The Edge of Reality –
A Movie to Change Lives
See the movie at the
or from the Appleton Post Crescent
Neenah High School seniors Ben, Eric, Laura, Lucy, and Julie, are having
the best times of their lives. They are finishing high school, planning
their career paths, and enjoying the friendships they have grown
throughout their years in Neenah. Everything changes one night after
making poor decisions about drinking alcohol. The Neenah students soon
discover that they are living a new reality.
In 2008, Ron Haese directs his fifth and BEST film dealing with Drinking
& Driving. “This film captures everything; the emotion, the characters,
and your heart. Once again, we have caught lightning in a bottle. This
is the best film I have done to date.” Along with Producers (Diane
Doersch and Vicki Bayer), and Associate Producer Ruth Melzer, and the
assistance of Chad Buboltz (NHS Teacher) the film took eight months to
script and shoot and two months in post production. The film was
inspired by the death of Robert Melzer, Neenah Joint School District
employee, by a drunken driver and the wife of Associate Producer Ruth
Melzer.
Click here to
order.
Click here to go the the Student Web Page
The
film follows a similar project done by Kiel High School students
one year ago. Vicki Bayer, Neenah Student Assistance Program Coordinator,
and Diane Doersch, Computer Applications Teacher, attended a conference
where a Kiel High School film about drunk driving was shown and
discussed. They brought the idea back to Neenah High School
administration and a small group of Neenah High School students. The
Neenah students were excited to create a film that would spread their
message of student responsibility and
the impact of negative choices regarding alcohol.
The film was directed by Ron Haese, Video/Multimedia Producer at
Lakeshore Technical College. “The Edge of Reality” is not Haese’s first
experience with films regarding the topic of alcohol and poor choices.
In 2004 he directed “Think Twice” in Mishicot, In 2006 he directed and
co-wrote, “What You Never Dream” in Kiel, along with the Two Rivers
project, “Consequences” and in 2007 he wrote and directed the film
“Forever Changed" in Sheboygan Falls.
Haese is an independent filmmaker from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, who has
written and directed 45 feature films and produced over 500
documentaries. He has received twelve National Film awards for his work
including five for previous drinking and driving awareness films.
Haese is currently working on several films for the film festival
circuit.
The impact can be found in the comments submitted, following the first
week of student and community presentations:
“I think the movie was very important. I have friends/boyfriend that
drinks a lot and now I’m not letting them anymore. It was so sad. I
don’t want that to happen.”
“I believe that this message will set aside other beliefs that people
formally had about drinking. It was much more effective than having a
speaker or people lecturing.”
“It was sad, but I think people will really learn from this movie. It
was a really powerful message, and it definitely made me think twice
about getting into a car with a drunk driver.”
“I think it was a big wake up call for the whole school whether they
drink or not, and that it helped me realize that something like this can
happen to anyone, even in the small city of Neenah.”
STUDENT REACTION
• "It really hit home for a lot of people. It needed to be that extreme
for people to get (the message)," Anna Marsicek, Neenah sophomore
• "This could be a turning point for a lot of people, like a 2-by-4 on
the back of the head. It will hit you and you'll realize what's going
on," John Burr, Neenah sophomore
• "It's more of an issue than anyone realizes," Victoria Marrazzo,
Neenah senior
• "I was amazed by how well they acted. It was really meaningful,"
Allison Kronberg, Neenah sophomore
• "Was any of it real? I seriously thought half the stuff they had was
real," Sam Wittchow, Neenah sophomore
Links to visit: Post Crescent Post Crescent MySpace Student Site
2009 Haese Films, LTD Contact Haesefilms
