Mauro’s short film wins top Vatican festival prize

Filmmaker Lucia Mauro

WRITER/DIRECTOR LUCIA MAURO’S “In My Brother’s Shoes,” won “Best Short Film” in the prestigious ‘il Pesce d’ Argento’ (the Silver Fish) award from the Mirabiie Dictu International Catholic Film Festival held last week in Rome. 

The 28-minute drama, “In My Brother’s Shoes,” is the first film written and directed by Lucia Mauro, a multi-award winning arts writer/critic and professor, who has started another short film and is moving forward on a feature production. 

It stars local stage and screen actor Danny McCarthy as Chicagoan Danny, whose younger brother, a Marine, was killed in Iraq. Danny wears his brother’s ill-fitting combat boots and travels to Rome, where he processes his grief and better understands his own capacity for sacrifice through the diverse range of people he randomly encounters.

“Shoes” was shot in Chicago and Rome last year with Polymyth Productions‘ DP Derek Cox, line producer Dan Finnen, and sound mixer Carter Lodwick. Joe Orlandino was EP; Ed Pope, producer and Davide Cincis was collaborating director. 

A BOON TO BANDS is offered by Big Teeth Productions‘ Jam contest among local bands for the best song.  The grand prize will be Big Teeth’s professional production of a music video of the band, for the band to use to further its career. Bands can enter now through July 7 at midnight. 

Top three bands chosen by Big Teeth judging will go viral for the public to vote on its favorite. 

ITALIAN SAUCES Ragu and Bertolli are now a client of Havas Worldwide, named AOR for the products of R&B Brands in Mt. Prospect, following a creative review. Part of the assignment will be to enhance the products’ heritage of quality and authenticity and to grow the brands’ share of Millennials.

ANOTHER TELLY AWARD for Mimi Productions Michelle DeLong and David Miller. The 2015 Bronze Telly for a real people, eight spot campaign was produced for the Orthopedic and Shoulder Center in Bloomington/Normal. DeLong directed and edited, Miller was DP. 

They must be doing something right, as this is Mimi Productions’ second Telly for the Center’s commercials and its ninth Telly in eight years for other clients, along with Emmys and other prestigious awards.

COMPUTER GLITCH FROM HELL. A seemingly innocuous Outlook error message went poof, and my voluminous contact list, file folders and Inbox emails vanished. Two different IT experts, each working for hours on the problem, could not resolve the problem or restore the missing files.  

Among the data lost were news releases sent over the past few weeks about new projects and events, the lifeblood of the Reel. So I’m asking those of you who sent news, to please resend, to ruth@reelchicago.com and we will post what’s still timely on the Reel.  

This is not the first time I’ve experienced problems with my PC, so maybe, finally, biting the bullet, it’s time to switch to a Max. Your comments are welcome.