Private Project

In Loving Memory

After the passing of his Grandmother, a young man is given the chance to reconnect with her one last time through song and dance.

  • Joe Berardi
    Director
  • Joe Berardi
    Writer
  • Angela Martino
    Producer
  • Thomas Mueller
    Key Cast
  • Isabelle Dickey
    Key Cast
  • Tenzin Namgyel
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Musical
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 7 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 9, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Ithaca College
  • "IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES"
    Ithaca
    United States
    May 7, 2021
    Student Thesis Premiere
Director Biography - Joe Berardi

Since youth, Joe Berardi has always had a prodigious passion for storytelling, and at a young age, he was always found writing stories, exploring his hometown of Cheshire, Connecticut, or doing anything that challenged his imagination. In recent years, however, Joe has harnessed his passion and love for storytelling for a more focused area of study in cinema. Currently, he attends Ithaca College with a major in Cinema & Photography and a concentration in Cinema Production. Joe’s background, however, was not in cinema but in theatre arts. For most of his childhood and into young adulthood, Joe performed in more than twenty-five stage plays and musicals and has studied privately at the Foote School in New Haven, Connecticut and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. He is also a third generation student of Konstantin Stanislavski due to his close work with theatre director and novelist, Julian Schlusberg. With a history in theatre, Joe often finds himself calling upon his experience when working closely with actors, analyzing scripts, and blocking stage direction. Currently, Joe is in preparation for his capstone thesis film which is planned to be completed in the Fall of 2021. (Cheshire High School: Through the Lens, 2018 - Writer, Director, Producer/Bloom, 2018 - Director, Cinematographer/Deliria, 2019 - Writer, Director, Cinematographer/Vortex, 2019 - Writer, Director/The Bureau, 2019 - Writer, Director/Mother’s Flowers, 2020 - Writer, Director/Opus 27, 2020 - Director/In Loving Memory, 2021 - Writer, Director)

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Director Statement

Three years ago, I began writing “In Loving Memory” as a sort of exploration of a person’s love for music and the transformative power it possesses. After sending the script though multiple rounds of review, the critiques all centered around one common idea: another level of the story was missing. After brainstorming, I decided to look inward. After all, the most common advice on script writing is to always write what you know. At the time of this story’s conception, my Grandfather’s battle with Parkinson’s Disease worsened and I began to prepare myself for his inevitable passing. Death was, unfortunately, a constant thought on my mind, so naturally death worked it’s way into the film giving the story the extra level of depth it needed. From there, "In Loving Memory" turned from a story about the principals of music to a homage to life, love, and my Grandfather.

After the passing of my Grandfather in October of 2020, I felt a powerful sense of urgency to finally shoot this film. In a way, I owed it to him. Every day on set, I made sure to remind myself why I was creating this project and being as personal as it was, I made sure to only settle for what was best. I am incredibly proud of the final product and I like to think that my Grandfather is proud of it too.