Another Harvest Moon 1
Weissman/Markovitz Communications
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P R E S S I N F O R M A T I O N
Aurora Films and SMD Entertainment Productions present
Starring (in alphabetical order): Ernest Borgnine, Piper Laurie,
Anne Meara, Doris Roberts, Richard Schiff, Cybill Shepherd.
Casting: Bonnie Gillespie. Director of Photography:
Jeffrey A. Cunningham. Production Designer: Carl Sprague.
Music: Ricardo Garcia and William V. Malpede
Executive Producer: Steven M. Delamater. Producers: Bobby Black, Chad Taylor, Jason Weiss. Co-executive Producers: John Slovak, Brad Kenyon. Producer’s Representative: Ostrow and Company. Screenplay by: Jeremy T. Black, based on his play.
Directed by: Greg W. Swartz.
©2009 Aurora Films and SMD Entertainment Productions
Total Running Time: 90 minutes
www.anotherharvestmoon.com / www.smdfilms.comwww.aurorafm.com / www.ostrowandcompany.com
PRESS CONTACT:
Leonard Morpurgo
Mobile: (818) 731-3513
Office: (818) 760-8995
Another Harvest Moon 5
Synopsis
Another Harvest Moon is a sensitive drama about four elderly Americans coping with life in a nursing home. Frank (Ernest Borgnine), Ella (Anne Meara), Alice (Doris Roberts) and June (Piper Laurie) gather each morning for a game of cards. They have become like family to one another, offering unyielding support, constant bickering and strong opinions about life, death and everything in between.
One morning Frank reveals to Ella that he no longer remembers his wife’s face and that he doesn’t want to live to endure another debilitating stroke. He persuades his son Jeffrey (Richard Schiff) to give him his old gun because by holding it he finds a way to remember his World War II buddies. But perhaps he has another motive for wanting the weapon.
Frank’s revelation sets off a struggle between Ella and the ever-optimistic Alice as they both try to affect his decision while privately dealing with their own fears.
That Labor Day Jeffrey, daughter Vickie (Cybill Shepherd) and grandson Jack (Cameron Monaghan) take Frank on a camping trip where his spirits are lifted.
Back at the nursing home Frank ponders his decision and his next move. His friends and family must confront their own feelings about faith, dignity and our obligations to our loved ones.
Another Harvest Moon deals with weighty issues affecting us all.
*
CAST
Ernest Borgnine Frank
Piper Laurie June
Anne Meara Ella
Doris Roberts Alice
Richard Schiff Jeffrey
Cybill Shepherd Vickie
Sunkrish Bala Paul
Amber Benson Gretchen
Clay Bravo Rita
Cameron Monaghan Jack
Dale Waddington Horowitz Rebecca
Candace O’Donnell That Wilson woman
Liz Rebert Nurse Linda
Allie Swartz Daughter
Kate Caffrey Woman
Kevin Spangler Officer #1
Michael Zinn Officer # 2
CREDITS
Directed by Greg W. Swartz
Written by Jeremy T. Black
Based on the play by Jeremy T. Black
Producers Bobby Black, Chad Taylor
Jason Weiss
Executive producer Steven M. Delamater
Director of Photography Jeffrey A. Cunningham
Composers Ricardo Garcia and William V. Malpede
Editor Darren Iovino
Editorial Consultant Hughes Winborne A.C.E.
