Heart of the Healer-Director's Cut
: An old, pathologically humanistic physician writing his memoirs about the people/patients who made him, for better or worse, what he has become is visited by them from the land of the living and the dead, with even bigger problems than being diagnosed with advancing brain cancer. A metaphysical, espionage, medical, psychedelic cerebral serio-comedic journey that merges past, present and future. Two hours, 49 min. (2023).
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MJ PolitisDirector
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MJ PolitisWriter
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MJ PolitisProducer
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Valery LoughlinProducer
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MJ PolitisKey Cast"John Baldino"
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Valerie LoughlinKey Cast
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Igor KostinEditing
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Project Type:Feature
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Runtime:3 hours 5 minutes
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Completion Date:December 3, 2024
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Production Budget:30,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Canada
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Country of Filming:Canada
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital, 4k
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Winner, Best Narrative Feature, California Indies (2023) -Winner, Best Narrative Feature, Madrid Arthouse Film Festival (2024) Nominee, Best Feature, NY Art House Film Festival (2023) Nominee, Best Feature, NY Independent Cinema Awards (2023) Nominee, Best Feature, LA Independent Film Channel (2023) Nominee, Best Feature, Hollywood Discovery Awards (2023). -Winner, Best Feature, Boston Indie Film Festival (2023) -Nominee, Best Feature, Canadian Independent Film Festival (2024) -Nominee, Best Feature, World Class Film Awards (2024) Nominee/Finalist, Best Feature, ARFF Berlin International Awards (2024) Nominee, Best Feature, Art Film Spirit Awards (2023) -Nominee, Best Feature, Chicago Indi Film Awards (2024) -Winner, Best Feature, Toronto Film and Script Awards (2024) Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Vancouver Independent Movie Maker Award (2023) -Selected/Nominated, Best Feature, Barcelona World Class Film Awards (2024). -Selected, Best Feature, Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival (2024) Selected, Best Feature, Cannes Arts Film Fest (2023)’ Selected, Berlin International Art Film Festival, Best Feature, (2023) Selected, Best Feature, LA Sun Film Fest (2023) Selected, Best Feature, Tokyo International Cinema Awards (2023) -Selected, Best Feature, NY Film and Cinematography Awards (2024). --Selected, Best Feature, Hollywood Indie Film Awards (2024) --Selected, Best Feature, LA Film and Documentary Awards (2024) --Selected, Best Feature, Girona Film Festival (2024). Quarter Finalist, Best Feature, Edinburgh Film Awards (2023) --Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Seattle Filmmaker Awards (2024) Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Hamburg Indie Film Festival (2023) Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Austin Arthouse International Festival (2023). Nominee, Best Feature. Denver Movie Awards (2023). Nominee, Best Feature, Amsterdam Film Festival (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Melbourne Independent Film Festival (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, San Diego Independent Cinema Award (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Nashville Independent Filmmaker Festival (2024) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Orlando Independent Film Festival (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Sacramento Independent Film Festival (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Santa Barbara Independent Movie Awards (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Atlanta Movie Awards (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Oakland Film Festival (2023) Winner, Best Feature, Dublin Movie Awards (2023) Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, London International Filmmaker Festival (2023) Semi-Finalist, New Orleans International Film Awards (2023) -Semi-Finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival (2024) -Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Monte Carlo Movie Awards (2024) -Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Calgary Indie Film Awards (2024) -Winner, Best Feature, Santa Cruz Independent Film Festival (2024). -Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Florence Indie Film Festival (2024) -Semi-Finalist. Best Feature, Cleveland Arthouse Film Awards (2024) -Semi-Finalist Best Feature, Detroit Independent Film Festival (2024)
The Hoser
Humanistic spoof on Cop shows that take themselves too seriously.
https://vimeo.com/1012226155
(12 min, 2024)
-Smiefinalist New Orleans International Film Awards (2024)
Best Narrative Feature
Heart of the Healer John Baldino, Ph.D., M.D., a physician-researcher on his first vacation in 20 years and his last month on earth, writes memoirs about people/patients who made him the healer, world famous neuroscience researcher and person, he is today, for better or worse. He is visited by special individuals from the land of the living and the dead, his worsening condition blurring the distinction between the two, being watched all along by parties who do not have his best interest at heart and do they share his altruistic values.
