Our award winning short film Turning Blue is based on a true story. In 2018, myself, my wife Dana, and her 83-year-old mother Carol traveled 2500 miles in an RV to our new home in Northeast Ohio. Five days after arriving in Cleveland, Carol passed away. Carol had fulfilled a dying wish; to make it to their new home and their new life together.  

Carol had been battling terminal COPD and Congestive Heart Failure for over three years. Dana acted as her full-time caregiver during that time. With the help and guidance of amazing palliative and hospice nurses, she learned every facet of how to care, treat, and tend to her mother. Many times, my wife had to make life and death medical decisions for Carol.  

She made a promise to Carol that she would see it through with her to the bitter end. That is what she did. Carol brought her daughter into the world, and Dana would now help her mother leave it.

​Turning Blue centers around her final hours, and a daughter's struggle with accepting the inevitable. It stars the wonderful Kathleen Chalfant, who was the National Society of Film Critics 2025 WINNER for Best Actress for her performance in, Familiar Touch.

If anyone is interested, it's now available to watch for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec5A-_Ilrnc

Dana and I make films about the nature of empathy, centering around elder care and elder abuse. Our new film, Magan's Fare is about a ride share driver thrown into a moral dilemma when he takes a woman back to her facility but the facility has given up her bed. It's won awards at major festivals, including the Oscar Qualifying St Louis Int FF, which makes the film eligible for submission to the 2027 Academy Awards. Magan's Fare is the second film in a collection of shorts we are doing about patient dumping. The first film, Involuntary can be seen on our website. https://www.chrisdanafilms.com/involuntary

Please watch our films. You are all heroes!

Best,

Chris and Dana