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"The weak and the wounded have a secret power
to touch us, and by opening our hearts to them
we become more human."
Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche communities
("Little places where love is possible.")
"Love the world as a mother loves her only child."
The Buddha
WHY WE CREATED FINAL GIFTS:
We – Neil Selden and wife, Lee-- created Final Gifts because there are so many unknown women in every culture who strive to keep their children and loved ones alive, and who resist injustice and work to nurture life. We wanted to celebrate such women by honoring the stories of two of them.
The films we currently have in pre-production are devoted to truth, justice, and compassion, films that pose questions without easy answers, films that may help us discover the love and courage in ourselves and all human beings, films that may inspire us with the audacity of hope.
We have been inspired by the audacity and compassion of Doctors Without Borders; therefore we are donating ten percent of profits from Final Gifts to that Nobel Prize winning organization.
ABOUT FINAL GIFTS:
In a fictional meeting after death, two women who fought against tyranny in different wars are able for the first time to speak of their sorrows and joys, loves and losses, helping each other heal, and giving us the gift of hope.
Based on historical events and real people, Final Gifts celebrates the love, the courage, the tenderness and compassion of a peasant guerrilla leader in the Salvadoran civil war against a United States-funded fascist army, and a Jewish doctor who tried to save children in the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II, and who served in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis.
After her village was massacred and her older daughter killed by a Reagan-supported government army, the Salvadoran peasant was taken in and kept alive by guerrilla forces in the mountains. Inspired by her first contact with strong women, she became a soldier and leader. Her husband and younger daughter were killed in the fighting.
When the Nazis were exterminating Jews in the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, the Jewish doctor gathered sick, starving children from the streets of the Ghetto at the risk of her life, struggled to keep the children alive, smuggled weapons for the Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis and later joined the Polish Underground.
A FEW QUOTES OF PRAISE:
"Examining the heart of what it means to be moral, Final Gifts is a searingly honest exploration of life daring to rebound toward triumph of the spirit. Every word of the dialogue rings true to the ironies, mess, and holiness of human life."
-Jean Stockdale, executive director, Who Is My Neighbor? Inc, NJ
"Final Gifts educates the heart and mind about the unsung, ordinary heroines in every culture who have given of their love and their courage in the struggle against injustice and oppression."
-Samuel Cruz, Ph.D., professor, Union Theological Seminary, NYC, NY
"This is a film that should not be missed. Without offering simplistic answers, the viewer can begin to understand the beautiful complexities and healing qualities that a true love of humankind can achieve towards personal and communal healing. "
-Tania Stanchich, LCSW, social work director, New Brunswick, NJ
"The film is magnificent. The story deeply moving. My heart, my feelings really leaped into the screen. The love these two women have for their children and husbands transcends their suffering; their pain is released, my pain is touched and released. The chambers of the heart are emptied and love flows again. And love is catching."
- Marian Lewis, spiritual psychotherapist, NYC, NY
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