Production Designer Carl Sprague
Wardrobe Designer Amy Brownson
Casting Director Bonnie Gillespie
Line Producer Trevor Jones
Co-Executive Producers Brad Kenyon, John Slovak
Kurt Stein
Assoc. producers Jeremy T. Black, John Breinholt
Page Ostrow
Co-producer Rodney Holland
Production coordinator Lesley Ann Morrison
1st A.D. Josh Cohen
2nd A,D. Liz Rebert
Script supervisor Babette Stith
1st Asst. camera Jaxon Woods
2nd unit DP Bill Simone
B-Camera Operator Bill Simone
Steadicam-1 Jay Kilroy
Steradicam-2 David Isern
2nd unit director Brad Kenyon
2nd asst. camera James Burke
Gaffer Ian McGlocklin
Best boy electric Greg Yurkavich
Key grip Andrew Wheeler
Best boy Kevin Gallagher
Production sound mixer Dennis Baxter
Boom operator Ray Manlove
Set decorator Jennifer Engel
Lead man Gino Fortebuono
Prop master Ryan Webb
Costume supervisor Melissa Clemens
Key costumer Louise Heisey
Key makeup Linda Kaufman
Key Hair Lisa DelleChiaie
Assist. editors Heather Mullen, Surge L’Rodiriquez
Compositor Darren Iovino
Sound mixed by Richard “Tricky” Kitting
Sound effect editors Brent Findley, Cody King
Dialogue/ADR Editor Angela Hemingway
Conductor Nick Glennie-Smith
Music scoring mixer Kenvin Globerman
Music production supervisor Gretchen O’Neal
Music editors Carl Kaller, Dan Raziel
Production attorneys Todd Shill, Phil Rosen
Production accountant Karen Sanquist
Location manager Bill Richards
Public relations (on set) Hope Banner
“The Kid Inside”
(R. Garcia, W.V. Malpede, K. Karman)
Performed by The Green Car Motel
(Brush Jacket Music, WilliamV Music, Ken Karman Music, ASCAP)
Production Notes
At its world premiere, held at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Another Harvest Moon was awarded the Audience Award Grand Prize for a Feature Film and its score was given the Best Original Music Composition award (for composers Ricardo Garcia and William V. Malpede). The film also won the Audience Award at the Louisville Film Festival and was chosen to open the Hollywood Film Festival.
This is both a highly personal film and one that appeals to anyone who has had an elderly relative. It’s personal to director Greg Swartz. When he saw the play written by his writing partner Jeremy T. Black he had just gone through the traumatic experience of watching his own father die.
“This kind of story has not been told before, yet it is something that everyone experiences,” he says
However he says the film is about the quality of life not the quantity, it is how you live your life, not how long you live it.
“We didn’t want to be maudlin. It is, in fact, a celebration. We have upbeat music and comic moments.”
The film was shot over a four-week period in the summer of 2008, mostly near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The nursing home at the center of the story was part of the recently closed Pennsylvania State Hospital campus, originally called the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Asylum. Because this particular building had closed only a few months earlier it still had the right look for the film, though the bars had to be removed from windows. Girl, Interrupted was shot on the same campus.
With Swartz’ help, Jeremy Black broadened his original play for cinematic purposes. The play had only the four elderly characters. They talked about their children but they were never seen. Seeing the anguish and difficulties experienced by the characters portrayed by Richard Schiff and Cybill Shepherd gives new dimensions. Piper Laurie’s character’s granddaughter, played by Amber Benson, shows youth and vitality.
When the production company made a casting call for extras some 680 people showed up. A local nursing home offered as many residents as they needed. They bussed them in each day and provided their own nurses. At the end of the shoot the nursing home gave “Oscars” to all their ladies.
The only sequence shot outside the campus was a Labor Day camp scene filmed near York, Pennsylvania. It called for a live deer and a dead deer, both provided by a local deer farmer.
About the cast…This was the 199th film for the amazing Ernest Borgnine, still active at the age of 92. He received an Emmy® nomination for his work on ER, just a couple of weeks before the world premiere of Another Harvest Moon at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has received many awards during his career, including the Oscar® for his bravura performance in the 1955 film Marty. Piper Laurie has received three Academy Awards® nominations—for Children of a Lesser God, Carrie and The Hustler and no less than nine Emmy® noms, including a win for her role in Promise, plus a Golden Globe for Twin Peaks. Doris Roberts was nominated for an Emmy® seven straight years, for her role in Everybody Loves Raymond, winning it four times. She has won numerous other awards for her acting. The multi-talented Anne Meara also has numerous Emmy nods and a Golden Globe® nomination. As well as her acting career she is well-known for her comedy act with husband Jerry Stiller. Richard Schiff, known as an actor’s actor, was seen for many years in the television drama West Wing for which he won an Emmy® and two Screen Actors Guild Awards as a member of the ensemble cast. Cybill Shepherd is another multi-award winner with three Golden Globes® for Cybill and Moonlighting in which she starred with Bruce Willis, three People’s Choice Awards and a host of Emmy® nominations. Amber Benson, who plays the granddaughter of Piper Laurie’s character, has a strong fan following for her role Tara, the shy witch in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Though only 15 when he was cast as Frank’s grandson, Cameron Monaghan has a raft of experiences appearing in such popular TV shows as Monk, The Mentalist and Numb3rs.
