She wrote and directed her first film, “Misjudged” when she was only fourteen years old. Misjudged was shown at many film festivals, including the 2005 Los Angeles Italian Film Festival, South Bend Indiana Film Festival as well as the 2005 Santa Barbara Digital Film Festival, where she won Best of the Fest and second place at the Best Fest America Film Festival in La Jolla in August ‘05.
Candace’s second film, Fleetwood, was her first feature film which she wrote and directed. Fleetwood has won several festival awards, including Best Film, Best of the Festival, Best Director and Best Comedy at several film festivals across the country. With this film came many internship offers as well as an invitation to direct a multi-million dollar movie.
With her third movie, My Father’s Tears, shot on Super16mm, Candace has captured the intense emotion from a dramatically inspired story, about a girl who grows up with a mentally ill parent. Her film won a Best Film award at the 2007 San Fernando Valley International Film Festival and Rebel Planet Film Festival, as well as an Official Selection at the 2007 Santa Cruz Film Festival, Method Fest, Indiana University South Bend Independent Video & Filmmakers Festival, Hearts & Minds Film Festival in Delaware and at the Aarhus Festival of Independent Arts in Denmark.
Candace’s latest film, “Drags to Riches” shot with the Panavision Millennium and lenses, provided by a grant from Panavision and shot on 35mm Kodak film provided by a grant from Kodak. “Drags to Riches”, revolves around Al Burke, who is a greedy, grungy, gritty, dirty and inconsiderate unemployed chain-smoker who struggles to maintain a steady job. Al, who frequents a convenient store, buying lotto tickets, junk food, cigarettes and stop-smoking gum, constantly has karma issues with the local homeless man, who lives alongside an alley wall outside the store. Al Burke gets lucky playing the lottery, however, Al’s cigarette addiction, along with his self-serving behaviors, interfere and ultimately lead to his downfall.
Candace is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) since 2008, in the category of director. Candace has directed feature films, short films and TV commercials, for Star 98.7 FM radio station, Butterfinger, and Interstate Batteries. She is an active participant on the DGA’s Women’s Steering Committee, and a judge for the DGA’s minority student film festival. Candace’s true passion is directing where she is behind the scenes creating the stories and characters she envisions.