Reuniting 25 years after the tragic loss of their beloved son and brother, an estranged family finds the courage to move forward and finally accept what they can and cannot change.

Interview with Writer/Director Maria Finitzo

Congratulations! Why did you make your film? When someone ends their life, the grief that is felt by family and friends is unimaginable. Like a stone thrown into a pond, the effects ripple outward from family to friends, and to the very community in which they all lived. For parents, compounding the emotion of grief is a sense of failure believing beyond all reason that they should have been able to see the tragedy coming, that they could have done more to help and most painfully, believing that somehow the fault is theirs’ in not being able to have kept their child alive.

For siblings, the family is never the same again. This is fertile ground for a story and my inspiration for THOSE LEFT BEHIND. Artistically I wanted to explore what happens after the worst thing happens. What would you do if you could not save someone you loved, no matter how hard you tried?

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film? The story could be anyone’s. We are all touched by loss. It is a part of life. The film is a deeply moving portrait of a family coming to terms with their loss. Stylistically, the film is quiet and subtle with nuanced emotional moments. Through the use of visual devices – home movies, photographs, found objects - one sees how memory captures the past and stays present in our lives.

William Faulkner said it best when he wrote, “The past isn’t dead. It’s not even past.” Triggered by sound, touch, image and emotion, memories are the way we tell ourselves stories about the past ultimately coming face to face with the ghosts that live in our present life.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I’m interested in the role that memory plays in the stories we tell ourselves. I’m also interested in how we all move forward from loss to recover the narrative of our life.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?
Scripts always change when you go into production and further change during the edit. It is all part of the evolution of a film.

Those Left Behind - Young Shelly Screaming.

Can you describe the feedback?
Very positive!

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
No surprises, I’ve been very happy with the feedback.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com <http://www.wearemovingstories.com> ?
I am hoping my film will reach audiences that will value the story. Whether they area film festival director or organization that would like to screen the film, a journalist who would like to write about the film to help give the film some exposure or a potential audience member who would like to see the film. Hopefully they will reach out to us at our website: www.filmartsproductions.com

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We need journalists to write about the film, film festival directors to accept the film and expose it to audiences, and buyers from the various platforms who will broadcast/screen the film.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
My hope is that this film will help start a conversation around the impact that suicide has on those left behind as well as conversations about dealing with grief.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

Here are some statistics:

· Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for ages 10-24.

· Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for college-age youth and ages 12-18.

· More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED.

Why is teenage suicide so prevalent and what can we do to prevent it?

What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Maria Finitzo is working on her next feature length narrative film- an adaptation of a short story by Author Alice Munro. In addition, she is in development on he newest documentary, The Dileema of Desire, about female sexual desire.

Lije Sarki has a slate of recent features in various stages of distribution including “This Isn’t Funny, Hickey, and Push ( a monstrous skateboarding documentary forever special to him). In 2016 he’s back in the director’s chair with an adventure film he penned, as well as producing a feature set to shoot this summer in North Carolina.

_______________________________________________________________________________

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

_______________________________________________________________________________

Those Left Behind

Reuniting 25 years after the tragic loss of their beloved son and brother, an estranged family finds the courage to move forward and finally accept what they can and cannot change.

Length: 78 minutes

Director: Maria Finitzo

Producer: Lije Sarki

Writer: Maria Finitzo

Writer and Director: Maria Finitzo is a two time Peabody award winning social issue documentary filmmaker. In 2014 she founded FilmArts to pursue her interest in fiction storytelling. “Those Left Behind” is her first feature length fiction film.

Producer: Lije Sarki, a LA based filmmaker, found his way in movies as an actor nearly a decade ago. He quickly transitioned to directing, finding he was much better suited with something he could control.

Key cast: Daphne Zuniga, Jack Griffo, Michael Hogan, Debra Mooney

Distributor: Random Media

Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): Buyers, film festival directors, journalists.

Made in association with: FilmArts Productions and Nutbucket Films

Release date: April 2016

Where can I watch it? Hoboken International Film Festival, June 8, 8pm, Dances with Films Festival, June 12, 930pm