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Tonight And Every Night – a film about the power of love over dementia, will make its debut April 2 at the Garden State Film Festival in Atlantic City. 

Written and directed by Asbury Park native Christina Eliopoulos, the short film is a return home [of sorts] for the local filmmaker and its star, veteran screen and stage actor Joe Cortese [below right].

Inspired by her father’s own battle with dementia, the 22-minute short film traces the unlikely friendship that develops after an elderly man, who has wandered away from home, comes to the aid of a lost and lonely boy.

The film was shot along Asbury Park’s waterfront, downtown and residential streets, as well as at the Spring Lake Theatre, Eliopoulos said. And while production wrapped by mid September, its debut screening will be among those that made the cut in time for the 15th annual event.

“It was important to get it out there as soon as possible,” Eliopoulos said.

The story is a personal reflection, with Cortese portraying Yianni, the star and host of a talk show that plays in his ‘beautiful but fractured mind,’ Eliopoulos said. On one fateful day, Yianni wanders out of his house and befriends Boss, portrayed by 6-year-old Azhy Robertson.

“I loved that the subject matter was so personal,” Cortese said in a written statement. “The director entrusted me to play her father, a man she loved very much who was stricken with this disease. I felt I knew this man. He seemed like my own father, a hard-working son of immigrants, who put his family first and made his own success.

“Once I read the script, I was all in,” he said. “This issue is so prevalent and so central to our society. I felt an obligation to bring this character to life. And for me, it is the most inspiring and challenging role I have ever done.”

Known roles ranging from Rasmussen in American History X with Edward Norton to Sarni in Lucky Town with James Caan and Kirsten Dunst, Cortese said in a video interview with Ken Barrows [shown below], the independent film captures a very prevalent subject matter.

“There’s a through line here,” he said. “Basically not only this movie but in life, at the end, is basically about love and pretty much nothing too much more.”

Eliopoulos uses the television screen as a metaphor to convey the past and present, the real and the imagined, the rational mind and the troubled mind. Stardom and fandom are co-mingled, she said

“It’s a window into the mind,”  she said. “ We all tell ourselves stories and create little myths to soothe our troubled conscience. The Yianni character looks for solace in a bright and happy world inside his mind. In his imagined world, he is viral and powerful. He is a star.”

The metaphor is a reflection of an all too real reality – television becoming a best friend, sometimes the only friend, for the elderly and homebound, Cortese said.

“I grew up watching Johnny Carson,” he said. “The TV, the talk show, became Yianni’s way of relating to the world and to his life. It’s so sad, to think of Yianni in a dark room, with just the clicker and the TV. He doesn’t recognize his family, so that’s all he’s got left.”

But with the chance encounter, “Yianni is finally able to offer help, to offer safety, to express love, and that’s the miracle of the story and the miracle of life – the power of love,” Cortese said.

Eliopoulos [below right] is a music video director who has produced an array of doc shorts and brand films in partnership with Waif & Stray/Free Market Films. Her first doc feature, Greetings From Asbury Park spotlighted eminent domain’s affect on a family and a small town. It premiered on PBS in May 2009.

She was named a finalist in the 2015 Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Competition and won first prize in the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest for her King of Florida – a coming of age story set in a Greek sponge diving community in Depression era Florida.

With Demon on Wheels, a 2015 documentary about an old hot rodder, his woman and the 1968 resto-Mod Mustang that comes between them, Eliopoulos once again chose Asbury Park as the backdrop. 

For Cortese, who has been coming to the area since he was a child, participation in the film was a special homecoming, he said.

“My first lead in a movie was in 1976 [The Death Collector w/ Joe Pesci] and filmed here in New Jersey,” he said. “Here I am 40 years later, in another leading role. My body might have been in Los Angeles, but Jersey is my home and my first love.”

For additional information about the film and the cast and crew, visit the films website and Facebook page.

[Photos courtesy of Christina Eliopoulos]

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