The heartwarming holiday film Heart Full of Hope, produced by Nicole Mendez, executive director of the Mendez National Institute of Transplantation Foundation  (MNITF) and Suzanne DeLaurentiis, has just wrapped production. The latest co-production from MNITF and Suzanne DeLaurentiis Productions will be released on all major streaming platforms in mid-November 2025.

Taking place in the small town of Willow Creek, the film is the story of sisters Whitney and Lynette Walker, who share an unbreakable bond. Whitney, a determined woman in her 30s, refuses to let renal kidney failure stop her from earning a college degree, while her lively and devoted younger sister Lynette is always by her side. But beneath Lynette’s unwavering support, she quietly struggles with the pain of knowing she isn’t a match to be Whitney’s kidney donor.

The film stars Chelsea Rose Cook, Juliah Cheree Taylor and Sebastian Armani, is written by Tricia Aurand, and directed by Dale Fabfigar.

“We were thrilled to work with such a gifted ensemble of talented people whose contributions not only provided exceptional entertainment for audiences, but also effectively elevated awareness for this important cause," says Nicole Mendez.

Last year's production of The Christmas Chain was a major streaming success. A special ‘Christmas in July’ social media campaign designed to promote kidney disease awareness will be launched this July.  A Heart Full of Hope will be released in mid-November.  

MNITF will hold its annual star-studded holiday gala fundraiser on November 2nd in Beverly Hills, California. 

Recently, the film's official music video by ZupaNova featuring Young Retro was unveiled.  https://youtu.be/5J1UxAgxDjs

The Mendez National Institute of Transplantation Foundation (MNITF) is a public nonprofit dedicated to the mission of advancing the science and practice of organ transplantation and end-stage organ disease therapies through research, education, and innovation. http://mnitf.org

Photos Courtesy of Suzanne DeLaurentiis Productions.

Luci Lenox is an award-winning casting director based in Spain with a diverse professional background and international experience. She has cast over 100 productions for clients such as Netflix, Amazon, MediaPro and various Spanish independent producers, and her work has resulted in over 250 awards at international film festivals. In addition to her work as a casting director, Luci is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in the industry and has served on the board of the CSA and the diversity and inclusion committees for both the CSA and APDICE. She is also a member of the Catalan and European Film Academies, CSA, ICDN, and APDICE, and has participated in panels and juries at film festivals such as Sitges, the London Film Festival, and Cannes. Luci's passion for her work as a casting director is evident in her commitment to finding and supporting talented actors from around the world.

Can you speak about how you became a casting director? Was it always something you wanted to do?

LUCI: Casting basically found me rather than it ever being part of my life plan.  I’d worked in many different jobs and then got a job in production at a Catalan production company, and I met Pep Armengol, an amazing casting director and he needed someone who spoke English for a job so I assisted him.  I discovered a job that was absolutely perfect for me and then one job led to another and then another and twenty-five years later I still love my job and find it interesting and challenging. 

You are originally from Ireland but now live in Spain. How did you end up there? And can you speak about the Spanish film industry niche you have found there? 

LUCI: I am very much a product of my time and generation.  I studied Spanish at university and spent a year abroad in Barcelona which was a life-changing experience. This was back in the 80s and Barcelona was just getting ready for the Olympics and was full of opportunities and I met an amazing range of people.  Then when I graduated there was a world-wide recession and I struggled to find a job so decided to move back to Barcelona for a while until the economy improved mainly because a friend offered me an apartment for a very cheap rent, which is ironic given the current housing crisis.  I never planned on spending my whole life here but here I still am.  

LUCI CONT’D: The Spanish film industry has grown from strength to strength and just keeps getting better.  I’ve been extremely lucky to have been a part of this positive growth.  So many international productions have chosen to shoot in Spain, and I have definitely been in the right place at the right time. I love that I’ve been able to work with auteur filmmakers like Juanma Bajo Ulloa as well as for almost all the major studios and platforms and have been involved in the casting of productions from not only the States but also Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, the UK, etc.  who have all shot here. 

What do you find most challenging about being a casting director?  

LUCI: The most challenging part for me is the best part that every project presents a new set of challenges that have to resolved.  Every role is a challenge.  The only thing I find challenging in a negative way is managing the fact that we continually break actors’ hearts.  Every actor who casts would love the role a

Another Simple Favor, Review: Hope, Charity, Faith and the other ‘f’ word forever