(165 min, 2023) Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/845438398
(185 min, 2024) Vimeo link https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1036495730
Trailer link: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/947619564
Can be divided up into series of course.
Winner, Best Narrative Feature, California Indies (2023)
-Winner, Best Narrative Feature, Madrid Arthouse Film Festival (2024)
Nominee, Best Feature, NY Art House Film Festival (2023)
Nominee, Best Feature, NY Independent Cinema Awards (2023)
Nominee, Best Feature, LA Independent Film Channel (2023)
Nominee, Best Feature, Hollywood Discovery Awards (2023).
-Winner, Best Feature, Boston Indie Film Festival (2023)
-Nominee, Best Feature, Canadian Independent Film Festival (2024)
-Nominee, Best Feature, World Class Film Awards (2024)
Nominee/Finalist, Best Feature, ARFF Berlin International Awards (2024)
Nominee, Best Feature, Art Film Spirit Awards (2023)
-Nominee, Best Feature, Chicago Indi Film Awards (2024)
-Winner, Best Feature, Toronto Film and Script Awards (2024)
Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Vancouver Independent Movie Maker Award (2023)
-Selected/Nominated, Best Feature, Barcelona World Class Film Awards (2024).
-Selected, Best Feature, Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival (2024)
Selected, Best Feature, Cannes Arts Film Fest (2023)’
Selected, Berlin International Art Film Festival, Best Feature, (2023)
Selected, Best Feature, LA Sun Film Fest (2023)
Selected, Best Feature, Tokyo International Cinema Awards (2023)
-Selected, Best Feature, NY Film and Cinematography Awards (2024).
--Selected, Best Feature, Hollywood Indie Film Awards (2024)
--Selected, Best Feature, LA Film and Documentary Awards (2024)
--Selected, Best Feature, Girona Film Festival (2024).
Quarter Finalist, Best Feature, Edinburgh Film Awards (2023)
--Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Seattle Filmmaker Awards (2024)
Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Hamburg Indie Film Festival (2023)
Semi-finalist, Best Feature, Austin Arthouse International Festival (2023).
Nominee, Best Feature. Denver Movie Awards (2023).
Nominee, Best Feature, Amsterdam Film Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Melbourne Independent Film Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, San Diego Independent Cinema Award (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Nashville Independent Filmmaker Festival (2024)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Orlando Independent Film Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Sacramento Independent Film Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Santa Barbara Independent Movie Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Atlanta Movie Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Oakland Film Festival (2023)
Winner, Best Feature, Dublin Movie Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, London International Filmmaker Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, New Orleans International Film Awards (2023)
-Semi-Finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Monte Carlo Movie Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Calgary Indie Film Awards (2024)
-Winner, Best Feature, Santa Cruz Independent Film Festival (2024).
-Semi-Finalist, Best Feature, Florence Indie Film Festival (2024)
-Semi-Finalist. Best Feature, Cleveland Arthouse Film Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist Best Feature, Detroit Independent Film Festival (2024)
Revision/upgrade of musical score and sound design in progress.
Best Unproduced Feature Screenplay
Heart of Healer Part 2 (Anatomy of Deception) (Best unproduced Feature Screenplay)
Continuation of Heart of the Healer series. A pathologically kind and overly-intelligent New York physician-research who can talk to dead people (John Baldino, Ph.D., M.D., H.B.A.R.P, human being aspiring Renaissance person) working with his ‘officially dead’ ex-lover and long absent superspy brother fakes his death to go undercover as a female reporter to find out what is behind a contagious and deadly brain cancer epidemic among First Nations reservations in Arizona. To stop the disease from spreading to the world, he must dig out personal secrets from scientists he used to work with as well as (as himself) find out fiercely guarded First Nations Sacred secrets from well-armed, angry and very belligerent Apaches, while being involuntarily advised by ghosts who have their own secret agendas. He discovers first hand what biomedical science can to for, and TO humanity.
