Filmmaker Alice Stone Returns to "The South End Writes" With an Update on Her Documentary, "Angelo Unwritten" Tuesday June 11 at 6:30 PM
South End filmmaker Alice Stone will present what may be the final installment of her feature-length documentary, "Angelo Unwritten," on Tuesday, June 11 at 6:30 PM at the South End Library. Examining the complicated path of a Latino youngster, Angelo, who is placed in foster care with a Caucasian couple at age 12 , the film puts a compelling spotlight on what goes into the making of a family in the context of foster care. The focus has been on his biological family who couldn't care for him, the social workers who defended Angelo's interests as they saw it, and the fiercely loyal foster parents who often groped in the dark for the right answers on how to raise Angelo. In that, most parents viewing the movie will find kinship with those who loved, cared for and were exasperated by Angelo.
Stone's 2012 video clips told the tale of of Angelo having been removed from his foster home at age 17, after the teen had started getting into trouble. The foster parents asked for a routine five-day respite, but it turned into a seven-month separation, against their wishes. Angelo since rejoined his foster parents but, at age 18, is no longer technically in their custody. Nevertheless, they are trying to become a family again. The documentary will follow the family as Angelo makes his way toward high school graduation this year. A Boston Globe's reviewer of last year's video clip of Angelo Unwritten described it as "a not uncommon tale of a child adopted out of foster care who runs into a host of difficulties growing up. The film so far is crisply edited and deeply felt, but this is just a nine-minute snippet of what looks like an epic tale that will no doubt be challenging to put together." Filmmaker Stone recently raised funds through Kickstart for this documentary.
Alice Stone graduated from Harvard College and made the 1994 short film about women motorcyclists, She Lives to Ride. She created a reality television series, Ding Dong Feng Shui, and has written and directed four comedy shorts, two of which continue to screen at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA. The author of four screenplays, Stone co-wrote and edited the documentary feature, Goodbye Baby (New Day Films), about international adoption from the Guatemalan perspective, and edited the feature, No Turning Back, about a human rights activist. She began her career editing political music videos for Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne and others, and was an assistant editor on The Silence of the Lambs and The Crucible, among other projects.
The next and final reading of the 2012/2013 South End Writes season is Tuesday, June 18, 6:30 p.m. when Philip Gambone, the South End author of Travels in a Gay Nation; Beijng: a Novel; and The Language We Use Up Here, will present his most recent work-in-progress, As Far As I Can Tell: Tracing the World War II Route of My Father Across Europe. Gambone has just returned from his third trip to Europe shadowing the footsteps of his father who never spoke about his war experience.