June
Weddings (20 minutes, fiction, in progress)
RJ reluctantly comes to New York for his son’s
wedding. “I don't see why they had to get married. They're
both Americans. They don't even have a kid yet,” he says.
In between the ceremony and the reception on Saturday afternoon,
he stops by the local pub to relax and practice his speech. There,
he meets Sonja, drinking champagne and reading at noon.
Adapted from a play, June Weddings explores age and loneliness,
through the lens of a single father giving away his only son at
the altar.
Written and directed by Barbara Hammond. (www.barbarahammond.com)
Edited by Aaron Soffin
Starring Tom Noonan (www.tomnoonan.com)
and 60's Polish film star, Elzbieta Czyzewska (www.elzbietaczyzewska.com)
When
Adnan Comes Home (2005, 73 minutes, documentary)
When Adnan Comes Home tells the story
of 16-year-old Adnan who’s life was ruined by a tragic turn
of events that landed him in Iraq’s criminal justice system
under foreign occupation. At the end of 2003, Adnan was arrested
for stealing two meters of electric cable. After Adnan had been
imprisoned for two months, two of the inmates started a fire in
an attempt to escape. Of the survivors, Adnan was one of the most
badly burned. He lost his ears and the flesh on his hands and
scalp.
The film documents the first nine months of Adnan’s incarceration,
and his family’s struggle to obtain his release from an
inefficient and corrupt justice system. Simultaneously, it intimately
documents the simple life of Adnan’s family living in relative
poverty in a small rural town just outside Baghdad. There, Adnan’s
suffering is just one of the many problems they face today in
Iraq.
Directed and shot by Andrew Berends (www.storytellerinc.com)
Edited by Aaron Soffin
The
Blood of My Brother (2005, 85 minutes, documentary)
After years of hard work, Ra’ad, an Iraqi
portrait photographer, has saved enough money to open his own
shop. On the night of the opening, while volunteering to guard
the ancient Imam Kadhim mosque in the Shia neighborhood of Kadhimiya,
Ra’ad is shot and killed by an American patrol.
Longing for revenge, Ra’ad’s brother Ibrahim dreams
of joining the Shia uprising against the American occupation.
But as the only male left in the family, Ibrahim must take on
the role of breadwinner. “When I see a burning tank, it
makes me happy. When I see any Americans or Jews, I want revenge,
but I can’t. I have to take care of the house.” While
some of his friends leave home to fight the Americans, Ibrahim
attempts to carry on with his brother’s business and provide
for his mother and two sisters.
Directed and shot by Andrew Berends (www.storytellerinc.com)
Edited by Aaron Soffin
The
Same Moon (2004, 49 minutes, documentary)
In Ethiopia, AIDS has orphaned almost a million
children. Some of these children are themselves infected with
HIV. Most of these children are left on the streets to fend for
themselves. Some lucky ones are found by orphanages that run more
like hospices. None of the children live past their teens.
Joel Soffin, a Rabbi from New Jersey, organizes a group to try
and bring pediatric AIDS medication to these children. With this
medication, the orphanages will no longer be hospices, and the
children will survive into adulthood, living normal lives. The
group could not anticipate the resistance they find on the ground,
in the form of close-mindedness and bureaucracy.
While in Ethiopia, one of the group members meets Fisseha, a nine-year-old
orphan who’s tested HIV negative. She decides to adopt him
and bring him home to her family in Atlanta
Shot, Directed and Edited by Aaron Soffin
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