---

In Tonight And Every Night, a 22-minute short, filmmaker Christine Eliopoulos presents a personal and hopeful reflection inspired by her father’s own battle with dementia.

Dementia is a disease that affects an estimated 5.5 million people across the nation; 5.3 million of them over the age of 65, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Joe Cortese portrays 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 a 6-year-old boy portrayed by Azhy Robertson.

Cortese, a veteran film and stage actor, is most known for a range of roles, including as Rasmussen in American History X with Edward Norton to Sarni in Lucky Town with James Caan and Kirsten Dunst.

“I loved that the subject matter was so personal,” said Cortese. “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.”

Filmed primarily in Asbury Park and now headed to feature length production, a debut city benefit screening will be held 7:30 p.m. Sunday at The ShowRoom Cinema. A panel discussion with the filmmaker and stars will follow.

New Jersey Natural Gas is sponsoring the screening, being held in conjunction with a special future master class to be administered by the filmmakers to Asbury Park students, Eliopoulos said.

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.

The film’s lyrical storytelling, visual metaphors, cinematography and pacing, was lensed by cinematographer Russell Swanson, with Jersey-based producer Elizabeth Kinder serving as Executive Producer. City resident Kerry Margaret Butch, who has collaborated with Eliopoulos on several New Jersey-themed documentaries, served as co producer.

Proceeds from the benefit screening will support the remaining festival run, through collaboration with fiscal sponsor – the New York Women in Film & Television [NYWIFT]. The nonprofit supports and promotes the work of women directors and storytellers, provides training and professional development, and advocates for equality in the entertainment industry.

Tickets are $14, available at The Showroom box office at 707 Cookman Avenue or via the website. For more information about the film, visit tonightandeverynight.com.

———————————————————–

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

---