-Nominated, California Indies (2024)
Selected, LA Independent Film Channel (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Milan Filmmaker Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Nashville Independent Filmmaker Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Vancouver Independent Movie Maker Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, London International Filmmaker Festival (2023)
Semi-Finalist, New Orleans International Film Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Monte Carlo Movie Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Calgary Indie Film Awards (2024)
Nominee, New York Independent Cinema Awards (2023)
-Nominee, Golden Pen Script Awards (2024)
-Nominee, New York Arthouse Festival (2024)
-Nominee, Author Script Awards (2024)
-Semi-finalist, Seattle Filmmaker Awards (2024)
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Ghost Agent
: Prolific, dedicated and humanistic writer (Frank) who has sabotaged himself in marketplace takes up offer of embittered ex-wife plastic surgeon (Jennifer), fakes his death get new identity and life insurance money to remarket/produce his material, but is transformed into a woman (Taylor) without his consent and the money. Taylor soon learns to use feminine skills to manipulate the corrupt/crass movie execs, sells Frank’s work to them, then gets corrupted by system herself, about to bastardize/commercialize Frank’s work till Jennifer and Frank’s post-marital girlfriend intervene, awakening Frank within Taylor.
-Nominee- Golden Pen Awards (2024)
-Selected- New York Independent Cinema Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Santa Monica Independent Filmmaker Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Munich Short Film Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Hawaii International Film Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Calgary Indie Film Awards (2024)
The Telenkovian Experiment
A village of starving colorfully-dysfunctional Ukrainians in 1931 during the Holodomor (death by mass starvation) heroically and ingeniously turn tables on their Red Army Russian captors by killing the most evil of them first in a morally-designed plan that escalates and works for everyone who seeks to still be virtuous. But the wrong Red Army officer is killed, his remains falling into the food chain, resulting in an epidemic of Mad Cow disease infecting cattle and people that re-surfaces generations later to threaten survival of Russia, Ukraine and the world. A plethora of scientific, political, corporate and personal cover ups dating back to the 1920s is discovered by a renegade Russian scientist in the 1990s and his glory-seeking American colleague who rescue and work with the sole surviving Telenkovian citizen from the 1930s, said survivor providing not only the real story of what happened in 1932 but is biologically, the cure for a world wide pandemic, if he is not killed by industrial/political oligarchs who want him silenced.
--Selected, California Indies (2024)
Selected, New York Independent Cinema Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Vancouver Independent Movie Maker Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival
--Semi-Finalist, Monte Carlo Movie Awards (2024).
999 AD
Thomas, an atheistic Jewish Scientist-Writer hiding out as monk in Christian Monastery in last days of 999AD after abandoning his Jewish brethren from massacre to save his own ass, has to rethink his theology when colorfully-dysfunctional villagers in his new home go missing then dead, victim of the ‘devil’ in wake of the Second Coming. Or perhaps a there is a more human cause, the manifestations of the Apocalypse resembling the images in his heretical books and literary imagination.
-Selected, Golden Pen Awards (2024)
-Selected, Author Script Awards (2024)
-Semi-Finalist, Calgary Indie Film Awards (2024)
Of Lionesses and Lions
A transgender (male to female) First Nations biologist/professor (Leona Zimmerman) is called back home to the Rez when her brother is murdered after working for Casino there that is under very White management, being used as front for international sex-slave/human trafficking operation, run by charismatic and powerful Russian mobster who was Leona’s best bud/mentor when she was Leon, male Special Ops officer and well-paid mercenary.
