TV/Web Series #1 – Screening - UMFF 2011

TV/Web Series #1
• Ain’t That Life directed by Joseph Amiel (New York, NY)
What do you call it when a well-meaning, but naïve man loses his job, discovers his girlfriend in bed with the cleaning woman, is implicated by the police in her disappearance, and becomes smitten by a beautiful shopping-addicted nymphomaniac? A week in the life of Harold Bregman – and the pilot episode of the comedy-mystery web seres, Ain’t That Life.

On the bright side, Hard is in therapy. On the cloudier side, his therapist is often blasé and cynical! What does Harold have left to hold on to during all of this? Hope. Hope in the essential goodness of humanity.

“Ain’t That life celebrates the irrational passion of our enduring hope for a happy life and meaningful relationships amid a world of self-absorbed, self-centered people,” said its writer-director, Joseph Amiel.


• Chrysalis directed by Nia Malika Dixon (Los Angeles, CA)
A young man in Baltimore struggles with his choice to be a drug dealer as his lifestyle clashes with his religious beliefs.

He wants to take care of his son, as any father would, yet his choice of career, though it's easy money, goes against his family's beliefs. He has to either quit the drug game, barely making ends meet, or continue on the path of money, power, and respect at the price of his soul.

A violent altercation triggers a series of events that leave many dead. The violence hits home for Jamal, and when the smoke clears he accepts that he must get out of the drug game. But, will he?


• Crossing Blood Lines directed by Donna Roman Hernandez (Belleville, NJ)
In Northern New Jersey Mike Longo, his younger brother, Angelo and their childhood friend, Carmine DeBlasio joined the police force in the 1980s where they grew up in a predominately Italian neighborhood. Mike and Angelo have a love/hate relationship; they love each other as brothers but not as cops. Mike has a stellar police career and worked his way up the police ranks with his goal to become Police Chief. Angelo is a rogue street cop who secretly desires to be a 'made guy' with their cousin's crime family.

Two decades after they became cops, Captain Mike Longo must quiet the corruption rumors about Angelo for the Mayor to make good on his promise to promote Mike to Police Chief. Angelo, a Detective Sergeant with the Organized Crime and Gang Unit with unorthodox police tactics, provides protection and illegal services to their cousin, Joe Tullo, a mob Boss. Tullo spent half of his adult life in prison, and when released on an Appeal is determined not to return behind bars. Lieutenant Carmine DeBlasio, a ruthless Internal Affairs Commander, is desperate to bring down a corrupt cop with his sights on Det. Sgt. Angelo Longo so to advance his own promotion to Captain. After a botched robbery and a relative's execution, a murky 35-year old Longo family secret is revealed and blood lines will be crossed.

Rated PG-13