"Where is the Life we have lost in living?" -
T.S. Elliot
Mr. Elliot, it would be so great to answer: "Hidden inside the art we made."
(bear with us please while we bare some):
The only silver spoon the Giovanis brothers were born with, was in
the restaurant business. By 12 years old they were bussing tables. By 14
they were telling hooligan customers "the bathroom is out of order."
And although they can still make a hell of a pizza; they realized a long
time ago that their true passion is filmmaking.
Evangelos Giovanis was rejected by fancy-pants graduate film schools
George Giovanis has a Master’s Degree in fun, so he did not bother to
apply). In taking the road less traveled by, the Giovanis brothers held
hands and plunged into the cold river of filmmaking - learning to swim
on the job.
For growing pains and what felt like nasty kicks to the groins: they
were conned out of money online for cameras that never arrived (the
internet was new then) – but still, how could you "Blue Eyes?" They
opened, closed and sold restaurants, worked second and third jobs (some
including getting punched in the face!), went bald, lived in 6 different
states, created a love/hate relationship with credit cards - all to
proudly, self finance their films and their dream! Needless to say they
almost bankrupted the family (sorry mom & dad).
Eventually however their socially conscious, award winning, feature
films - that have screened at prestigious festivals around the world and
racked up awards - reminded critics and audiences of early Scorsese,
Tarantino and John Cassavetes.
Our second feature film LAND OF NOD won Best Picture and the Digital
Alexander Award at the prestigious Thessaloniki International Film
Festival. Our third feature RUN IT won the Gold Award for Best Feature
at the Philafilm Festival, Honorable Mention at the Canada International
Film Festival, Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film
Festival, AND Gold Kahuna at the Honolulu International Film Festival.
Our only rule is every film must be better than the last.
That brings us to
BEREAVE, a drama/romance script now starring
MALCOLM MCDOWELL!!!
We have self-financed our films for 12
years now. This project is the next step. We have many people that
believe we are extremely talented, but they will not or cannot finance
us. So what do we do?
Quit? Cry? Roll over? I don't think so!
If you are wondering about our luxurious lifestyles, I drive a used
car that is 16 years old and I share it with my brother. We share a cell
phone. We share a one bedroom apartment. We share our clothes. We share
our laptop - much the same way we share this resolve to make our film.
The biggest reason is we love each other. The other reason is we have
invested our life savings in our art. We certainly have sacrificed and
lead by example. If you invest in us, you are investing in a real
underdog. We don't have the studios backing us up behind the scenes;
that's the bottom line.
We now need a hero (cue the music). But you don't need a costume to help. Just generosity and love of independent films.
Try telling a producer "we don't make movies to make money, we make money to make movies."
Every horror story (creative differences, loss of final cut, casting
decisions etc.) you have heard; is true. Cue the violins, but that seems
to be the nature of the business. But so what? We can change that
together.
You think I'm kidding?
Here is a copy/paste of some of the latest email rejections
& comments from credible producers (some names have been omitted):
"You should stop writing meaningful scripts and
do a horror script or something commercial damn it. Just do one so we
can get our foot in the door." - George Giovanis
Here is another:
Evangelos -
"I took a look at BEREAVE. It was a well written
character piece, but needed a bit more levity brought in. I feel this
would cater to the MARIGOLD HOTEL crowd, but the end also felt a bit too
downbeat to leave you with as good a feeling. I liked the writing, but
felt this would be a bit of an uphill battle commercially speaking for
us.
Thank you for sending this my way and please let me know if you have anything else that would fit our mandate."
Here is another:
"I hope you guys are well. It's been a while since we
last spoke. We have tried on this end to figure out what we can do to
try to get BEREAVE made. There is potential opportunity to get funding
for the film but that would mean that you would have to give up the
position of Director."
So what kind of film do we want to make with BEREAVE you ask?
LOGLINE: Struggling with his own mortality and
unable to reveal this secret to his family, Garvey thinks he has figured
out how to die alone. But when his beloved wife Evelyn goes missing on
their 40th anniversary, he must live to save her! In that short time,
Garvey realizes what life still has to offer.
Here is a peak into the language, into the world of our film, into the mind of GARVEY who speaks to his muse:
"But if you are stubborn and take care
of love constantly, sacrifice your life to it, time will make it so that
people say, ‘he must have been so handsome long ago.’ And you will say
it too. You will stand there like a tourist in the relics of your flesh;
trying to feel love. It will be the strangest, saddest thing."
Sounds interesting? Sounds like something you would watch?
Why stop there?
If you said yes, nodded, or murmured even a small “hmmm,” - help us MAKE this screenplay come to life!
If enough people believe with us and support us; it will happen. We
just need to believe it. More importantly you will help make a great
independent film that producers refuse to finance because it is not
"commercial enough" or it's "artsy."
You will prove to producers and distributors alike, that people still
desire to see films about people; stories that blow up hearts, not
cars. You will also be fighting cancer! Please look at our CANCER STOMP! perk. We intend to DONATE 25% of that perk to an organization for cancer research.

You may know Malcolm from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, HALLOWEEN, THE ARTIST, O LUCKY MAN or another 120 films he starred in!
He has also made over 82 TV appearances in shows such as ENTOURAGE, FRANKLIN & BASH and THE MENTALIST.
Since signing on a few months ago, BEREAVE has
become Malcolm's passion project. We all refuse to quit on this
story. Malcolm loves our vision, our script and believes in it with all
his might - so much so that he has become an Executive Producer and is
invested heart and soul... and then some. He even wishes us to direct
the thing! If you believe in us like he does, we can achieve everything.

There are a lot of difficulties to overcome
when shooting a film. It's impossible to guarantee everything will
happen as smoothly as we wish it to, but in the end, we know we will
make a beautiful film! See you at the movies! We LOVE YOU!