Award-winning Chicago filmmaker Lucia Mauro wrapped shooting this past month on her second film, titled One Year Later, set in Chicago, Illinois, and Milan and Aosta, Italy. It tells the story of an American woman, recently recovered from a serious illness, who learns to savor the essence of life through a cathartic trip
to the Italian Alps. One Year Later is produced by Joe Orlandino of Atlas Media and Judie Green, who is affiliated with the Auditorium Theatre.

The film stars Juliet Hart, co-founder of Chicago's TimeLine Theatre, and Rome-based Italian film/TV actor Massimo De Santis (Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna). Other local cast members are PJ Powers (co-founder/artistic director of TimeLineTheatre), Daniel Houle, Amanda Powell, Joslyn Jones and Erin Lovelace. Lucia Mauro collaborated with Derek Cox (DP), Dan Finnen (Line Producer/AD) and Carter Lodwick (Location Sound) of Chicago's Polymyth Productions, and Andrea Labate (AD, Italy Unit). Enzo De Rosa of Montreal is composing original music.

One Year Later centers on Liz, a dedicated teacher of comparative literature, who struggles with her post-cancer life and changing priorities. Despite her husband's well-meaning over-protectiveness, she takes a trip with their friends – an American couple living in Milan – to Italy. When her friends assume the role of worried caregivers and suffocate her with a jam-packed itinerary, she escapes to the Alps to find her space. Here, Liz is able to reassert her independence. She learns to go forward, and return to her family, with a renewed sense of self -- free of compliance, guilt and obligation.

Currently in post-production, the film is scheduled to premier at a screening/fundraiser in Spring 2016 at Loyola University Medical Center for the opening of their new research facility in Maywood, Illinois. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Loyola University Chicago's ovarian cancer research at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center.

"I insisted on crafting an uplifting film that moves beyond the clinical aspects of cancer, says Lucia Mauro. "Unlike many films in that genre, One Year Later is not set exclusively in a hospital following the

 protagonist through treatment. Instead, it moves out of the physicality of cancer and into a rejuvenating world of the emotions, the senses and human connection."

One Year Later follows on the heels of Mauro's inspiring 2014 short film, In My Brother's Shoes, which starred Danny McCarthy (Boardwalk Empire, Bluebloods) as the brother of a fallen U.S. Marine who takes a healing pilgrimage to Rome, Italy, in his sibling's combat boots. It won Best Short Film at the 2015 Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival in the Vatican in Rome, and was featured in the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival's Short Film Corner. One Year Later is part of In My Brother's Shoes, Inc., a notfor-profit 501(c)(3) corporation founded by Lucia Mauro and Joe Orlandino, dedicated to helping individuals and families suffering from the many forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Lucia Mauro is a former longtime Chicago arts writer and theater/dance critic.

More information at: www.oneyearlaterfilm.com and www.facebook.com/inmybrothersshoes