Private Project

To Be Forgotten

An U.S Army veteran who spent his entire youth in the military. Fighting for what he believed in and for his country, has now fallen on hard times living on the streets of New York City, without a home or a dollar to his name. Once patrolling the deserts of the Middle East with his fellow soldiers, he is now wandering the city streets alone, looking for his next meal.

But all the horrors of war doesn’t still on the battlefields overseas, they follow him in his everyday life as a form of PTSD. As he makes his way through the city, every person he comes across either ignores him or shuns him away. Is this what he deserves for his sacrifice? He has fought wars and never feared the enemy but today his biggest fear is…“To Be Forgotten”.

  • Jorge Alvarez
    Director
    Stolen Innocence
  • Jorge Alvarez
    Writer
    Stolen Innocence
  • Vijaykumar Mirchandani
    Producer
    Coming Out with the Help of a Time Machine, Stranger in the Room, Divide Time To Breathe, The Last Jam Jar, Paese Che Vai, Love Can't Be Locked Down, The Process, Habaneros, Where The Streets Have No Name. They are No Less
  • Lindsey Recanati
    Producer
  • Anthony Paulino
    Producer
    Divide Time To Breathe,
  • Greg Mays
    Key Cast
    "Homeless person"
  • Lindsey Recanati
    Director of Photography
  • Tony Malik
    Production Manager
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Social, veterans, PTSD, Human Interest, disbaility
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 10, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Alexandria Film Festival
    Alexandria, Virginia
    United States
    November 11, 2022
    Virginia Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Queens World Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    November 3, 2022
    Official Selection
  • North Europe - Film Festival - London Edition
    London
    United Kingdom
    June 27, 2022
    Europe Premiere
    Nominee - Best Director of a Short Film
  • Valor Community Film Festival
    Phoenix, Arizona
    United States
    May 29, 2022
    World Premiere
    Award - Best Veteran and Military Focussed
Director Biography - Jorge Alvarez

“We don’t make movies to make more money. We make money to make more movies.” Words that Jorge Alvarez lives by, since he fell in love with films as a nine-year-old child. When he went to see the James Cameron directed epic Titanic with his mother and older sister. Brought to tears in the theater by Cameron’s master stroke and James Horner beautiful score. Jorge realizes that films can and are works of art.

Born in Brooklyn, New York. The son of two immigrant parents of Latino dissent. Jorge spend most of his childhood in front of his family’s living room tv. Watching movies, cartoons and Japanese anime. Which is a big influence on his work today. As the years went by, Jorge love of anime grew as he begun to make anime music videos on his old Dell home computer. That put him on the path to become a filmmaker but what really put it in his mind was watching The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the king in a dark movie theater. As he whispered to himself “This is what I want to do with my life”.

Jorge was accepted into several film schools but realize him and his family could not afford to send him. That did not stop him from chasing his passion, so he decided to form his own production company Filmcloudstudio with his childhood friends Tony Malik and David Thenor. With little experience and little to no budgets, their first few films were a great lesson in filmmaking.

Now with over eight years of filmmaking under his belt and bringing in some great and talented people into Filmcloudstudio like Anthony Paulino. Who was the cinematographer on Jorge’s directed short film Stolen Innocence. A film that would be screened at the 2019 International New York Film Festival. And worked together again writing Filmcloudsudio’s next film Red Rose. Directed by Jorge Alvarez and a film selected by the 2020 dumbo film festival.

The excitement and passion for films Jorge felt in that movie theater in 1997 are still there and even greater now. As he continues making films and telling story’s as a writer, director and producer.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

As someone who grew up in New York City, seeing people living on the streets became a daily occurrence. So much so that people become desensitized to it, as if seeing someone sleeping on a street corner or on the subway as to seeing a piece of trash on the ground. Slowly I began to notice more and more homeless veterans on the streets. Asking for money but mostly asking for food and help.

So I thought to myself, why were there so many homeless veterans? Not only in New York City but in the entire county. These people gave so much for their country and to end up with no place to call home. This is a failure for us as a society and an embarrassment for us as a nation. So I wanted to make a film telling this story without getting over political or pointing the finger at just one individual or a group.

I just want the audience to relate to our protagonist and get emotionally connected to his situation and struggles. And after watching the film ask themselves these two questions: How did it become like this? And how could we change it?