Nominee, New York Independent Cinema Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Milan Filmmaker Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Vancouver Independent Movie Maker Awards (2023)
-Semi-Finalist, Monte Carlo Movie Awards (2024
Colorado Comrade
An Asian Indian idealistic-Socialist-stoner cowboy in Depression Era 1930s Colorado tricks the rich fat cats into giving up their wealth and power, then finds himself being the leader of a People’s Revolution/Paradise that creates unexpected problems with his Native American girlfriend, his fellow hard working town folk, and his own conscience when the ‘above all do no harm’ revolution requires him to do things he never intended to preserve the Cause of Enlightenment, Compassion and Democratic Equality.
-Nominee, Golden Pen Script Awards (2024)
Nominee, New York Independent Cinema Awards (2023)
-Selected, California Indies (2024)
Semi-Finalist, Milan Filmmaker Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Vancouver Independent Movie Maker Awards (2023)
Semi-Finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival (2024)
--Semi-Finalist, Monte Carlo Movie Awards (2024)
--Semi-Finalist, Calgary Indie Film Awards (2024)
Best Feature or Short Film
Eve and the Master Gardener
Seriocomedic
Eve has reincarnated many times and is currently a civil rights advocate, with ONE lingering case that she has been neglecting---Having a ‘discussion’ with the (very male) Heavenly Father about why she got all the blame for what happened in the Garden of Eden with the apple. And why she and all of her female progeny were given a bum deal relative to men on earth. A heartfelt and satirical film which exposes the flaws of many contemporary religions, but still encourages us to seek a higher, deeper, kinder and Truth based Spirituality, big S.
(2024, 21 min)
https://vimeo.com/937037394
Winner, NY Independent Cinema Awards (2024)
--Winner, Global Shorts (2024)
--Nominee, Toronto Indie Shorts (2024)
--Selected, Amsterdam Movie Fest (2024)
--Selected, Boston Indi Film Festival (2024)
--Selected, Toronto Film and Script Awards (2024)
--Selected, Los Angeles Movie and Music Video Awards (2024)
--Selected, Santa Monica International Film Awards (2024)
-Selected, LA Film and Documentary Awards (2024)
-Selected, Los Angeles Short Film Festival (2024)
Semi-finalist, San Francisco Arthouse Shorts Festival (2024)
--Semi-finalist, Berlin Shorts Award (2024)
--Semi-finalist, Florence Indie Film Festival (2024)
--Semi-finalist, London Independent Filmmaker Festival (2024)
--Semi-finalist, Berlin Indy Awards (2024)
--Semi-finalist, Seattle Filmmaker Awards (2024)
--Semi-finalist, Brussels World Film Festival (2024)
Goldplay
Serio-comedic, with lots of political meat, and satire.
Three dysfunctional yet potentially effective Revolutionaries are drawn by presumably their own secret informers in 1907 New Mexico to an overlook through which a train overloaded with gold stolen from the people and slaves by powerful business moguls will pass. They plan to rob the gold to fund their OWN revolutions and liberate the captives. They are…a failed Bolshevik from Russia seeking to redeem himself from his own failures in the 1905 revolution back home, a feminist who wants to arm women against men to take over America, and a Mexican Yaqui Indian who wants to throw all White people out of North America. They are pitted against each other by the failed Bolshevik’s slow-witted, ‘refuses to be liberated’ servant, who has designs on them and the gold that are not revealed until his secret agenda is well underway. 60 min. (2022)
Official Selection. Berlin Art Film Festival, 2022
Official Selection. London New Wave Cinema 2022
Official Selection, New York Independent Cinema Awards 2022
--Official Selection, Protopost Communist International Film Festival 2024.
Selection, Berlin Shorts Festival, 2022.
Selected Finalist, Philadelphia World Film Festival, (2022).
