Meet Shawna Baca | Writer, Director, Author, Podcaster & Blogger, Mental Health Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shawna Baca and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shawna, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
One of my favorite affirmations is “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Growing up in East Los Angeles and being raised by an Indigenous Chicana mother, there were many challenges for survival and making ends meet. I started working at the age of eleven years old doing everything from helping sell things to entering school contests that gave away prizes depending on your selling level. At twelve, I worked in the school snack bar, setting up selling milk and other snacks before school and at recess to other students. Although, I could not be paid under the childhood labor laws, I was free to take whatever snacks I wanted and that is how I helped provide breakfast and snacks for my younger sister and self. At fourteen, I secured my first job at a fast food burger joint. This was how I was able to buy school clothes. For some reason, and I can’t even tell you where I first heard this proverb, but at a young age, I just knew that when doors were closed or we didn’t have the means, that there was a way to pursue it and manifest what we needed. Later, when I had this dream of being a storyteller and filmmaker in Hollywood, although it was only a few cities over, it seemed like another world. At the time, none of my friend’s wanted to be writers or filmmakers. Those were not jobs or professions that one pursued, especially women. So, it took me more years to get there than the natural path of going off for college. Ultimately, I didn’t start working on creative endeavors until my late 20s. After being in a bunch of community theatre plays, I started my own theatre production company in San Diego with a few friends I had met in the theatre world. After a successful run, I wanted to come back to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams of becoming a filmmaker and I felt that if you want something bad enough, you will figure out ways to make it happen. How did the poetry and philosophy of Geoge Herbert, a 17th century priest and lyricists, make its way to East Los Angeles and to a small child, I have no idea, but I can say that it is an affirmation I have used since the age of three. A sort of inner-knowing and life is mysterious.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
After having a successful run producing theatre in San Diego, I moved back to Los Angeles. I wrote a short film and hired a director and that film won the Slamdance Anarchy competition. Park City was my first experience as a filmmaker at film festivals. My next short film, I wrote and co-directed and it went on to win several film festivals. In 2007, I was selected by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett for their Fox Television Reality show, ON THE LOT. After that, I was hired professionally by corporate companies and non-profit organizations to produce new media content. When I first started making shorts, it did seem rather easy, but getting hired professionally was a bigger challenge and like most women ten-twenty years ago, it was hard to secure a directing job in a role that was typically dominated by men. Also, writing screenplays that were centered around a protagonist that is a person of color, had so many doors shut before I could even finish the pitch. I was told that the story wasn’t “commercial enough.” Had I mentioned the story without identifying the lead character as a POC, the project was viewed as a universal story. Those were the times we lived in. After I left the industry to go back to school in 2016, and then came back to it, all the doors shut. I received so many rejection letters. I was rejected for every one of my projects. So, I went back and went into re-write mode and worked with some script consultants on three projects, and now I am placing and winning some screenwriting competitions. I double downed on the screenwriting competitions and did the work. I knew that where there is a will, there is a way. I slowly climbed up the later. We now live in new times, where entertainment diversity programs are actually kickstarting people’s careers so all the people that tried hard over the decades to push through that glass ceiling of hope, has finally paid off. It took me a long time to develop my voice as a writer, although, the core essence of my storytelling was always the same. What changed is my awareness of that voice within the heartbeats of my stories and because of working with script consultants, I was able to hone and pull that voice to the forefront. My voice: I write coming-of-age stories, supernatural dramas with Indigenous spiritual components and themes, that follow a protagonist that has suffered loss or has supernatural qualities but have often been isolated or walking on their journeys alone.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As a very structured person, I would have a full itinerary starting with a train ride to San Juan Capistrano. We’d get lost in a walk in the swallows and have afternoon tea, then continue the ride on the train to downtown San Diego, check into our hotel in the Gaslamp District and then walk to catch the sunset at Seaport Village. We would eat at Roy’s Hawaiian and then walk over to Extraordinary desserts. Over the course of a few days, we would take a sunset cruise, go on a tour of Midday ship, one of the Naval ships that was part of WWII, then go to Balboa park one day and catch a theatre production at the old globe. At some point, we would head to over to Coronado for dinner, where a lot of the U.S. Presidents stay when visiting San Diego. I hear it is haunted too. We would go to the Pala or Viejo Indian casino and resorts and spend one night there, too. On the way back, we would rent a car and head over to Lake Arrowhead for some nature time and spa days. After two days in nature, we would end the week with a day trip to Disneyland.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Last year, during the pandemic, I decided to release and publish my first book, a transformational memoir titled, “FEAR LESS: Conquering the Demons of Mental Purgatory.” I was inspired to write the book because when I was in my early 20s, I suffered from an anxiety disorder, that turned into a panic disorder, and then spiraled down into agoraphobia, where I didn’t leave my house for over a year until my Indigenous mother took me to the Pala Indian reservation. I saw an Indigenous Medicine Man who cured me that night in a sweat lodge ceremony and that was the last day I ever experienced panic attacks. A few years ago, I decided to go back to school to get the degree that I was never able to finish because of my panic disorder in those college aged years of my life. When I went back to school recently to earn a degree in screenwriting, I found mental health to be a big issue for college aged students and that suicide was the second leading cause of death on college campus. Twenty years ago, when I had it, it affected middle aged people, and now the age demographics have shifted drastically to people 17-25. With the pandemic, the rise in mental health disorders sky-rocketed and the isolation of staying home took its toll on people with depression and anxiety. The book chronicles all the modalities both traditional and non-traditional from therapy to Shamanism. My success lies in the storytelling of all the work I did with my then therapist, Deborah Davies of “Friends of the Family,” a non-profit organization located in Van Nuys, California that works endlessly to provide therapy for people that otherwise cannot afford it. I also, owe a great deal of my spiritual teachings to Angelo Lavato from the Luiseno Band of Mission Indians for his work with healing people and helping them with recovery, to Emma Molina-Yniquez, a certified minister and light worker, who has worked with thousands of people and young women of recovery to help them heal their traumas, and another therapist, Dr. Mark Kilmer, who has dedicated his life to help people overcome their maladies and loses to now working in the forensic sector of psychology.

Website: https://www.shawnabaca.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmpixie/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnabaca/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShawnaBaca

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawna.baca/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk7_XVg7S54DdHm1y2je0Ww

Other: FEAR LESS BOOK: www.fearless-book.com FEAR LESS Podcast: https://anchor.fm/fearlesssociety

Image Credits
Book picture shot by: Celeste Canino FEAR LESS Society Cartoon Image for Podcast: Cartoon Logo Studio Photo on set with the Military Soldier: Gustavo Stebner