NewEnglandFilm.com

Features:

Ordinary Sinner 

ORDINARY SINNER is the story of three college students struggling to find their place in a violent and profane world. When a gay friend is murdered, they set out to find the killer, encountering small-town violence and bigotry, and trying to maintain their friendship in the face of confusion, despair, and betrayal.

Director: John Henry Davis
Producers: William Mahone, Chris Bongirne, J.B. White
Writer: William Mahone
Director of Photography: Mathieu Roberts
Editor: Paul Zehrer

Principal Cast: Brendan Hines, A. Martinez

Contact:
Arthur Kananack
AKA Movie, Inc.
4 Hunt Lane
Weston, CT 06883
Phone: (203) 454-3032
Fax: (203) 222-9530
E-mail: akamoviesct@earthlink.net 

Manna From Heaven

MANNA FROM HEAVEN is about what happens when you get a "gift from God" — a financial windfall — but find out many years later that it was just a loan — and its due immediately. A comedic fable with an extraordinary ensemble cast, MANNA FROM HEAVEN is an intelligent, uplifting movie about rediscovering hope at any age. 

Directors: Gabrielle Burton and Maria Burton
Producers: FIVE SISTERS PRODUCTIONS — Charity Burton, Gabrielle C. Burton,Jennifer Burton, Maria Burton, Ursula Burton
Directors of Photography: Ed Slattery

Principal Cast: Ursula Burton, Seymour Cassel, Shelley Duvall, Jill Eikenberry, Louise Fletcher, Frank Gorshin, Faye Grant, Harry Groener, Shirley Jones, Cloris Leachman, Wendie Malick, and Austin Pendleton

Contact:
Linda Lichter
Lichter, Grossman, Nichols & Adler
9200 Sunset Boulevard, #1200
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Phone: (310) 205-6999
Fax: (310) 205-6990
 

Completed Documentaries: 

Adrift

An Irish-American family with "Kennedy envy" heads to Alaska in the 1960s to satisfy its fiercely competitive father’s political ambitions. Life seemed ideal until the family faced its worst nightmare: a second generation of Curran children would lose their father to illness. In ADRIFT, filmmaker Tom Curran gives us a visually stunning and emotionally searing feature-length portrait of how he and his family members have remained trapped in their father’s dreams of success.

Contact:
Tom Curran
Night Train Pictures
535 Albany Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: (617) 426-8231
Fax: (617) 422-0515
E-mail: tom@adrift-movie.com 

A Crisis of Faith

A CRISIS OF FAITH is a critical look at materialism in America and the spiritual fallout we are experiencing because of the choices we have made individually and as a society. Drawing from the music of The Doors, Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Jimi Hendrix and mirroring the rhythm of the film, the imagery and soundtrack are powerful, challenging and sometimes disturbing.

Talent:
Director: DJ Kadagian
Producer: DJ Kadagian
Writer: DJ Kadagian
Director of Photography: DJ Kadagian

Contact:
DJ Kadagian
Four Seasons Productions
121 Post Road East
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: (203) 438-2636
Fax: (203) 438-0319
E-mail: dj@4seasonsassets.com

Hitler’s Hat

They came, they saw, they stomped. HITLER’S HAT tells the story of how a Jewish-American GI found Adolph Hitler’s top hat during World War II and crushed it to smithereens…and how 50 years later, this unusual war souvenir became an unlikely museum piece and symbol of war-time triumph.

Talent:
Director: Jeff Krulik
Producers: Diane Bernard, Ann Petrone, Jeff Krulik
Director of Photography: Robert Vallette
Editors: Mark Ruppert, Mark Zuckerman

Contact:
Jeff Krulik
Planet Krulik
3221 Connecticut Avenue, #308
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: (202) 966-5304
Fax: (202) 966-5382
E-mail: jeff@planetkrulik.com 

Mai’s America 

A mini-skirted daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s revolution leaves cosmopolitan Hanoi on a high school exchange program. Anticipating Hollywood, Mai crash lands in rural Mississippi, where her relationships with white Pentecostal and black Baptist host families, self-proclaimed rednecks, transvestites, and South Vietnamese immigrants challenge her long-held ideas about herself, about freedom, about America, and even about Vietnam.