-Selected, New York Independent Cinema Awards (2022)
- Selected, London Filmmaker Awards (2022)
Socrates and Aspasia. (Part of Electrifying Encounters series) A very unhappily-married aging Socrates in Ancient Athens tries to maintain the loving and mind-stimulating relationship with his old flame Aspasia, an extremely intelligent, artistic and compassionate courtesan from another country who secretly influences but is never officially part of Athenian politics. Socrates is nagged to death by his ignorant, crude, selfish and abusive wife while Aspasia deals with the ‘moralistically and otherwise required’ abuse from Lysiles a high level popular politician who ‘owns’ her as a Mistress. Tensions rise and decisions have to be made when Lysiles, whose life was saved by Socrates in the Peloponnesian War long ago, seeks revenge on the Revolutionary philosopher in many ways, and for secret reasons of which Socrates has no knowledge. At stake, the survival, sanity and legacy of both Socrates as well as Aspasia. (75 min, 2021). Current distributor, TMW Media Group. IN PROCESS OF SOUND TRACK ENHANCEMENT.
Official Selection/Honorable Mention Mykonos International Film Festival 2021
Official Selection Orlando International Film Festival 2022
Official Selection, New York Independent Cinema Awards, 2022
-Official Selection/Nominated, World Class Film Awards 2024
- Selected, Art Film Spirit Awards (2022)
-Winner, Atlanta Movie Awards (2022)
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/715699020
-Twilight of the Possible Immortals (Part of Electrifying Encounters series) Genius Visionary composer Richard Wagner is awakened in Purgatory a century and a half after his death in the 1880s, his Mystical Enlightenment-inducing Music set to be forgotten for the rest of recorded time unless he can answer for charges of inciting WWII with his anti-Semitic writings, intense connection to the best/most intense elements of German culture, his secret LGBT life and other transgressions which were part of his unique Creative Process. (60 min, 2020). Current distributor, TMW Media Group.
Official Selection, LGBTQ Unbordered Film Festival 2021
Official Selection, Nomination London New Wave Cinema 2022
Official Selection, Orlando International Film Festival 2020
Official Selection, Toronto Film and Script Awards Festival, 2022
Official Selection, Boston Independent Film Awards, 2022
Official Selection (winner), Munich Short Film Awards, 2022
Semi-Finalist, Hamburg Indi Film Festival, 2022
--Selected, Boston Independent Film Awards, 2022
--Winner, LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival (2022)
--Selected, Toronto Film and Script Awards (2022)
--Selected, London Filmmakers Award (2022)
--Selected, Philadelphia International Filmmaker Awards (2022)
-Tuckrunners A Canadian-born White female, a First Nations Mom, and a recently hired Islamic Immigrant refugee mother working for minimum wage in a Saskatchewan Restaurant are pitted against each other by a sleazy old Greek owner who is excessively cheap, fond of flirting with the help and considers vicious competition between his employees as something good for the restaurant, and them. Big time power-shifts happen as the workers find out more about each other, their boss and themselves, leading to struggles for survival and justice that backfire in ways they never considered possible. (30 min, 2018)
Official Selection, Global Shorts 2018
Official Selection, Orlando International Film Festival 2020.
Official Selection, finalist, Philadelphia World Film Festival, 2022.
Official Selection, Toronto Indie Shorts, 2022.
Official Selection, London New Wave Cinema Festival, 2022
Semi-Finalist, Dallas Movie Awards Festival, 2022.
Official Selection, Amsterdam Short Film Festival, 2022
Official Selection, New York Independent Cinema Awards, 2022
Semi-finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival, 2022
--Semi-finalist, Brussels World Film Festival (2024)
-Official Selection, Chicago Indi Film Awards (2024)
-Finalist, Philadelphia International Filmmaker Awards (2022)
-Devil in her Drone. An ex-priest, now police scientist-psychiatrist, encounters a gypsy woman accused of the most horrible of crimes, thinking that she is possessed by Satan, and that he can figure out the anatomy of evil by dissecting her, but the woman with a mysterious identity and agenda winds up dissecting said shrink, revealing more to him about himself, and life, than he bargained for. (24 min, 2018).
Official Selection, Global Shorts 2018.
Semi-finalist, Berlin Shorts Festival 2022.
