​As we work to make a difference on screen through the powerful art form of film, we also want to partner with you to practically make a difference now through our partnership with John Clifford and The Greenhouse Project. 10% of everything we raise will go to John and his team’s efforts to serve and transform the lives of those who struggle with addiction and homelessness in the community of Chester, PA.

We are a group of motivated artists who have an extremely strong desire to make a film that has an impact. The majority of our team lives in or around Philadelphia, the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast. We have seen, firsthand, the devastation that drug addiction has wreaked on our community, and we want to speak on behalf of those who do not have a voice. 

We know we can make a great film because we've done it before! Whether together or separately, everyone on our team has had prior experience creating in their area of expertise. Many of our past films have been accepted into film festivals and won awards. You can check out our work below:

Director/Co-Writer/Lead Actor (Michael J. Mina)

Executive Producer (Kaitlyn Diehl)

Associate Producer (Jackie Diehl)

Cinematographer (Jonathan Phelps)

Production Designer (Liz Reynolds)

Composer (Ben Price)

Every great piece of art starts with a spark of inspiration, right? It’s my belief that there is profound meaning to be gleaned from the seemingly random and chaotic events that happen to us each and every day. The inspiration for this film comes from the loss of my best friend, and (practically) brother, Jimmy. 

We were inseparable. He was easily the funniest person I had met in my entire life. He could make anyone laugh about anything. We were on the same hockey team, went to the gym together every day, worked at McDonald's together, had sleepovers… Everything best friends do in high school and the years that follow. As we became brothers, we started talking about the deeper things of life. Things like our existence, God, girls, what our future lives would look like… However, there is one conversation that stands out to me above the rest.

I had just slept over at his house the night before, and after sleeping in late, we dragged ourselves through the cruel July sun to the little gym we attended almost daily. 

As I did a few reps on a machine, I thought about dinner at Jimmy’s house the night before. How he joked around with his Mom and Dad as if they were best friends. It was so odd to me, they seemed so close, and the relationship seemed so easy. So I mentioned it to him: “Hey man, I don’t know why I was thinking of this, but it’s amazing how close you are with your parents. “With Jim and Susan?” he asked. He always referred to them by their first names. “Yeah, it’s awesome,” I said. He hesitated for a moment. “Yeah man, they’re pretty awesome.” 

We continued our workout, and I didn’t think much more about it. Later that night, as we sat in a Wawa parking lot eating some freshly toasted meatball subs, he brought it back up. He explained to me that his birth parents died when he was really little and that Jim and Susan adopted him and his sister Katie right after. As he shared, I saw a side of Jimmy I’d never seen before. The funny, outgoing, seemingly “unphased about life” kid became reflective and quiet. He shared how he’d always wondered what it would be like to sit down and talk with his parents. He loved Jim and Susan, and they’d been amazing, but to sit down with his Mom and Dad? What would that be like?  

Not too long after, Jimmy and I started smoking weed pretty regularly. We’d go to parties and drink. It wasn’t too different from anything most of our friends were doing, but as the months of my senior year started to roll by, I realized that maybe Jimmy was pushing the envelope further and further on the partying.

I went off to college, and Jimmy stayed behind to finish his time in high school. Four years passed, and we got much closer in many ways and grew apart in others; we were still brothers, but we started growing into men. Jimmy would often visit me at college for weeks at a time. Then he began his own college journey, and I returned to my parents' house to finish my final two years of school. 

Then came December 2, 2017. As I was taking my dog, Peanut, out for a potty break, I got a call telling me that Jimmy had overdosed that night on the campus of Temple University. 

Since that day, I have spent a lot of time processing and considering what happened. What caused my best friend to be in such profound pain that only substances were able to soothe him? Personally, I really believe that a big part of it was his pain over the loss of his parents, and his inability to ever connect with them. This is the very motivation for this film; it’s about a young man, TINO, desperately trying to connect with his father.

"Tino" is about a young man who desperately wants to connect with his father. It seems pretty simple and timeless,  right? That’s because it is. However, it is a story with DEEP pain and DEEP beauty at its very core. Tino is a homeless drug addict with dreams of being a professional ballet dancer. His father, the Chief of Police in the city of Philadelphia, has an extremely strict and rigid set of morals and has no interest in supporting Tino’s dreams. As our film unfolds, Tino will meet a beautiful young woman, Trista. She is intriguing. Daring. Reckless. And she becomes a dangerous surrogate for the acceptance and connection he lacks from his father. Their passionate and volatile relationship will drive our film and drive Tino to further seek connection with his father at any cost.

Our end goal is to submit "Tino" to film festivals around the world to get it in front of as many eyes as possible. Empathy is the key to change. We want to show not only the impact that addiction has on users and their families but also what we believe is the root cause: a lack of deep, meaningful connection.