Talent:
Director: Marlo Poras
Producer: Marlo Poras
Writer: Marlo Poras
Director of Photography: Marlo Poras
Editor: Michele Gisser

Contact:
Marlo Poras
Marlo Poras Productions
19 Tally Ho Lane
Framingham, MA 01701
Phone: (508) 875-5505
Fax: (508) 875-4123
E-mail: marloporas@aol.com 

South Africa: Beyond a Miracle

SOUTH AFRICA: BEYOND A MIRACLE chronicles the evolution of South Africa from the tragic years of apartheid to the excitement of free elections, and finally, the cautious hopes of building a strong democracy. Shot on location in Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria, Cape Town, and Durban, the documentary features interviews with many who witnessed firsthand the rebirth of South Africa.

Talent:
Director: John Michalczyk
Producer: John Michalczyk
Writer: Clark Booth
Director of Photography: Paul Goudreau
Editor: Paul Goudreau

Contact:
Alfred P. Chandler, III
Etoile Productions
Sawyers Island
Rowley, MA 01969
Phone: (978) 948-3754
E-mail: alfred.chandler@verizon.net 

East Timor: Betrayal and Resurrection 

EAST TIMOR: BETRAYAL AND RESURRECTION is a documentary about the dramatic struggle of the East Timorese people to achieve self-determination while navigating a labyrinth of brutal adversaries, cynical betrayals, and international indifference.

Talent:
Director: Theodore Folke
Producers: Theodore Folke, Ricardo Lobo
Executive Producer: Tord Roe
Writer: Theodore Folke
Directors of Photography: Antonio Dias, Paulinho Kintas 

Contact:
Theodore Folke
The Samba Project, LLC
13 Popler Plains Road
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: (203) 226-8855
Fax: (203) 222-1137
E-mail: tmacf@earthlink.net 

The Expeditionist 

In 1903, my grandfather, Vaughan, attempted to reach the North Pole with photographer/commander Anthony Fiala on the Ziegler Expedition. Their ship was lost; they never reached the Pole. In spite of insubordination and a mysterious death, Fiala created photographs and the first arctic film. A century later, my artistic pilgrimage across the dangerous, beautiful Franz Josef Land redeems their ill-fated journey.

Talent:
Director: Heddi V. Siebel
Producer: Heddi V. Siebel
Writer: Heddi V. Siebel
Director of Photography: Ned Johnston
Editor: Susana Rossberg

Principal Cast: Liv Arnesen

Contact:
Heddi V. Siebel
41 Stearns Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 661-0446
Fax: (617) 868-6686
E-mail: felix@tiac.net 

Her Game 

HER GAME follows a women’s Division I college basketball team and their coach as they head into a promising and pressure-filled season, only to be struck with daunting injuries, unexpected losses, and internal strife over the true form female leadership should take.

Talent:
Director: Dana Rae Warren
Producers: Tabitha King, Dana Rae Warren
Directors of Photography: Nicholas Doob, Sean Glenn
Editor: Doug Quade

Contact:
Dana Rae Warren
Moody Mountain Films, Inc.
Moody Mountain Road, #2490
Searsmont, ME 04973
Phone: (207) 763-4447
Fax: (207) 763-4446
E-mail: danarae@moodymountain.com 

Howard Thurman: In Search of Common Ground 

HOWARD THURMAN: IN SEARCH OF COMMON GROUND is the portrait of the late pre-eminent African-American spiritual leader and thinker, Howard Thurman, who mounted a tireless quest to build community across racial, cultural, and religious divides. Using rare archival imagery and audio, this compelling memoir presents one man’s search for community and his God.