-Skeletal Western. A washed out, over the hill, know it all, bitterly-cynical city producer is sent out to document paranormal events behind a porthole to another dimension in the Wilds of the West, and becomes part of the story he went out there to get on film. (10 min, 2020, in post-production)
-Sanders Deals With Fecalosophy. Socrates is interviewed by the Athenian Actors Studio, and Dog Pound, by a geeky host who sincerely and desperately needs to know how to make others laugh, from places you can trust. The Bernie Sanders-like old fart philosopher offer some humorous and profound answers to this ever-elusive question in ways that makes the viewer think, and laugh, and reflect on social problems then which mirror those we face now. (7 min, 2016).
Official Selection, Orlando International Film Festival, 2020
- Mirrored. A downtrodden, burnt out, yet still-defiant cynical 45 year old unrecognized writer (Avery ’Every’ Mann) does a mirror check before going out to hit the bricks with his newest novel that could save the world from itself. He is delayed by characters in the reflective surface (played by the same actor as the writer) who represent paths not taken and opportunities Avery still could be talked into. After defending his case against their claims about him, Avery has to educate those personas about their own flaws before he can be freed of their influence. (40 min, 2019)
Official Selection, Global Shorts, 2019.
Official Selection, finalist. Philadelphia World Film Festival. 2022.
Selected,. Berlin Shorts Festival. 2022.
---Selected, Chicago Indie Film Awards (2024)
Semi-Finalist, Rotterdam Independent Film Festival, 2022.
--Finalist, Philadelphia International Filmmaker Awards
--Finalist,
-Frankly Abused. Victim of long term domestic psychological abuse finally breaks, hitting spouse after going brain/soul dead, explaining case to a shrink who has also been abused, and an apparition of spouse that set the chain of aggression into motion in the first place. (13 min drama, first portion of feature length film) 2016.
-Henry and the Wolf Doctor. Intense, independent Native woman with abusive past fresh out of vet school is trapped into working for old Sawbones pathologically-paternalistic redneck animal doc in a backwater Western Canadian town filled with colorfully-dysfunctional rugged individualists who refuse to be homogenized into the 21st century. Alliances/bondships challenged by manipulative young Eastern Blueblood Corporate vet who wants to settle family scores with the Sawbones Redneck animal doc and make the old man’s sometimes willing First Nations ‘protégée’ his personal squaw, and the town his prize ‘colony’. Based on novels of same title. (160 min movie/series). (2015)
. Semi-Finalist, Sacramento Independent Film Festival (2023).
--Selected, Art Film Spirit Awards (2022)
--Selected, International Manhattan Film Awards (2022)
- Selected- New York Independent Cinema Awards (2024)
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-Fetal Distractions. A 1950s scientist-physician, with the help of his wife, makes contracts with wife to have sex with hookers to legally extract their fetuses for scientific study until one of the ‘ladies’, a down and out Auschwitz survivor, wants out of the deal, making a getaway with the help of the ‘Professor’s’
most favored scientific protégée, who has also devised very powerful cloning technology which, in the wrong hands, would be globally destructive. Based on true story (92 min) 2013.
-Committee. Satire about University Committee whose mandate is to above all, talk about everything and do nothing, even when the proposal and/or proposition at hand is whether to call the fire department when the building is burning down. (10 min) (2012)
-Stalin’s Psychiatrist. * (Part of the series ‘Electrifying Encounters’). Joseph Stalin undergoes a nervous breakdown after the surprise attack by Hitler, with no one in charge of a Russia that he built to do nothing without his say-so. A Jewish American expatriate female psychiatrist (perhaps real, perhaps not) locks herself in the room with him to pull the ‘Man of Steel’ back together, to infuse some humanity into him, and, perhaps, to turn him back into the man she once admired, and loved before it is too late for everyone. (60 min) (2010). Current distributor, TMW Media Group.
