In Development
As a young filmmaker I remember a distribution agent saying that the answer to “What’s next?” is always, “We have several projects in various stages of development.” For years as I navigated Q&A sessions at the end of our films and the first question was often, “What’s next?” I realized that more often the answer was, “To sleep.” Yet “to dream” is right after that, and now, many dreams later, BHP does have many ideas in various stages of progress. As artists developing a unique voice, we have to be ready with next stories; the collaborative (and expensive!) artform of filmmaking requires us to have stories that inspire others to join in. Here, we hope, are some stories like that.
“Be calm and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.” —Gustav Flaubert
A Christmas Baby
The Story Table turned the “panel lecture” on its ear through a series of dinner gatherings focused on themes that guests addressed through story while audiences ate and listened. The evenings were captured in a unique combination of video, photography, and long-form interviews.
LOYAL, INDIANA
Loyal, Indiana is the setting for a story of a minister’s son who has turned from religious faith, sinking roots of belief in science instead. When he is called back to his hometown to bury his estranged father, he sees life from a more complicated perspective and the unfinished business of his father’s life puts his own assumptions in question.
The Connoisseur
An intimate drama in the magic realism style, set at the turn of the millennium, The Connoisseur tells of Karin Beaton—forced to question the values of a domineering father that have led to the collapse of her marriage, loss of her child, and failure of a successful restaurant business. Her senses fractured by trauma, she flees to Denver, Colorado, to recover in anonymity. Her numbed state telegraphs confident detachment, resulting in a brief-but-epic mistaken identity. Watching the mini-replay of her true-to-life rise and fall, she returns to her senses and is led to redemption by the ghost of her father.
Acts of God
A feature drama set along an illicit human trafficking road between Russia, Europe, and the United States, this story tells of a naïve American humanitarian aid worker, a disenfranchised documentary photographer, and the people whose lives they intersect in the complicated pursuit of “doing good.”
Original Art
The well established post-screening discussion found a longer life and wider audiences beyond the event through smartly opportunistic production
Burghers of Calais 1 & 2
Two enmeshed feature dramas tell the tale of the selfless wartime sacrifice of the “burghers of Calais” in 1347 France, and how their story dramatically changed the life of sculptor Auguste Rodin 500 years later.
Evangeline
This feature historical drama, set primarily in New York, Chicago, and France during the first World War, tells of Evangeline Booth—daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. As the first “general” of TSA in the United States, she boldly sent “her unconventional army of laddies and lassies” to France where they were credited with turning the tide of the war.
Quang & Rene
This feature historical drama, set primarily in New York, Chicago, and France during the first World War, tells of Evangeline Booth—daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. As the first “general” of TSA in the United States, she boldly sent “her unconventional army of laddies and lassies” to France where they were credited with turning the tide of the war.
For all inquires regarding projects in development, please email info@burningheartproductions.com.