Writer/director Lucia Mauro’s second film and first feature “One Year Later,” currently in post, centers on Liz, a dedicated teacher of comparative literature, who struggles with her post-cancer life and changing priorities.
Produced by the non-profit founded by Mauro and her husband, executive producer Joe Orlandino, the film will bow next spring as a fundraiser at Loyola University Medical Center’s new Research Facility in Maywood to benefit ovarian cancer research.
In talking about her approach to the subject, Mauro says, “I crafted an uplifting film that moves beyond the clinical aspects of cancer, Mauro says. “Unlike many films in that genre, ‘One Year Later’ moves out of the physicality of cancer and into a rejuvenating world of the emotions, the senses and human connection.”
Co-produced with Polymyth Productions on a $100,000 budget, “One Year Later,” filmed in Chicago over a total of 15 days, five in Chicago between late August and mid-October and 10 days in Milan and Aosta, Italy for 10 days in September.
It stars Juliet Hart, co-founder of Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre, and Rome-based Italian film/TV actor Massimo De Santis (“Miracle at St. Anna”).
Local actors featured are PJ Powers (co-founder/artistic director, TimeLine Theatre), Daniel Houle, Amanda Powell, Joslyn Jones and Erin Lovelace.
EP was Orlandino of Atlas Media; producer was Judie Green, development director at the Auditorium Theatre.
Polymyth partners Derek Cox was DP and is editing; Dan Finnen, line producer/AD, and Carter Lodwick, location sound. Talent from Gray Talent Group.
Andrea Labate was AD of their four-person Italian unit. Enzo De Rosa of Montreal is composing original music.
Mauro’s 2014 short film, “In My Brother’s Shoes,” won Best Short Film at the 2015 Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival in the Vatican, Rome and was featured in the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival’s Short Film Corner.
It stars Danny McCarthy (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Bluebloods”) as the brother of U.S. Marine killed in Iraq, who takes a healing pilgrimage to Rome, Italy in his sibling’s combat boots to process his grief.
“In My Brother’s Shoes” may be purchased online at Pivoxi Movie Network.
Mauro, a former longtime award-winning theatre and dance critic and arts/culture writer and Orlandino formed nonprofit My Brother’s Shoes, Inc. to help individuals and families suffering from the many forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
