Local Filmmaker Launches the Long Island International Film Expo

   North Massapequa Filmmaker Rick Bieber's new movie "The 5th Quarter" opened the Long Island International Film Expo last week. The film is based on the true story of Jon Abbate who helps lead his Wake Forest college football team to victory in the ACC championship after losing his brother Luke in a  car accident.

"A terrible tragedy pulls family, school, community together to achieve more then they could have imagined. It's a very moving and emotional story," Bieber said.

In Luke's memory, the team called each "4th Quarter" "The 5th Quarter" in honor of Luke's football jersey number 5. "Jon would raise five fingers to his parents at every game," Bieber said. "His parents who were sitting in section five would also raise their fingers." The tradition spread throughout the Wake Forest community and the football program, long considered one of the weakest in the Atlantic Coast Conference, became one of the best.

While Bieber himself could not attend the opening night, also the film's first world premier, he said in a telephone interview "when a festival has very good content as this one does and is well promoted an important cultural event for the region. Often times festivals help to define a town or city and become a cultural landmark LIIFE is on its way to doing that.... it's a unique cultural experience and brings in interesting and talented people."

The movie's music composer Andy Mendelson, was on hand to talk about the soundtrack for the film, which may said underscored and added to the powerful emotional performances in the film. This was the first time he had seen the fully edited film. "It was quite an experience... I felt very powerful" Mendelson said."I thought it was reaching people emotionally, and that's the appeal of the movie... it has a tremendous amount of emotional resonance".

Mendelson said he worked closely with Bieber to determine the pace of the music in each scene. "The more scenes I saw, the more clips I saw, I felt that it was very genuinely done. The performances felt very real to me, so it made the musical end of it a lot easier."

Bieber says "The 5th Quarter" will be marketed and distributed in the fall.

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