From The Heart Productions
Fiscally Sponsored Indie Films and Projects

Twenty years after being stolen, trafficked across the American West, and nearly killed, Arrow is finally saved by Gabriela McAlister, a healer determined to find out who he is and where he came from. When she learns he’s a rare Choctaw Mustang she knows she must reunite him with the man who raised him and who still safeguards this special breed. This is the story of their reunion.

Beyond the Salish Sea: Crude Truth is a cinematic, character-driven documentary about a quiet but serious risk unfolding in one of North America’s most treasured marine ecosystems. On the border between WA state and BC, Canada
For decades, the Salish Sea has been treated as a sanctuary—home to orcas, salmon, Indigenous communities, and coastal towns. But with the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, tanker traffic through these narrow, complex waterways has increased dramatically. Some of this cargo is heavy crude (including diluted bitumen) that behaves very differently from conventional oil in water. Once spilled, it can sink. We do not have a proven way to clean it up.

Light Falling Down, (set in Poland, circa 1942 ) follows the harrowing journey of Ruth, a 16-year-old Jewish girl who finds refuge hiding underground on a farm belonging to Alice, a young Polish woman. Upon her discovery, Ruth and Alice engage in a volatile exchange and form an unlikely and complicated bond. The film is a subjective and surreal; the viewer bears witness to Alice’s mental decline as she harbors a Jewish girl only a few miles from the Treblinka death camp. An intrusive, nosey neighbor’s visit further rattles Alice’s emotional state, leading to a final confrontation with Ruth underground, where dark secrets are revealed.

As 12-year-old Robby Palmer, a boy living with autism, relentlessly pursues his passion for birds, he discovers so much more than anyone anticipated: a lesson in love & loss, and the value of connecting with other people in "Pacific Pilgrimage", a short film adapted from the novel "Sparrow Migrations". The resilience of a rare boy and the wonder of a rare bird make a deeply resonant family drama.
With Pacific Pilgrimage, we want to illustrate the impact of autism on families and showcase female creatives from the Midwest. Cari Noga, the author of Sparrow Migrations, is thrilled to have an all-female team, including a director with a disability, bringing this resilience story to the screen.

The harrowing journey of Afghani translators who risked everything to serve with U.S. troops but were left behind in the aftermath, along with the veterans and volunteers working to get them out alive and resettled in the US.

August 15, 2021, the Taliban seized the Afghan capital in a bloody show of power, creating panic and chaos as they ousted the Afghan government and abruptly ended the American presence in the country. Afghans who served with U.S. troops were instantly in danger, branded as traitors and marked for execution. The Gates of Friendship is the compelling story of the Afghan translators and their families left behind as the United States withdrew, forcing them to flee.

Ukraine is the only country in the world where fetal stem cell therapy is legal and regulated. After curing their first patient of bone marrow failure in 1991 using fetal liver cells, a group of Ukrainian scientists have learned to extract up to 24 different organ types of fetal stem cells and deliver them to patients. Aside from taking a deep dive on the science behind this technology, this story follows patients from the United States who have made the journey to Kyiv, Ukraine to be successfully treated for muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and autism. The Russian invasion has complicated this journey. Eric Merola is the only journalist on earth covering this story.