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Help produce this veteran-made film on
an immigrant soldier and his difficult return from a war that dramatically
changed him – physically and emotionally.
The only thing harder than getting blown up in Afghanistan, is raising an 10-year-old girl.
This is the tag line reflecting the spirit of ONE HALLOWEEN, a short film that provides a realistic, touching and dramatic insight into the complex challenges that veterans coming from war zones face, as they seek to reintegrate in their lives back home.
ONE HALLOWEEN tells the story of soldier
who was wounded in the Afghanistan war, through one Halloween night as he tries
to re-connect with his daughter.
FILM INSPIRATION
I had the opportunity to interview wounded soldiers at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio shortly after I returned from my own deployment in Afghanistan.
During my my time in Texas, I met and befriended an amazing young man, Juan, who lost both arms and
was burned on over 80% of his body by an exploding fuel truck in Iraq in 2004.
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The main character of ONE HALLOWEEN will be played by Joey Banegas, a friend and boxer who lost his leg in Afghanistan, He is one of three wounded veterans who will be in the film.
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JOEY BANEGAS
In ONE HALLOWEEN, Joey is surrounded by an incredible cast of
professionals who are working to make a short film grounded in the reality that
Juan and Joey face every day, but authentic in nature – and reflecting what so many
other veterans, and their families, have to deal with, daily.
ONE HALLOWEEN is a veteran-made production.
The film’s cast and crew is filled with military veterans who have served in
the US military and now want to work in film and television, taking this film
as a very special opportunity to tell their own side of the story.
The film, in
short, deals with many theme including: the interesting family
dynamics in a lower socio-economic immigrant family, what it is like
dealing with a disability, but above all love for a family and a neighborhood.
It reveals what wounded warriors go through, as well as looks at the sacrifice that immigrant families make.
THE CREW
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Rebecca Murga is a U.S. Army veteran and
filmmaker who recently completed the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for
Women in Los Angeles, California, where only 6% of directors in Hollywood are women.
This year, announced at the Latino Reel panel at the
Sundance Film
Festival 2016, it was announced that Rebecca is one of the recipients of the NALIP
Latino Lens Incubator grant.
Rebecca is a passionate advocate for veterans and women's issues with articles published in The New York Times, The Global Journal, The Morning Call, and San Jose Mercury News, to name a few. She has appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," and "The View." Most recently, she was featured on NPR as the director of a short film “War Ink” which tells veteran's war stories through their tattoos. For more on her work please see: www.rebeccamurga.com
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We are excited to be the recipient of a filmmakers grant by NALIP, the
National Association of Latino Independent Producers.![]()
The NALIP film incubator, funded
by the Time Warner Foundation and
the National Endowment for the Arts,
will provide contributions for pre-production, production, and post-production
tools, resources, and assets to support the four filmmakers in the program.
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Also announced at the
Sundance Film Festival Latino Reel
Panel,
HBO announced they have signed on to distribute the films on one of their platforms in an effort to
increase diverse voices in filmmaking.
While this award provides contributions for pre-production,
production, and post-production tools, resources, and assets to support me as a
filmmaker, we nevertheless need to raise more funds for
the film and for the ‘behind the scenes’ documentary portion of it. All the
raised funds will go toward paying the crew, locations, food, and travel for
the wounded veterans who will be flying in to be in the film.
And that ties in with the
very important role that we have for you in this story:
We invite you to become a member of
the production-backing community of ONE HALLOWEEN, by selecting one of the
special rewards that we have on offer – this way showing your support to our
movie’s story, principles and purpose.
We also invite you to share this
campaign with your friends and family members who may also want to become
members of the production-backing community of ONE HALLOWEEN, helping to bring
our movie into theaters and screens.
One of the important facets of my film is the employment of
military veteran cast and crew that have served and now wish to work in film
and television. The money raised will help support them as they gain experience in the film industry. IN addition, all wounded veterans will need
special flights and accommodations to appear in the film, which will be
provided by these funds.
Your generous contributions will make it possible for us to:
- Feed our cast and crew (so my brother doesn’t have to hold
the boom mic)
- Provide safe working conditions for our minor actors (I
do NOT run a sweatshop)
- Secure locations and permits (I'd like to avoid guerrilla filmmaking)
- Cover production design and costumes
- Pay for post-production and festival submission fees
And that's all there is to it.
#veteran #film #woundedwarrior #indiegogo #NALIP #LatinoLens #indiefilm #army #warfilm #familyfilm