An author who writes reality fiction and has a huge following on her ‘Moms’ social platform; she spills the beans on a gym instructor at a school, who films his children in the buff; he shoots and kills himself; she also provides material in her next book on a woman who, she says, murdered her sister; she sleeps with her half-brother; she has an obese black woman as an publishing agent who does very little besides drinking bottles and bottles of wine; she is separated from her husband and has custody of her child, yet she sleeps around, and her son talks to her about it; the woman, who went to jail based on her exposé, arrives suddenly at her current book launch, released on bail, and invites her to her wedding, which will take place in lush Capri, Italy; the woman is also a sex maniac and earlier worked in a bar as a sex worker; her husband-to-be is a Mafia boss in Capri, but when the author googles his name, she finds nothing about him; the author agrees to be her bridesmaid, though she has some fear that the woman might kill her for exposing her murderous act; the Mafia boss has a rival, but there is a delicate truce between the two Mafias, and the boss of the other Mafia comes to the wedding, but will not allow the author to take pictures of him or any of his gang; the bride to be also invites her ex-husband and her child from that marriage is also present; her ex-husband is killed in the bathroom, while being naked and having a shower; more murders follow; a lady FBI agent is tracking the author, though she seems to be a greenhorn in the profession; there is an Italian Police Inspector who believes that the author committed at least one of the murders; she is put in solitary confinement in her hotel room, but manages to escape in the chamber-maid’s cart (shades of Shivaji Maharaj escaping from Aurangzeb’s custody?), in what is supposed to be a comic scene, and is, admittedly, funny, though completely incredible; the mothers of the couple are invited to the wedding, as is the bride’s aunt, a suspicious character; it turns out that the bride was one among triplets, named Hope, Charity and Faith, but charity was supposedly born dead (why do I see Manmohan Desai sitting next to me in the Excel Entertainment preview theatre, and applauding?); no, she wasn’t born dead, it was her aunt, who served as mid-wife, who took her away at birth, to train her in high profile crimes, mainly blackmail and murder; at the wedding, the Mafia boss burns his ‘prenup’ with a cigarette lighter (have no idea what a prenup is? AI to the rescue: A prenup, or prenuptial agreement, is a legal contract signed by a couple before marriage, outlining how their assets, debts, and other financial matters will be handled, if the marriage ends in divorce or death. It essentially provides a framework for dividing property and addressing financial obligations in the event of separation); one of the sisters is dead, allegedly killed by the bride, and another materialises, all-grown-up, with an agenda of her own; the groom has been having a homosexual relationship with his arch-enemy, his rival Mafia boss; everybody uses words related to male and female genitals, breasts, intercourse, fornication, et al, at the drop of a hat; strangely, in a film that has all of the above, there is no nudity, except for the man in the shower, and even there, they refrain from showing his genitals; won’t viewers feel offended if they did; on the contrary, they expect nudity and much more, given the general sexy mounting and the ‘f’ filled dialogue track; the newly discovered Charity is in lesbian love with her twin sister, and they have a lesbian encounter, which saves t

First screening events across the country will take place in San Francisco, Boston, Wichita, and Birmingham

  
When We Arrive As Flowers, Resist: The Resistance Revival Chorus, Loving Town
 

San Francisco IndieFest’s social justice-focused touring film festival Resistance of Vision announced the film lineup for the debut screenings in Boston, Wichita, Birmingham (which also includes a virtual component), and San Francisco next month (May 1-3, 31). In addition to the screenings, each curated event will feature discussions and panels highlighting community organizing efforts in each city hosting the film festival.

The brainchild of San Francisco IndieFest founder/director Jeff Ross, with veteran film curator, documentarian, and cinema exhibition consultant Anna Feder serving as the Director of Programming, the Resistance of Vision film festival kicks off with debut presentations across the country, with screenings taking place in locations on each coast, as well as the Midwest and the South. 

The four short film programs/topics announced for the inaugural festival are Fight The Power (Racial Justice), Our Bodies, Our Choice (Gender and Reproductive Justice), This Is An Emergency (Environmental Justice), and Which Side Are You On? (Labor and Housing Justice). 

Regarding the film selections for the groundbreaking film festival series’ debut, Feder said, “As so many people around the country look to find voice for their grave concerns due to actions taken by the current administration or make some kind of sense out of living within this unprecedentedly frightening political climate, these films and film programs help to articulate that and start vital conversations we need to have to educate and inspire change.” 

Resistance of Vision is committed to showcasing stories of resilience and the fight for liberation that are often excluded by corporate-controlled exhibition channels. 
 

 
Roll Down the Window, They Won’t Call it Murder
 

The Fight The Power (Racial Justice) program includes films looking at intergenerational trauma caused by the Atlantic Slave Trade (Sonia Kennebeck and Tetiana Anderson’s Danielle Scott: Ancestral Call), the sharing of police databases with ICE (Kristal Sotomayor’s Expanding Sanctuary), Alice in Wonderland syndrome as a way to look at the impact of racism (Lipa Hussain’s Roll Down The Window), police immunity from prosecutions over lethal force (Ingrid Raphaël and Melissa Gira Grant’s They Won't Call it Murder), and a black urban farmer building a sustainable food community (Sophie Constantinou’s The Two-Eighty Project).
 

 
Personal Mythologies, Marks of Majesty
 

The Our Bodies, Our Choice (Gender and Reproductive Justice) program includes films that explore the struggles of a small Montana town to support the LGBTQ+ members that live there (Wes Overvold’s Loving Town), the myths and misconceptions about breast cancer (Julia Comita and Stephanie Francis’s Marks of Majesty), and an artist fueling action for women’s rights (Clare Major’s Outcry: Alchemists of Rage). It also includes three films from Susan O’Brien, which look at trans identity via Philippines folklore (Personal Mythologies), using music