Robert Vaughn best known for his role in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. co-stars with writer, director, and actress Victoria Negri in her debut film.
Gold Star is a semi-autobiographical 87-minute film about Vicki, a twenty-something daughter who drops out of music school in New York City to return to her hometown in Connecticut and her first music teacher, her aging father who suffered a massive stroke.
Spanning the generations, Gold Star touches Millennials and Baby Boomers as they balance work, school, friends, and life with serving as family caregivers for the Greatest Generation. A deeply insightful film with camera close-ups giving viewers access to the minds of the characters.
Two things make this caregiving feature film different among those told primarily by the boomer generation. First, it offers a realistic perspective of a smartphone-limbed Millennial struggling with what’s important in her life. Second, it poignantly portrays the struggle of a young person caring for her aging father (starring Robert Vaughn) who was 65 years old when she was born.
As often is the case, trying to balance life and caregiving, changes a person. And Vicki emerges transformed on many levels.
In her Director’s statement, she adds details about Carmine, her father, who was born in 1924. After his first wife died, he and his art student (Vicki’s mother) fell in love. Although her mom was 37 years younger, Victoria writes in an email, “I’ve never seen two people more in love. The way she cared for him his entire life was remarkable. He was a great father as well.” She writes, “I have difficulty explaining what it was like to have a father [who] was older than my mom’s parents and different than all the other dads. Yes, he ran a marathon at 63, but he developed Parkinson’s before I turned 20 and passed away [at age 88] in November of 2012 from complications of a stroke and pneumonia.”
The feature film is complete but not yet released. Its world premiere debut was last week at the Buffalo International Film Festival.
Victoria Negri is unafraid of unveiling the complexities of a young daughter’s heart. Bringing in the camera close, the viewer feels the tender emotions of a daughter who tries to be there for her father and her mother while figuring out her own life. By email she admits she’s not perfect. As she’s losing her father, this passion-filled writer, director, and actress is helping bring greater awareness of the diverse families who care for loved ones while trying to care for themselves. And in doing so she discovers she’s far more like her father than she may admit!
Some caregivers write books (I did), others speak (I did). Vicki Negri writes, acts, and directs a film in her mid-twenties. WOW!
With Robert Vaughn’s star power, we’re likely to see a lot more about Gold Star in the months to come.
View by clicking video below.
Or click to view the Gold Star Teaser Trailer on YouTube.
Vicki invites all who are interested to sign up at Gold Star for updates on the film.
For more, read Scott Feinberg’s Awards Chatter article at the Hollywood Reporter and listen to a podcast interview with Robert Vaughn.
Awww, this is truly sad news.
Robert Vaughn passed away today (11/11/2016) from acute leukemia only 11 days before his 84th birthday.