend Los Amantes de Teruel (The Lovers of Teruel). However, it was not until 1555 that their bodies were discovered and then placed in a mausoleum. Children were, and still are, surrounded by images of the two young tragic lovers, Isabel and Diego. For many years, Raquel Esteban Martín thought about creating a re-enactment of this medieval legend in her beloved city.
Then in 1996, Esteban, along with a small group of actors, created a festival, which re-enacted some scenes from the legend. Ten years later in 2006, due to its success, the town hall Ayuntamiento de Teruel created a foundation Fundación Bodas de Isabel, which Esteban spearheads to continue this annual festival.
Two decades later, this spectacular four-day event involves over 200 actors, 4,500 extras, 17,000 locals dressed in medieval clothing. Teruel is host to over 80,000 visitors annually. In 2016, Bodas de Isabel de Segura has been honoured and designated a historic national festival by Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional for its enormous economic and touristic impact in Spain.
Esteban received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Valencia. She is a research specialist in clothing from the Middle Ages as well as a specialist in classical and medieval dance from the Universidad de Valencia and Universidad de Zaragoza.
Her continued success and quality of her work has led her to advise other events throughout Aragón. She has provided consult from the Roman period to Modernism of the early twentieth century, through the main characters in the history of Aragón and other Hispanic kingdoms like El Cid Campeador, Alfonso I el Batallador, Ramiro II el Monje, Pedro II, Jaime I, Pedro IV, Teresa Gil de Vidaurre, Violante de Hungría, La Dama de los Mayos and many others.
Five years ago, the foundation launched “La Partida de Diego, 1212” which is similar to las Bodas de Isabel de Segura, but tells the first part of the legend The Lovers of Teruel. During this weekend, Teruel hosts an International Congress project “Europa Enamorada”, which is a network that connects European love stories with eight partner countries.
Esteban´s tireless activities have won her numerous awards from the Aragón government, Gobierno de Aragón, in addition to the media, business federations, and cultural associations of all kinds. She has been recognized for her contribution, value and originality as a creative and organizer.
In addition, she has directed and produced several documentaries and is currently the Vice-President of the Spanish Association of Festivals and Historical Reenactments, Association Española de fiestas y recreations historical. Esteban will become the next president of the Confédération Européenne des fêtes et manifestations historiques (CEFMH) in 2017 until 2020.
SANTIAGO GASCÓN SANTOS
Santiago Gascón was born in Mallén, Zaragoza. He has a degree in Psychology and is a professor at the University of Zaragoza in the Department of Psychology and Sociology. He is a writer and screenwriter as well as a regular contributor to Heraldo de Aragón and Aragón Television.
As a researcher of psychology, he has specialized in “Psychosocial factors related to health”, which deals with emotions and how they affect health or even cause death. He has been a contributor in over fifty publications and psychology books.
Gascón has published the novels “Agnus Dei” (Institution Fernando the Catholic, 1999) and “Una Familia Normal” (Xordica, 2012), which is in its second edition.
Additionally, he has published a book of short stories called “Manila” (Xordica Editorial, 2003) and collaborated in the collective books: “Cuentos a patadas” (Real Zaragoza, CF, 2008), “Zaragoza de la Z a la A” (Diputación de Zaragoza, 2004), “La Tierra Prometida” (Fundación Cajas de Ahorros, 2001), “Suegras” (Editorial Nuevos Rumbos, 2010), “Recuerdos del Porvenir” (Editorial Nuevos Rumbos, 2013), among others.
He has received numerous awards for his writings: Premio Isabel de Portugal for Agnus Dei (1999); Premio Hucha de Oro for La Tierra Prometida (2000); Premio Internacional Max Aub for El laberinto de sedas (2000); and Premio Teruel for El náufrago (2000). In 2000, he received first prize in a contest for his script in Las Bodas de Isabel de Segura. Since then, Gascón has been writing the plays for Las Bodas de Isabel de Segura as well as writing several other Aragonese historical reenactments. In 2013, he wrote the theatrical piece entitled “Piety Company” (2013).
In 2016, Santiago Gascón, Raquel Esteban and Lori Needleman began the production company 1217 Films to produce the much-awaited inspiration for Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, The Lover of Teruel. In October 2016, GP Ediciones released the book, Amantes, The Legend of Teruel, which is based on the Lovers of Teruel screenplay written by Gascón, Esteban and Needleman.