www.1440andCounting.com Written and Directed by Tony Gapastione Starring: Loretta Devine and Jeremy Ray Valdez Produced by Ola Pojda Cinematography by Matthew Mayotte Logline A burned-out teacher is one day away, fourteen hundred and forty minutes from retirement when she is confronted by a desperate man from her past. When she discovers a beloved student of hers is in danger, her life is turned upside down within minutes. Synopsis Mrs. Debra Nickel is packing up her classroom, and her life dedicated to an urban Northern California community. She’s been at the same elementary school for forty-three years, tirelessly serving for forty-three years. She sacrificed day after day to give her neighborhood kids the love and attention they deserve. But she's worn, and her time has come, so she thinks, to an end. She’s one day away, 1440 minutes (the number of minutes in one twenty-four hour period) from retiring and moving out of the area. But things don't go as planned. Jose, currently on parole, found himself backed into a corner. He has no where to go. Jose and Mrs. Nickel go way back, and now he is on parole, but has found himself backed in a corner. He has come to beg her to do the one thing he can’t do for himself: take care of his son, Jesse. Jesse lives with a foster family, and Jose has uncovered some secrets that Jose has no power to change. Jose confronts Mrs. Nickel to decide the fate of her son, which would change her future. What will she decide? How will that impact Jesse? What will become of Jose? This may be a short film, but 1440 and Counting is an intense drama that points out that the line between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” isn’t always clear, and our life's impact isn't always instantly revealed. Sometimes the results of our giving take decades, even a lifetime to come to life, and everything can change within minutes, but every minute is worth something.

Some cool clips w/ Wynona Ryder and Michael Dorn (who played Warf on Star Trek the Next Generation).

Clips and Snippets of some of my film work (part one).