Heartland Films, Inc.

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Homelessness &

After three years, 15 cities, numerous heartwarming stories and a successful preview event in the Kansas City area, Sue Vicory, founder of Heartland Films, Inc., is ready to take her documentary, "Homelessness and the Power of One," to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006.

The film, narrated by all-pro Kansas City Chiefs kicker Nick Lowery, tells the very human stories of people living on the streets of the Kansas City area, Harlem, New York and Los Angeles' Skid Row, among other cities. It also features moving, original music by Kansas City's own, Bloodstone.

Vicory is now ready to give the nation's homeless more of an audience through the film festival in Park City, Utah.

" This offers an opportunity to educate ourselves as a nation about the trials of the homeless," she said.

The preview event for the film, which took place Sept.10, literally gave the voiceless a voice before audience of more than 600 people. A panel of formerly homeless people from throughout the United States who are featured in the film shared their stories following a sneak-peek of the documentary.

The event raised more than $30,000 for Metropolitan Lutheran Ministries, ReStart, City Union Mission and The Salvation Army, as well as funds for hurricane relief efforts.

" Our nation faces a crisis after catastrophic hurricanes, and with that, an entirely new population of displaced individuals has arisen giving new definition to homelessness," Vicory said. "The timeliness of this piece is only something that a higher power could have a hand in."

Vicory, who also is preparing the documentary for a five city tour in 2006, attended the New York Film Academy in 2001 and is a certified AVID editor.

As her work gains exposure, Vicory is excited about the documentary's growing ability to make a difference in the lives of the nation's homeless, and its ability to educate the general public on the too-often overlooked social tragedy.

" " The power of one is a significant piece to this project -- each of us having the possibility to turn another's life upward and offer a second chance," Vicory said. " It is my opinion that we all owe our neighbor the very best of ourselves."

Heartland Films, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping create awareness in communities and throughout the world to enrich people's lives with the premise that one person can make a difference.

For more information, contact Sue Vicory at (913) 449-5861 or visit www.filmsfromtheheart.com .