Selected screening, London New Wave Cinema, 2022
Selected screening, New York Independent Cinema Awards, 2022
Semi-finalist, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2022
Semi-finalist, Dallas Shorts, 2022
-Selected, London Filmmaker Awards (2022)
-Let There Be Light *(part of Marvelous Encounters/Electrifying Encounters Series). Aging inventor Nicola Tesla, after being banished by the world he tried to revolutionize and save, is ‘rescued’ himself from suicide by a reporter who has a secret agenda which is his worst nightmare, involving even more possible betrayal and heartbreak. (50 min) (2003) Current distributor, TMW Media Group.
Official Selection, New York Independent Cinema Awards, 2022.
Semi-Finalist/Selection, Berlin Shorts Festival, 2022.
Selected Finalist, Philadelphia World Film Festival, 2022.
Semi-finalist, Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2022.
Semi-finalist, Dallas Shorts, 2022
Semi-Finalist, Munich Short Film Awards, 2022
Semi-Finalist, Hamburg Indi Film Festival, 2022
--Finalist, NY Independent Cinema Awards 2022
-Albert and Mileva/God Does Not Play Dice * (part of Marvelous Encounters/Electrifying Encounters Series). Young Albert and first wife Mileva Einstein are having big time problems in their marriage which jeopardize their sanity, and the Einstein destiny unless a wise-beyond-his-station janitor can patch up their relationship, and awaken the slumbering Spiritual Soul of one still-arrogant and emotionally autistic (Asperger’s Syndrome) Albert, which is still…sleeping. (48 min) (2009). Current distributor, TMW Media Group.
SemiFinalist/Selection, Philadelphia World Film Festival, 2022.
Semifinalist, Dallas Shorts, 2022
Semi-Finalist, Munich Short Film Awards, 2022
-Mentoring *
A male and female soul exchange roles as student and teacher, abuser and abused, loved and betrayed, in various incarnations throughout the critical periods in human history, their relationship forged and tested by a Third Wheel soul whose identity only becomes known when the couple reach full circle with each other.
We begin when a hyper-intelligent, slick but very lonely female humanoid ET crash lands on ‘colony’ Earth and forms an uneasy alliance and love affair with a slow-witted but kind caveman in which the Farces of Nature take over, as well as the intervention of a silent ‘friend’ just when it hurts most.
Next -- Ancient Athens. The noble experiment of democracy is already failing. Our male soul seeks answers from the gods through the familiar-looking Oracle of Delphi to save his city, country and world. But he discovers more about her and the gods than he wants to, and has to ‘grow up’ very, very fast.
Up next---female soul incarnated as a gifted Jewish Earth Healer to be burned for Witchcraft in 1500s Europe, her counterpart a Church-funded scientist/scholar who feels drawn to her. Trust and betrayal haunt their alliance and friendship, and mutual desire to save the world, each in their own ways.
Next stop in the Incarnation Express, New Orleans, 1820. The male soul is a failed music composer from Europe trying pass himself off as the toast of Europe to a neuvo-rich ‘uncultured’ America. ‘Maestro Ludwig’ is hounded by extreme self doubt and economic problems. All can be turned around if he can teach the ‘Countessa of New Orleans’, a fat cat’s daughter, to play the violin in a winner-take-all bet. But the wager is harder than he can ever imagine, her survival and his hanging in the balance.
Then-- 1930s New York. The male soul is incarnated as Visionary/Inventory Nicola Tesla, the most intelligent physicist and most free thinking, compassionate scientist of his time. But Nicola’s been put out to pasture, stolen from, ridiculed, or ignored by the scientific community, most particularly the ‘great American’ Thomas Edison. With no one to pass his ideas on to, Nicola decides to end it all, but is stopped by a female reporter (blue-blood expatriate Virginia Millhouse) who wants to do a story on him. In the process of doing the interview, Nicola sees himself and his struggles in the female reporter who wants to, and can be, a great scientist. But there are hidden agendas on both sides of the student-mentor line. Finally, our two souls meet as archeologists, discovering the portraits they drew of themselves thousands of years ago, and coming face to face with an all too familiar soul they both recognize, and fear for very good reason. (120 min) (Aired, 2007 E!)
