I had the pleasure of meeting Alixx Schottland at the annual NY Women in Film and Television Muse Awards, as she was seated with a renowned casting director, Adrienne Stern, that I know. Her name came up again a few months later as her short, Love, Music, Shelter, was playing the the Lighthouse International Film Festival on Long Beach Island, NJ. We had also both worked with the same producer, Scott Rosenfelt (Home Alone, Mystic Pizza). I was immediately impressed with the film as I attended that festival. Not only did it have a strong feminist angle, but it tackled the subject of homelessness and poverty in an interesting, engaging, realistic and above all musical way. Read on to find out what inspired her to do a film about single motherhood and what's next on the horizon for this multi-talented woman. Plus, she gives some spot-on advice on how to motivate oneself to get one's dream project on track!
Tell me about what you are most excited about right now.
Alixx Schottland: I’m most excited about my two social-impact scripted films: Harmony & Hope — the feature version of our award-winning short Love Music Shelter — and The Housewife, a female-empowerment thriller by Kelly Turner. We’re hoping to go into production in January and March!
How did you get involved in acting? Did you have a career prior to acting?
Alixx Schottland: I was a child actress through my early twenties, performing on Broadway and in commercials. After getting married and having my children, I shifted into a more stable career as an accessory design director for Bebe and World Wide Dreams. I’ve always had a passion for design. I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology during the day to study design and marketing, and at night I studied acting at Stella Adler. Both sides of my creativity have always fueled me.
Tell me about the inspiration for Love Music Shelter. I just loved it.
Alixx Schottland: Thank you so much, Suzanne — I truly appreciate your kind words. The inspiration came at a very transitional moment in my life. After my mother passed away, I was torn between returning to acting or staying in design to launch my own label. Then I met a homeless mom and her teenage songstress daughter at my son’s performing arts school in NYC. I became deeply curious about what it meant to be homeless in this city, especially as a parent.
Something inside me clicked. I knew this was a story that deserved to be told — and the way I knew how to tell it was through film. I wrote the script to shine a light on a struggle that’s often overlooked in the rush of everyday life.
How did you go about producing it, finding your team, and securing financing?
Alixx Schottland: I began writing and meeting producers and directors who wanted to be involved due to the importance of the subject matter. Everyone started connecting me to people who could help move the project forward. My cousin, Karyne Morris, who is also an EP, jumped in to help. LA-based producers Wendy Kram and Lauren Strogoff came aboard, and a friend introduced me to veteran producer Scott Rosenfelt (Home Alone, Mystic Pizza, Critical Thinking).
From there, things took off. Additional support came from Executive Producer Pierre Romain (Fresh Kills, Son of the South). Eventually, we grew tired of waiting for the traditional Hollywood packaging process and decided to create a short film as a proof-of-concept for our feature, Harmony & Hope.
The short excelled at festivals, winning over 12 awards — including a standout honor from Viola Davis and Yolanda Brinkley's Diversity in Cannes Film Festival. That visibility attracted investors and interested production companies.
We’re now in deep discussions with several equity investors, utilizing a New Jersey tax credit, and with potential minimum guarantees tied to a few name actors, we’re finally on our way to fully financing the feature.
Where can we see it?
Alixx Schottland: We recently wrapped our festival run and are now focused on the feature version. We’re considering partnering with a new short-film streaming network and I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, here is our 3-minute extended trailer:
LOVE MUSIC SHELTER – Coming-of-Age / Music-Driven / Social-Impact
"Begin Again & Coda meets Fame"
https://youtu.be/B73Y_TdyIyw?si=4TGJgA-QHD61fVF0
Tell me about The Door and how you got involved.
Alixx Schottland: When I committed to writing a story about teen homelessness and the power of music as a lifeline, my husband suggested I volunteer to understand the experience truly. A friend introduced me to The Door, an organization serving at-risk and homeless youth ages 13–23 that provides medical and legal services, three meals a day, a rigorous arts education, and homeless shelter placements.
I began hosting monthly movie nights with Q&As, and the stories I heard from The Door Members— of resilience, survival, and the role of the arts in healing — were profoundly inspiring. Many of those themes made their way into Love Music Shelter and Harmony & Hope.
What started as research became a way of life. I now help host The Door’s annual gala, and we plan to feature several formerly homeless singers and dancers in the film, as well as some of the subway buskers I've met on the trains, giving the feature film a gritty kaleidoscope of authenticity and magic!
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| Alixx Schottland with Scott Rosenfelt |
What projects do you have coming up?
Alixx Schottland: My production company, Over The Rainbow Entertainments, is producing or co-producing an exciting slate, including:
• Slapface 2 – a social-awareness horror-thriller
• Deadly Beloved – a mind bending, horror/thriller
• The Housewife – a trilogy thriller, with a focus on female empowerment
• Chango – crime drama/docuseries/feature film based on actual events
• Thomas is Tuesday – inspired by my dear friend Karen Sach’s real story of surviving Stage 4 colon cancer after 9/11 and finding a love that helped save her life.
We’re incredibly energized about the social-impact work embedded in these stories.
What would you like to accomplish in the next five years?
Alixx Schottland: I want to see our full slate of films go into production and donate a percentage of profits back to the organizations each project aligns with. I’d love for our company to have a dedicated office in Soho or Tribeca and a larger team so we can make even more films that entertain, educate, empower, and perform well with streamers and at the box office.And because my roots are in theatre, I would love to bring Harmony & Hope to Broadway someday.
What advice do you have for women — or men — who want to follow in your footsteps? What surprised you most about making movies?
Alixx Schottland: I never realized I could create my own work. I thought I could only be an actress — and didn’t know that by building a community of creatives (editors, DPs, writers, executive producers), we could produce our own content instead of waiting for the phone to ring. I have to thank my frequent collaborative producer, Mike Manning, because his film Slapface was the first I ever helped to executive produce, and he was the one who told me that if I could raise the remaining funding, I could join the business side of filmmaking and become an EP!
My advice:
Find your tribe.
ONLY work with people you can trust
Find a charity or organization you align with.
Pay it forward
Create stories from your heart.
Short films are a fantastic way to get attention for a project, and the festival circuit is both thrilling and validating. I recommend self-funding if possible, collaborating with trusted partners, or doing a targeted crowdfunding campaign.
To connect with Alixx:
https://www.overtherainbowentertainment.com/