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A Bridge to Life: The Bridge Ministry

A Bridge to Life: The Bridge Ministry is a portrait of an organization that for years has been working to change and save the lives of men dealing with life-threatening addiction issues. The men receive intensive job-training skills along with psychological and spiritual mentoring to give them a chance to return to society as successful community and family members. Interwoven throughout this film is the inspiring story of William Washington, the founder and Executive Director of the Bridge Ministry. Having suffered serious trauma as a child, this led to him becoming a homeless teenager on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia as both a user and seller of deadly drugs. He was incarcerated more than once, and while eventually facing a long-term prison sentence, he was given a chance by a compassionate judge to enter a program which positively altered his life. Uplifted by this experience, he dedicated his own life to helping others who faced the same troubled path that he had been on. This led to his creation of the Bridge Ministry, which is a much better alternative than incarceration to deal with our country’s serious crisis of drug addiction.

  • Chris Charles Farina
    Director
    Seats at the Table, World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements, Holistic Life Foundation: breathing love into a community
  • Chris Charles Farina
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 38 minutes 16 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 14, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    185,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Chris Charles Farina

Chris Farina was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, one block away from Pulaski Highway, the subject of his first independent award-winning documentary film Route 40. His second film, West Main Street, tells the stories and memories of individuals who lived and worked along this street in Charlottesville, Virginia where he moved to attend the University of Virginia where he still resides. After earning a M.A. in Communications from American University, he made another award-winning film, World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements, which had its world premiere at SXSW film festival and has garnered award at several film festivals including the Best Film-Audience Award at the Bergen International Film Festival (Bergen, Norway) and the the Youth Vision Award at the United Nations Association Film Festival. This film was broadcast on public television stations across the US through distribution by American Public Television. It has also been aired on television around the world and continues to be screened internationally. Other events included presentations at the United Nations, the Pentagon, Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival, Google, Harvard, Georgetown, and Stanford. Farina’s award-winning short film, The Holistic Life Foundation: breathing love into a community, depicted HLF’s work dedicated to improving the lives of the youth of the impoverished neighborhoods in west Baltimore. Seats at the Table presents a portrait of a class which connects university students with residents of a maximum-security juvenile correctional center through the collaborative study of great works of Russian literature. Farina’s recently completed film, A Bridge to Life: The Bridge Ministry, is a portrait of an organization that works to change and save the lives of men with serious addiction issues. Farina has been drawn to telling the stories of individuals whose profound contributions to their community have often gone unnoticed, thereby expanding the audience’s notion of what it means to be human.

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Director Statement

After observing the Bridge Ministry’s work for several days, I was so inspired to present a film portrait of their wisdom and compassion. The film’s mission is to shine a light on The Bridge Ministry’s extremely important work as our country currently faces a serious crisis of drug addiction. My intent will be to utilize the film to both provide support for the Bridge Ministry to sustain their efforts as well as to inspire replication of this life-changing program in communities across our country.