A couple argues violently at home, with physical contact seemingly on the verge of escalating into someone getting seriously hurt.
The camera then reveals their two children on the couch–an older brother wearing headphones to drown out the sounds of verbal and possible physical abuse. He in turn has his hands cupped around his younger sister’s head to protect her from hearing any more than she already has to endure.
A voiceover relates, “For children in crisis, this isn’t a commercial. It’s their lives. that’s why we’re here–Gateway.
An end tag carries Gateway’s web address, gway.org.
Gateway is the oldest social service agency in Birmingham, Alabama, established as the Mercy Home in 1891 by a dozen women who recognized that there were people in their community that needed help–and that no one else was providing it. Fast forward to today and Gateway recognizes that people still need help and provides counseling, intervention, education, prevention, and foster care, all to meet its mission, which is to preserve, strengthen and enrich family life.
Laura Belsey of Shadow Pictures directed “Headphones” and two other PSAs in the campaign for agency O2 Ideas, Birmingham.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More