SHORTS
THE DRAFT
Logline:
How Three American Wars affect one Italian-American Family.
SYNOPSIS:
Jesse Roselli understands English but speaks only Italian. She keeps a Shrine in her living room to her husband, John Roselli Sr., who enlisted in the American Army and who she lost in WWII. But it’s 1967 and Jesse has two sons, one is a career military man, Louie Roselli [21] and the other, Johnny Roselli Jr. [18] is a draftee into the Vietnam War.
Johnny survives Vietnam but changes into a pot smoking, acid dropping hippie when he gets home. He drives Jesse crazy with pot smoking, not working and having sex with his girlfriend in the family home. Louie confronts Johnny but Johnny tells him that his girlfriend, Marlena is pregnant with his baby. Louie helps Johnny move out with Marlena.
When their boy, Dominic, is five he gets a hold of some of Johnny’s LSD, over doses and trips out. When he doesn’t come out of it, Johnny tries to kill Dominic but Louie fights him and stops him. Instead Johnny goes home and kills Marlena and himself in a murder/suicide.
One winter day a year or so later, Louie visits Dominic at the hospital. It’s snowing and Louie takes Dominic to the window to show him the snow. Their breath steams up the window but when Dominic draws on the foggy window, it is a sign to Louie that he is coming out of it. Louie takes Dominic out of the hospital against the Doctor’s advice. Dominic grows up to be an inspired and successful artist. He marries a girl named Gina and in 1994 has a son who he names Johnny Roselli III.
Jesse passes when Johnny III is seven.
In 2012 Johnny Roselli III gets drafted into the War on Terror. Louie is an old man now who has carried his family through three wars. He has been the backbone of the Roselli family all along but when Johnny III is killed Louie just sits by Jesse’s Shrine in silence.
CONTACT: jeangalliano@yahoo.com
BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
SYNOPSIS:
In a multi-dimensional reality it’s a beautiful summer day in New York’s Central Park.
A pair of Lovers dressed in circa 1940’s clothing catches the eye of an Artist working there. As the Lovers sit in the park enjoying one another the Artist sketches their portrait. The Artist seems incensed by his work and struggles to get it correct. An Old Woman stops and interrupts him, engaging him in conversation. But this is no ordinary artwork and he knows he must complete it and show it to the Lovers before nightfall. The Old Woman looks out into the distance but does not see his subjects and when he looks up again they are gone. The Artist is obsessed by the Lovers and pursues them thru the park missing them at every turn. The Lovers visit the Central Park Zoo and other locations in the park. Alone in their own world, they are oblivious to everyone, including the Artist.
In reality the Artist is from another time in a multi-dimensional reality come to right a wrong he made in the 1940’s. The wrongful death of these two lovers, now spirits that roam the park by day but must retreat into the lake by nightfall or risk losing their Eternity in Central Park.