All Emma wants is to be happy,
but she struggles more than most.
Bob Sitzwohl
A Film by
Produced by
Blessing Joao
Claire McConnell is an actor, thinker, and rooftop gardener based in San Francisco.
Claire has acted in lead roles on stage in Arsenic and Old Lace, Feiffer's People, and Mirrors and has directed a UC Davis Classics Festival performance of Plautus' Pot of Gold.
On screen, Claire had a supporting role in the feature film, "I Think It's Raining" directed by Joshua Moore, and stars in Moore's newest film, "Keep A Tidy Soul", which premiered at Entrevues Belfort International Film Festival.
Simple of Heart is the tale of Emma, a woman with Bipolar Disorder, who would rather risk living on the streets and maybe death, than losing her personality to psychotropic medications. Using a stolen camera she explores her life as we follow her journey learning some hard truths about herself.
Diogo Hausen
as
Mike
Diogo was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, grew up in Miami, FL and has been working as an actor and model in San Francisco since 2012. After studying psychology in college, Diogo progressed onto studying Meisner technique with Bay Area Acting Studios and improv with BATS in San Francisco. He also acquired basic utility stunt training through Tony Vella's Beginning Stunt for Film Workshop. Diogo can be seen in various independent short and feature films, commercials, music videos, and even a virtual reality video game. In his free time you can find him playing capoeira, practicing parkour, strumming on his ukulele or somehow doing all of them simultaneously.
Kyle Randall is a professional composer specializing in both concert music (choral, chamber, orchestral, electronic, etc.) and music for media (film, games, dance, theater, etc.). He was recently named a winner of the prestigious American Prize in composition, and a finalist in the Morton Gould ASCAP composition awards. In all of his work, Kyle strives for vividness and sincerity. His music often evokes strong notions of color, motion, and space, and he uses these to create compelling pieces that exist in their own worlds, each with their own character and a strong sense of place. Listeners have commented on Kyle's directness and clarity of expression, and appreciate his readiness to draw on the past as well as the present in his writing, choosing to draw on whichever influences a piece may call for even as he makes it into something of his own.
Kyle Randall
Composer
Blessing Joao is a screenwriter that hails from the utopian/dystopian island of Oahu and is currently enrolled in the Cinema Department of City College San Francisco. She worked on the staff of the creative magazines in some of the schools she attended and had a few pieces published. Her first job out of high school was creating cards for a British greeting card company and as graphic artist at the first LGBT newspaper in Honolulu, THE PAPER. Blessing earned a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She also has an Associate in Science degree. Blessing spent many years as a licensed minister for an interfaith church in Berkeley. In her first film endeavor, Blessing lent her creative input to the 2002 film short, THE LOST LITTLE GIRL OF MANOA VALLEY and produced the film short, THE SOMEONE, which won the Best Sci-Fi award in The Ukrainian International Short Film Festival.
Blessing Joao
Producer
Emma has burned every bridge in her life. Alone and suffering from Bipolar disorder, she is forced to choose between what, in her mind, is a life as a zombie on medications, or risking succumbing to suicide. She examines her life by interviewing people on the street about Bipolar Disorder. Their are many voices, but she is convinced it is worth the risk, even unsupervised, to have a happier, productive life. She doesn't take it seriously, though, until she is reminded how quickly things can be lost.
Drama 16 min. R
Stop the Stigma Againt Mental Illness
© Copyright 2016 Bob Sitzwohl Productions
Bob Sitzwohl
Writer/Director
After twenty-five years as crew in lighting and grip, Bob made his first narrative film, Simple of Heart. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in Film theory and History. He strives to use as many filmic elements as possible to make the story resonate on many levels.
Every frame a pretty picture; every line a tease for the next; every song equal to the action it accompanies; when every element of the film technique is used as a part of the story telling, then the audience can live within the film, beyond the mechanics of watching.
Claire McConnell
as
Emma
It rained three out of four shoot days and one location was torn down within a week of production. The script became very fluid as I threw out two scenes and added one, the thoughts of suicide along the river.