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In June of 1960 a volunteer approached a little girl at Miami International Airport and noticed a sign pinned to her dress. It read, "My name is Carmen Gomez. I am five years old. Please be good to me."
Shortly after his 1959 coup, Fidel Castro began nationalizing Cuban industries, closing Catholic schools and churches, and sending children to study on collective farms in the Soviet Union. Desperate parents sent their children to America, unaccompanied, hoping to meet up with them later.
In the course of twenty months between December 26, 1960 and October 23, 1962, over 14,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in Miami from Cuba under the sponsorship of the Catholic Welfare Bureau.
That five-year-old girl left Cuba in one of the world's largest political exoduses of children in history-Operation Pedro Pan. Between 1960 and 1962 more than 14,000 children were sent out of Cuba alone by desperate parents who feared for their children's future under Castro. Unlike Peter Pan, however, these children continued to grow up even while separated from their families.
As the children arrived in temporary camps in Miami, dedicated volunteers such as Father Bryan O. Walsh helped them find new homes across the country. Some would reunite with their families but others were not so lucky.
With major changes in Cuban-American relations occurring at staggering speed for the first time in decades, and the 50th anniversary of Operation Pedro Pan approaching in 2010, the timing is perfect to develop and produce a feature film based on the stories of some of the 14,000 youths who were sent away from Cuba in the early days of Castro by parents – anguished yet hopeful – who believed a better life lay elsewhere for their children even if it meant being separated from them for months, years or forever.
Based on a concept by Academy Award® winning and three times nominated visual effects supervisor Scott Anderson who will direct the movie and the original screenplay by Emmy Award winner Bernie Keating, Me And My Shadow is a high concept feature film incorporating live action and 3-D visual affects. Me And My Shadow is the story of a 12 year old boy who becomes separated from his shadow during an accident. In order for the "Shadow" to re-attach to the boy he must help the boy learn to grow up. In this groundbreaking family film the boy will be played by a live actor and the "Shadow" character will be completely computer generated.
entitled entertainment has optioned the rights to the novel GETTING BLUE by Peter Gethers who has also written the screenplay for the project. Getting Blue follows a young star athlete's search for truth, love and the ultimate baseball moment. Bill Duke is set to direct.
Gethers has written three best-selling non-fiction books including ROTISSERIE LEAGUE BASEBALL and THE CAT WHO WENT TO PARIS which he has adapted for the screen for Tribeca Films.
entitled has optioned the novel THE NEXT RAINY DAY written by Philip David Alexander. The project will serve as James Burke's next directorial effort.
"It's a dark, visceral novel that bores straight into the hearts of its hard-luck characters."
--
Matthew Firth Ottawa Express.
"THE NEXT RAINY DAY could have come from the pen of Russell Banks. Think THE SWEET HEREAFTER. Think AFFLICTION. These are not easy books with simple plotlines or quick moral resolution. THE NEXT RAINY DAY isn't either."
-- Michael Bryson Danforth Review