Talent:
Director: Arleigh Prelow
Producers: Arleigh Prelow, Andretta Hamilton
Writer: Arleigh Prelow
Director of Photography: Michael Chin

Contact:
Arleigh Prelow
InSpirit Communications
65 Dartmouth Street
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: (617) 489-9956
E-mail: arleigh@inspirit.com 

Ice Balls (The Movie) 

As planet earth spun from one millennium into the next, giant balls of ice rained on Spain. Comets, airplanes, and atmospheric strangeness are all potential culprits in the case of the mystery ice, yet experts and eyewitnesses have clashing suspicions. In this documentary whodunnit, a knight-errant filmmaker turns private eye and gets abducted by the mystical forces of scientific inquiry.

Talent:
Director: Charles Phred Churchill
Producers: Alex Kreuter, Charles Phred Churchill
Writer: Charles Phred Churchill
Director of Photography: Charles Phred Churchill
Editors: Alex Kreuter, Charles Phred Churchill

Contact:
Charles Phred Churchill
Churchill Productions, Inc.
55 Newton Street
Brookline, MA 02445
Phone: (617) 739-9100
Fax: (617) 277-6843
E-mail: phredster@aol.com 

All Water Has a Perfect Memory

ALL WATER HAS A PERFECT MEMORY is a film about a family’s memories of the loss of a child. Through personal recollections, it explores cultural differences between a Mexican father and a North American mother in the face of death, and the struggle between remembrance and forgetting. Subtitled in Spanish and English to create a bilingual experience.

Talent:
Director: Natalia Almada
Producer: Natalia Almada
Writer: Natalia Almada
Director of Photography: Natalia Almada
Editor: Natalia Almada

Contact:
Natalia Almada
144 North 11th Street
#4
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Phone: (347) 228-8368
E-mail: nataliaalmada@hotmail.com 

Portrait of a Radical

PORTRAIT OF A RADICAL is not an advertisement for Christianity, it is a responsible look at the life of Jesus told in a language that can be heard by a person of any faith, and a style that attempts to reclaim Jesus’ message from the institution that has, in many ways, obscured His teachings.

Talent:
Director: DJ Kadagian
Producer: DJ Kadagian
Writer: DJ Kadagian
Director of Photography: DJ Kadagian
Editor: Jeff Taylor

Principal Cast: Huston Smith, Richard Rohr, Allen Callahan

Contact:
DJ Kadagian
Four Seasons Productions
121 Post Road East
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: (203) 438-2636
Fax: (203) 438-0319
E-mail: dj@4seasonsassets.com 
 

Work-In-Progress:  

American Hog

AMERICAN HOG revisits the biker genre of the 1970s. Trout is an outlaw biker who goes on a crime spree in order to pay child support. He is released from prison, burns down a bike shop, starts an escort service, then hires an unsanitary veterinarian to stitch up his wounds. Can a deranged cop throw him back in the slammer before he splits town?

Talent:
Director: Carlos Hamill
Producer: Ethan Vogt
Writer: Carlos Hamill
Director of Photography: Ethan Vogt

Principal Cast: Michael Madsen

Contact:
Ethan Vogt
Furnace Brook Films
9 Livermore Road
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: (617) 269-0656
Fax: (617) 484-5513
E-mail: ethan_vogt@hotmail.com 

Earthen Vessels

EARTHEN VESSELS tells the story of a family homecoming weekend three years after a brother’s suicide. As parents and siblings try to understand the limits of control, bounds of faith, and sources of love in their lives, they begin to recognize and appreciate the fragility and durability of the human experience, and the pain and pleasure in its uncertainty.

Talent:
Director: Carlos Cantu, III
Producer: Alexander Chisholm
Writers: Alexander Chisholm, Carlos Cantu, III
Director of Photography: Timothy Brown
Editor: Tony Grocki

Principal Cast: Jeff Applegate, Sarah Jones, Carole Edie Smith

Contact:
Alexander Chisholm Can-Do-Home Productions, Inc.
115 Theodore Parker Road
West Roxbury, MA 02132
Phone: (617) 461-4821
Fax: (617) 258-5133
E-mail: alex@mit.edu 

This Town

Shoes, guns, and surf guitars — love’s not what it used to be. There’s no playbook for success in the singles scene, but Rick, a thirty-something professional in the big city, is braced for whatever comes his way. Sometimes the hardest thing to find is in the cubicle right next to you. 

