Queen of the Okefenokee
by Lorraine Portman
Historical drama - feature film
The colorful life of Lydia Stone, the woman who
tamed the swamp and built an empire in 1800s Georgia
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Twelve-year-old Amy, dragged to a pageant in her Mother’s
home town, meets the Grandmother she never knew she
had and runs off to get to know her.
Amy’s Grandmother tells her the story of their family’s
relative and local legend Lydia, the Queen of the Okefenokee.
Lydia, a pioneering woman living in Georgia in the
late 1800s, broke social boundaries, tamed the swamp,
and married much younger men. She died a millionaire
after starting out with only a cow, sow and ten dollars.
Meanwhile, Amy’s Mother searches frantically for Amy,
who does not know the tragic history of her Mother
and Grandmother and the danger she is in.
Screenplay Awards and Acknowledgements
Second Runner-Up - Charleston International Film
Festival Screenplay Competition 2014
Honorable Mention "Hollywood" - Bare Bones International Film
and Music Festival Screenplay Competition 2014
Semi-Finalist Feature Screenplay - Austin Revolution Film Festival 2015
Best Title - Action on Film International Film Festival
Written Word Competition 2015
Lorraine Portman
Writer/Director/Producer Lorraine Portman is an award-winning
Playwright, Screenwriter, and Filmmaker. She has written and directed
seven short films and a feature.
Lorraine's screenplays have been placed in national and international
competitions. She has had screenplays that were finalists in the Cayfilm
Screenplay Competition. Her black comedy eDisharmony was awarded
Outstanding Comedy by the Sacramento International Film Festival and
was awarded Best Black Comedy by the Broad Humor Film Festival.
Portman’s closed space thriller Attic Ashes has placed in 29 competitions,
winning First Prize Thriller in the Film Crash Screenplay Competition,
Best Screenplay in the Chicago Genre Screenplay Competition, and
Best Screenplay in Beaufort International Film Festival’s
Screenplay Competition. Her Queen of the Okefenokee and
Paradise Pond screenplays have also garnered awards.
Lorraine taught Playwriting and Screenwriting at
Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida for ten years.
She holds a B.A. in Theater from Smith College and M.F.A. in Film
from Florida State University. Lorraine also attended the National
Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.