-Of Lions and Lambs * An over-intelligent, super-intense, hyper-cynical and always-misunderstood social-crusader female stand up comic clawing her way through the clubs of Vancouver is befriended by a naïve, pathologically kind, New-Age Bible thumper from Iowa who believes through a series of spiritual ‘accidents’ that said comic is his spirit helper sent from the heavenly planets and that his calling is to be a comic himself (48 min). Featuring David Palffy. (2002)
Semi-finalist, Berlin Shorts Festival 2022
-Mindless Love * Fred, a geeky, lonely, First Nations teenaged Neuroscientist in search of the neurological chemical answer for ‘love’ yearns for the affections of an abusive, hot-looking, ‘cool to be cruel’ classmate and to be accepted into the ‘in crowd’. With the help of his best friend, a teenaged ‘plain Jane’ white girl who wants, and deserves to be more, he gets hold of a potent ‘love potion’ from an outlaw neuroscientist in the backwoods, who turns out to be his estranged Uncle John, who was in the past a guinea-pig for such potions in his youth, with dangerous consequences, as they relate to a woman he fell in ‘love’ with once, and now doesn’t know how to get close to. Commissioned as episodes in CHUM/Citytv ‘Stories About Love’ anthology. (48 min) (2005)
-A Viking’s Carol *. An aging out-of-step-with-the-world but Spiritually-connected and prolific backyard inventor deals his transition to the other side, while his sons deal with their father’s death, and finally---each other. One son is afraid to leave home, the other terrified of coming home, but they all MUST unite, at least once before their commonly-shared transition (49 min) (1989)
-Kefi’s Garage *. Modern day Quixotic Western about old Greek CND cowboy desperately holding onto his land, a Medicine Wheel connected to the Realm of Light, and his inner fire so he can hand it over to his undeserving and soul-dead nephew (72 min). Featuring Gordon Tootoosis, Tibor Feherighazi. (1992)
-The Dream *. A pathologically optimistic cowboy must deal with reality and find inner belief in his Spiritual beliefs to save his ranch, his family and his valley from a vicious Eastern-based developer (49 min). Featuring Donnelly Rhodes, Linda Darlow. (2000) Nationally aired, CBC.
-Whose Soul Is It Anyway
A cynical, nerdy, pathologically-linear Millennial Theoretical Psych Grad Student is assigned by his notably absent thesis advisor the job of interviewing Jack, a middle aged multi-personality patient who is afflicted as well with dull out disease, disabling him from being vitalized as a person, and expressive as a musician. His five personae materialize and do battle over who has the right to be the controlling entity within him.
(2017, 20 min)
Official Selection, finalist. Philadelphia World Film Festival. 2022.
Semi-finalist, Dallas Movie Award Festival, 2022.
--Winner, LGBT Unbordered International Film Festival (2021)
-Twilight Cowboy
A self-absorbed middle aged man (Alan Mowalli) with a stream of ex-wives and a history of being an underachiever is diverted through a car accident into another dimension where he encounters an Old West Sheriff in a realm where the balance of power between men and women, good and evil, order and chaos keeps shifting, the fate of that world and the one Alan comes from is dependent on him bumbling his way to the Right decisions. Comedy. (1997, 30 min)
-In Search of Grafittiman
The entire town is after the mysterious artist who is bringing real Art to a dull, procedural town, in the form of Graffitti, the entire satirical endeavor watched by and perhaps orchestrated by ETs. Mocumentary. (1998, 14 min).
Aired Radioplays/Mockumentaries
-Unstrung Heroes of Classical Music.
6, half hour mockumentaries about (thankfully NOT) famous dysfunctional music composers in the classical music past.
-Multiple social satire mock commercials.
Indie novelist, screenwriter, producer/director/actor, former senior level neuroscience researcher/lecturer. Trying to make the world a better place through the arts.