Talent:
Director: Chris Engles
Producers: Chris Engles, Tom Krymkowski
Writer: Chris Engles
Director of Photography: Tom Krymkowski
Editor: Chris Engles

Principal Cast: Barlow Adamson, Kate Kelly

Contact:
Christopher Engles
One Take Productions
168 Lexington Avenue, #L-B
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 441-8285
E-mail: chrisengles@hotmail.com
 

Shorts:

Conversations For a Dollar

Q: What do a priest, a pimp, a robot, and an insane psychoanalyst have in common? A: They’re only a few of the characters in CONVERSATION FOR A DOLLAR, an outrageous independent film.

Talent:
Director: Jason Fisher
Producer: Jason Fisher
Writer: Jason Fisher
Director of Photography: Denise Bailey
Editor: Jason Fisher

Principal Cast: Jason Fisher, Dan Blacknear, S.L. McCoy

Contact:
Jason Fisher
Ill Character Productions
P.O. Box 15456
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 448-1239
E-mail: jfisher@illcharacters.com

Nantasket Roads

Morgan, a young man in his late twenties, moves back to his New England hometown for the summer. While at home, he decides to break his ailing grandmother out of a local nursing home so she can see the annual Fourth of July fireworks over the Boston Esplanade.

Talent:
Director: Lawson Clarke
Producers: Lawson Clarke, Amanda Golden
Writer: Lawson Clarke
Director of Photography: Brendan Yetter

Principal Cast: Preston Morgan, Lawson Clarke

Contact:
Lawson Clarke
Old Ship Films
35 Harvard Street
Brookline, MA 02445
Phone: (617) 867-2189
Fax: (617) 536-4288
E-mail: lclarke@clarkegoward.com 

Olympic Greasy Watermelon

OLYMPIC GREASY WATERMELON is a multi-media docudrama that follows the formation and struggle of the first-ever U.S. Olympic Greasy Watermelon team. Watch team alternates Vitamin Jones and Colonel Fabien as they are called into action to represent America in this newly indoctrinated sport once thought to be a game only for pool-party youngsters.

Talent:
Director: Willem Hartong
Producers: Cristin McPeake, Willem Hartong
Writers: Willem Hartong, Steve Couture, Mark Krajan
Director of Photography: Jason Plapp

Principal Cast: Jason Plapp, Julien Koetsch

Contact:
Willem Hartong
Meeka Salise Productions
P.O. Box 362
Allston, MA 02134
Phone: (617) 290-0840
E-mail: whartong@earthlink.net 
 

Video Library:

Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown

"Everyone’s here for one reason or another." This stereotype-shattering documentary gets inside the minds and dreams of a developmentally-disabled married couple living and working in New York City. Their story, filmed by a sister, reveals contrasting perspectives on their lives. It challenges ideas about "intelligence" and what it means to be human — without being saccharine or condescending.

Talent:
Director: Nancy Fliesler
Producer: Nancy Fliesler
Director of Photography: Nancy Fliesler
Editor: Nancy Fliesler

Contact:
Nancy Fliesler
Nansona Productions
19 Lewis Avenue
Arlington, MA 02474
Phone: (781) 641-1495
E-mail: nansona101@hotmail.com 

No Borders – Documentary/Work-In-Progress: 

The Flute Player

Twenty-six years ago music saved the life of Arn Chorn Pond while he was imprisoned in a Khmer Rouge death camp. Today Arn, a 35-year-old a human rights leader and a gifted musician, is struggling to revive Cambodia’s traditional music before it is lost forever. THE FLUTE PLAYER is the story of personal recovery and cultural survival in the aftermath of war.

Talent:
Director: Jocelyn Glatzer
Producers: Jocelyn Glatzer, Christine Courtney
Director of Photography: Amanda Micheli
Editor: Elizabeth Heeden

Principal Cast: Arn Chorn Pond

Contact:
Jocelyn Glatzer
Over the Moon Productions
46 Burroughs Street, Suite #2
Boston, MA 02130
Phone: (617) 971-9497
E-mail: glatzer@aol.com