About the filmmakers…This is the feature-directing debut for Greg W. Swartz, though he has paid his Hollywood dues directing numerous shorts. He has also worked as producer, writer, and production manager. Producer Bobby Black produced and directed his self-financed feature Welcome to Serendipidy. He has previously worked at Oxygen Media, Nickelodeon and VH1. Producer Chad Taylor is a founding member and guitarist of the renowned rock band Live, appearing on all the top late night shows. He produced the critically acclaimed Home starring Marcia Gay Harden. This is the first venture into motion pictures for executive producer Steven M. Delamater who has a background as a jazz musician and has business interests in a chain of 10 McDonalds restaurants, land development and in import and export. Screenwriter Jeremy T. Black based it on his own stage play, expanding the original premise to more characters. Jeffrey A. Cunningham, the director of photography has worked his way through every position in a movie’s camera department and over the last six years has been the cinematographer on some nine movies and TV shows. His most recent was on the feature film Fuel. Production designer Carl Sprague has worked on a number of well known films, as designer or art director, including Amistad, The Royal Tenenbaums, State and Main and Michael. The composer team of Ricardo Garcia and William V. Malpede are two of the most in-demand musicians in Hollywood.
Ernest Borgnine
(Frank)
The marvelous thing about any portrait Ernest Borgnine draws on the screen is that it is always believable. His credibility is unmatched perhaps because he is such a sincere person in reality. No matter what he’s portraying, you believe him. Even the hapless McHale of the famous Navy series years ago elicited sympathy. How could you doubt that face, that gravelly voice? He’s real, no matter what theatrical make-believe he’s involved in.
Ernie’s parents emigrated from Italy to Hamden, Connecticut, where Ernie was born on January 24, 1917. That Italian heritage has always been part of Ernie’s magic. His mother took him back to Italy when he was two, but several years later they returned to Connecticut, this time New Haven, where he completed his education through high school.
From high school he went into the Navy, starting out at the bottom. Rising through the ranks to come out ten years later as a Gunner’s Mate 1st Class. He rode destroyers and was well liked and respected by his shipmates. The sincerity was already there.
He knew he wanted to be an actor, and enrolled in the Randall School of Dramatic Arts in Hartford. From there, he broke into the professional ranks at the famous Barter Theatre in Virginia, where he painted scenery and drove a truck as well as acted.
When he made his Broadway debut as the hospital attendant in Harvey, his career was officially underway. He made a motion picture with the famed Louis de Rouchemont, Whistle at Eaton Falls. Then, still in New York, he did over 200 live television performances including such masterworks as G. E. Theatre and Philco Playhouse.
He played a brilliant part in the film From Here To Eternity, as the brutal stockade Sergeant, Fatso Judson, and went on to become famous around the world for his Oscar-winning portrayal of the Bronx butcher, Marty. Since then he has done dozens of films. Some of his favorites include The Catered Affair with Bette Davis and the classic Bad Day at Black Rock.
McHale’s Navy, in the sixties, set a standard for broad comedy and ensemble work that led to many other series in the same genre. Later, as Dominic Santini on Airwolf for three seasons, Ernie brought a reality to his role that few actors could equal. In the 90’s he added his own brand of humor as the doorman in The Single Guy.
His staggering number of outstanding film roles, now close to 200, has made him something of an icon in the motion picture community. Reading titles like Bad Day At Black Rock, The Vikings, Torpedo Run, Ice Station Zebra, Wild Bunch, Flight Of The Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen, and The Poseidon Adventure give only a sample of the dozens of films Ernie has starred in.
In the animation field he can be heard on the hit children’s TV series based on the animated feature All Dogs Go To Heaven II for which he was nominated for an Emmy. And he has a recurring role on the Saturday morning hit SpongeBob Square Pants.
For twenty-five years he went to Milwaukee for his annual appearance as a clown in the biggest circus parade in the world.
He launched his eighties by portraying the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, in a one-man feature motion picture, Hoover. He followed that with appearances on JAG, Early Edition, Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched By An Angel, 7th Heaven, Family Law, and The District.
In 2002 he celebrated his continuing good health by mounting a horse to ride in the western feature, Long Ride Home. In 2004, at 87 years young, Ernie guest-starred on a Hallmark Channel western, Trail of Hope Rose, in which he drove a team of horses. For this role he received the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 2005 he was featured in an Adam Sandler picture, Strange Wilderness. Turning ninety, he starred in another Hallmark Channel movie, Grandpa For Christmas, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He immediately got up on another horse for his role in Aces ‘N Eights, on the ION Channel. In 2009 he appeared on the final episodes of the legendary NBC series ER, for which he has been nominated for an Emmy®. Yet he still finds time to promote the recent release of his legendary McHale’s Navy out on DVD.