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God on the Street
TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Post-Production
LOGLINE
A woman travels across the country asking strangers to describe their relationship with God—without discussing religion. Encouraged by their surprising stories about everything from war to addiction to art, she confronts the truth about what has led her on the journey.
SYNOPSIS
A woman travels across the country asking strangers to describe how they experience spirituality in their everyday lives, without discussing religious practices. She meets accountants and artists, veterans, teachers, and taxi drivers. Together, their stories create a path of radical compassion that leads her to overcome her deepest fears.
God on the Street shows us that we can choose to experience life as beautiful, even the most painful parts. This is filmmaking as spiritual practice.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Lots of people say they are spiritual but not religious. What does that mean? How can we talk about our spiritual lives without discussing religion and politics? What can we learn from our shared vulnerability? My own desperation and search for connection was the impetus for these questions. I started out wandering the streets, looking for signs. This seeking, camera in hand, became a kind of meditation. Eventually, I got the courage to start conversations with strangers, aiming to collect stories about how facets of everyday life can be deeply spiritual. I thought I was doing research. I had no idea how these chance encounters would change my life, and that I'd become willing to share my own story.
KEY CREW
Lisa Jan Fogel - Director, Producer, Cinematographer
Brooklyn-born first-time filmmaker L.J. marries directing and producing experience with a career in multi-platform storytelling. She enjoys the challenge of real-world situations, the intimacy that can take place between strangers, and the adventure of not knowing what the outcome will be. L.J. naturally elicits vulnerability and genuine conversation in her interviews, engaging participants from all walks of life with humor and grace. She is surprised to be a long-time resident of Los Angeles, where she insists on traveling by foot. The goal of all of her work is to generate compassion.
Marinna Guzy - Editor, Co-Producer
Marinna is a writer, editor and sound artist. She has produced video for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Focal Press, and the Nature Conservancy. She was a 2017 Sundance screenwriting finalist for her script Beneath the Steeple. Marinna has taught sound design collaboration at her alma mater Savannah College of Art and Design. Works at the Intersection of art and ecology She is a published poet and expert cat photographer.
Colin Lechner - Sound Designer, Re-Recording Mixer
Colin has over a decade of experience in audio design across a range of genres. Most recently, he was sound supervisor and re-recording mixer on David Lynch-executive produced feature The Other Me and sound editor of documentary Rebel Hearts, which will premiere in the 2021 Sundance US documentary competition. He was sound supervisor and re-recording mixer on documentary Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time. He has also worked on the action-adventure feature Fantasy Island, short thriller Panda and the environmental documentary Nutria: The Other White Meat. Colin is also a talented sound artist and mandolin performer who grew up touring the U.S. in a bluegrass band with his siblings.
Miriam Mayer - Composer
An experienced and versatile composer, Miriam Mayer assisted 5-time Oscar-winner John Williams on many of his classic scores including Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars The Phantom Menace, and Catch me if You Can. Her violin and viola grace several hundred film scores, including Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino’s scores to Ratatouille and Up, and the award-winning feature documentary Knots, about child marriage. Miriam is the winner of Best Music Score at the Overcome Film Festival and Best Music at the Indie Horror Festival. Her compositions are often heard on television shows including This is Us, Chelsea, Halt and Catch Fire, and Rupaul’s Drag Race. She is a voting member of the EMMYS Television Academy. Miriam is a native of Los Angeles and is currently the worst surfer on Malibu beach.
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