Press Release-SCREEN SIREN PICTURES ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO CARMEN AGUIRRE’S MEMOIRS-(Pender PR)

VANCOUVER, BC (August 9, 2021)— It was announced today that Chilean-Canadian playwright, actor, and author Carmen Aguirre’s #1 international bestselling memoir Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter has been optioned for the screen by Screen Siren Pictures. The award-winning book is a rare first-hand account of revolutionary life that will be brought to the screen with Aguirre attached as writer alongside screenwriter Dennis Foon (Indian Horse) and Screen Siren’s Trish Dolman and Christine Haebler as producers.

Carmen Aguirre

"I am thrilled to be working with Screen Siren Pictures on this screen adaptation of Something Fierce. Although several production companies across North America have wanted to option the book since it was initially published ten years ago, I have waited for the perfect partnership: one in which I am fully involved as writer, and one that doesn't water down the story's political content. Screen Siren is who I've been waiting for. I have known Trish Dolman for over twenty-five years and am honored to be working with this renowned company of powerful women who have created unforgettable, timely, important, and politically relevant film and television,” says Carmen Aguirre.

Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter; winner of the hugely popular CBC Canada Reads competition, was named Best Book by The National Post, The Globe & Mail, and Book of the Year by Quill & Quire. The memoir follows six-year-old Aguirre who flees to North America with her family following General Augusto Pinochet's violent 1973 coup in Chile and their eventual return to South America as Chilean resistance members. At 18, Aguirre becomes a militant, plunging further into a world of terror, paranoia and euphoria. Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter; a dramatic, suspenseful and darkly comic memoir, takes the reader inside war-ridden Peru, dictator-ruled Bolivia, post-Malvinas Argentina and Pinochet's Chile between 1979 and 1989.

“I am continuously blown away by Carmen’s talent as a multidisciplinary artist, author, and playwright. I loved reading her memoir — at once touching and hilarious — and couldn’t be more excited to be working with my friend to bring this incredible Latinx story to the screen," says Screen Siren President and producer Trish Dolman. Producer Christine Haebler continues, “Something Fierce is a powerful coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a political thriller. This is a story that continues to resonate today and we are eagerly looking forward to working with Carmen to adapt it. Projects like this one help realize Screen Siren’s mandate to empower female/BIPOC storytellers and tell stories that change the conversation.”

Screen Siren Pictures is an internationally acclaimed film and television production company with a focus on international partnerships, elevating female and underrepresented voices, and a motto to make media that “changes the conversation”. Their credits include French Exit, The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, Indian Horse, and Hector and the Search For Happiness and the soon-to-be-released British Columbia: An Untold History.

The book option for Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter was negotiated by Screen Siren Pictures President Trish Dolman with Business Affairs Manager Tony Cerciello and Hannah Vaughn and Joe Veltre at Gersh on behalf of Paige Sisley and Sally Harding at CookeMcDermid Agency. The book is published by Penguin Random House Canada.

About Carmen Aguirre: Carmen Aguirre is a Chilean-Canadian, award-winning theatre artist and author who has written and co-written over twenty-five plays, as well as the #1 international bestseller Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (winner of CBC Canada Reads 2012), and its bestselling sequel, Mexican Hooker #1 and My Other Roles Since the Revolution. Carmen is a Core Artist at Electric Company Theatre, a co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC), and has over eighty film, TV, and stage acting credits. She is a 2020 Siminovitch Prize finalist, the most prestigious theatre award in Canada. Carmen is a graduate of Studio 58. www.carmenaguirre.ca/

About Screen Siren Pictures: Founded in 1997 by president and producer Trish Dolman, Screen Siren Pictures has since established itself as a premier independent media production company in the Canadian landscape. In 2009, Dolman joined forces with feature film veteran Christine Haebler to form the dynamite producer duo that now spearheads the company. Producing some of the most successful feature films and documentaries in Canada, the company has amassed more than 30 credits in both scripted and unscripted television and film while specializing in international co-productions and partnerships. Screen Siren Pictures continues to build its operations and strengthen its reputation, and is committed to being a leader in the production of world-class film, television and digital media. https://screensiren.ca/

About Penguin Random House Canada: Penguin Random House Canada aims to nourish a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. We are the Canadian arm of Penguin Random House, whose publishing lists include more than 80 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors, and who employs more than 10,000 people worldwide. From politics to poetry, board books to biography, award-winning fiction to non-fiction classics, the country’s cultural conversation begins at Penguin Random House Canada. Visit penguinrandomhouse.ca for more information.

About CookeMcDermid Literary Management: CookeMcDermid Literary Management, owned in equal part by Dean Cooke, Sally Harding, and Martha Webb, was founded in 2017 when two preeminent literary agencies, The Cooke Agency and The McDermid Agency, amalgamated, combining nearly 50 years of experience. CookeMcDermid is a full-service literary agency representing nearly 400 authors around the world, across all genres, among them Man Booker nominees, Scotiabank Giller and Governor General’s award–winning authors, prize-winning journalists, New York Times bestsellers and some of the literary world’s most notable names. The books CookeMcDermid represents have been adapted into major motion pictures and translated into over 40 languages. https://cookemcdermid.com/