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 | MOTHER'S DAY
| NY Premiere |
synopsis
Tragedy forces Mary (Academy Award Winner: Melissa Leo) and her son Jay (Gabriel Furman) to say goodbye forever.
director
Born and raised in Long Island, NY Jeff Tan studied Film and Television at Hofstra University. For the past 10 years, Jeff's credit's include being a cinematographer for some of the top rated reality shows on television such as The Bachelor, Jersey Shore and Project Runway. Mother's day is Jeff's film directorial debut and he considers himself very blessed to have such a talented cast and crew for it.
filmmaker's note
You are probably wondering why Academy Award-winner Melissa Leo agreed to be in a short film with two unknowns. Well, it came down to the question at the heart of our film: “What if a mother and son were forced to say goodbyeforever?” It was the spring of 2014 and two years since I had moved back to New York from Los Angeles. I had a great career there as a cinematographer in nonscripted TV but I wasn’t happy. I was born to make films. That’s when my best friend Gabriel Furman approached me. He was exploring character work at The Actors Studio in NYC. Most people think it’s the TV show on Bravo but it’s not-- it’s a place for working actors to hone their craft amongst peers. "I was working on ‘Death of a Salesmen’ playing Biff,” Gabriel told me. “I was
about to walk on stage when my heart sunk into my stomach when this hit me: This is the last time I will ever see my mom.”
This thought resonated with Gabriel so much that when he went home the story was pounding in his head, begging to be written. He had to get it out. I read it and it touched me. I knew I needed to get involved. Gabriel then had his fellow Actors Studio member Melissa Leo read it. He really valued her opinion because of the type of artist she is: humble, always in search of the truth, and not one to bullshit.
She replied she loved it and said, "Wow… we could do this… it’s really good and sweet and deep.” In just 24 hours, we put together a full production crew filled with long-time friends that just happen to be professionals in their field. On set right before we
began, Gabriel and I had a humbling realization. We were in my mom’s basement, made into a hospital room. One Christmas 17 years ago, we made a pact to make a film together in that same room.
The rest is Mother’s Day.
related links
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TRAILER
mothersdaythefilm.com