My father was diagnosed with pre-senile frontal-lobe syndrome (a fancy name for Dementia) during my last year of drama school. I never realized how deeply it affected me until I moved from Rome to LA, to the other side of the world. When I returned, I realized I had been quietly grieving throughout my years away. 

Dementia had disconnected my father from my family. From the strain of caretaking, my sister was battling depression and my mother was collapsing from fatigue. This time, instead of running away in hopelessness, I ran towards it—by embracing my family and initiating this film project we are now on the verge of completing.

“The Long Step” was successfully shot in August of 2022. Integral to the narrative are contemporary dance sequences that we filmed through careful staging and lighting with a brilliant crew and a key collaboration with choreographer Roya Carreras. SAG-related COVID expenses expanded our healthy budget by an additional $6,000. 

“The Long Step” was edited from September-December 2023. Our post team completed sound design and color correction in the spring of 2024.

We are committed to raising finishing funds to promote THE LONG STEP, and to develop the feature version, working title STAY. We hope to deliver a beautiful and deeply personal feature dance film by 2026! As we continue our festival run and our feature development process, we are soliciting tax deductible community support via our sponsor The Watermill Center.