A story of the resilience of the human spirit, and the courageous ways of the heart to heal,
this film shines a light on the pain that is part and parcel of being human and alive.“I think of ‘Morning’ as a love story; a love story between a man and a woman
who happen to be husband and wife.”— Leland Orser
Synopsis
Five days in the life of an American couple immediately following the accidental death of their child. An every day story of tragedy, loss, acceptance, hope and renewal. Morning follows the divergent paths of Mark and Alice Munroe as they circle each other in a heart-breaking pas-de-deux of grief before finally coming to grips with their shared loss.
About the Production
Morning began as a short film of the same name which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and won acclaim on the festival circuit. The short followed the life one character in the aftermath of a tragedy. Leland Orser, writer, director and actor of the short then decided to expand that story into a feature film and tell it from multiple additional perspectives.
“The short tells the story of one man. The movie tells the story of that same man and his wife,” describes Orser. Commenting on the sparse dialogue and highly emotional feel, he says, “Minimalism was my rule on this film.”
The film, which deals with the loss of a child was very difficult to make. Orser says, “The film was made on a very limited budget. Everybody worked for practically nothing. They all came to the project because they had a strong reaction to the script and they believed in me. I was reassured and overwhelmingly touched by that but also felt an enormous responsibility to live up to their commitment and their confidence.”
On the short and intense production experience(the film was shot in 21 days) Orser says, “It’s an exciting and invigorating way to work. It’s exhausting and nearly killed all of us but, you know, you find out who you are making a movie this way.”
Producer, Todd Traina, weighs in: “Leland and I grew up together in San Francisco. We went to the same grammar school and the same college. We’ve been friends a long time and I’ve always admired his acting. We’d been wanting to work together forever and when he gave me the script of Morning, I fell in love with it. I had always wanted to work with both Leland and Jeanne and the fact that he had managed to write something that was truly beautiful and challenging and artistic allowed us the perfect oppurtunity. When you make a project on this scale, you have to call in a lot of favors and rely so much on the help of friends and family. Leland and I collaborated heavily on this and together were able to bring so many great people on board.”