In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I would like to share with you my film Keeping the Dream Alive for the first time ever online.  The film is about the great Martin Luther King Jr. as told through the real life story of Reverend Gilbert H. Caldwell of Asbury Park, NJ.  Rev. Caldwell was a personal friend of the late Martin Luther King Jr, and is the most inspiring person I’ve ever met.  He is a self-described “segregation survivor” and an advocate of everything Dr. King believed in.  The film is takes you on a first-person ride from the beginning stages of the Civil Rights movement to the election of President Obama, which the reverend said “was made possible by Martin King and the justice movement.”

The film was actually completed over two years ago and was released in various local venues, but here it is for the first time ever online for you to enjoy for free, and what better day to release it than on MLK day.

Watch the film here.

Amazing people worked on this film years ago…

I feel compelled to share with you my latest documentary short film about two incredible sailors with olympic dreams. Peet Must and Carl Horrocks have been sailing and training all over the world on a sailing campaign to get to the 2012 olympic games. They are on the US Sailing Team Alphagraphics (USSTAG) which is the sailing team that actually sends the top USA boat to the olympics. We were able to catch up with them during a training day back home at Toms River Yacht Club in NJ. I’m happy to have been a part in their journey.

My objectives for this film were to take these two sailors and put their journey into perspective, as well as to reveal a little taste into what olympic sailing is all about. They have been training so hard for two years now, and this film reveals what they have been working on over the past few years.
I’d like to say that this film showcases two sailors in a way that hasn’t ever been done before. I shot the whole thing with the RED one digital cinema camera, and we used a variety of really cool techniques to capture the footage. Filming the 49er sailboat is one of the hardest things to do. They are both incredibly talented, and they just fly across the water. The 49er is by far the most competitive high-performance sailing in the world.

I am really proud of my team that help me put this all together, and I couldn’t have done it without any of them.
Let me just list the credits here, because they all worked very hard, and I really appreciate all of the time they put in on this project. Putting this film together was no easy task.
Director and Producer
Justin J. Chando
Executive Producer
Jeff Mack
Editing
Justin Chando
Jeff Mack
Colorist
John Cappuccino
Original Score
Frank Watkoskey (how about that music? completely original..all written from scratch for this film)
Sound Engineer
Jon Lynch
Director of Photography
Justin J. Chando
1st Assistant Camera / DIT
Khan Kwon
Motion Graphics
Kyle Gallagher
Special Thanks
Mr. and Mrs. Must
Mr. and Mrs. Horrocks
Walter Matthew Marvin
Silvio DeCristofano
US Sailing Team Alphagraphics
Toms River Yacht Club

By the way, please check out Team Barnegat Bay’s sailing campaign at www.barnegatbay49er.com.  I hope you enjoy the film.