What we do
In My Brother's Shoes, Inc., produces empowering original narrative films & documentaries on healing, resilience and human connection. It shares them with and raises funds for a wide range of communities through live and online screenings. Those communities include military veterans battling PTSD, cancer support, medical centers, and religious & humanitarian organizations dedicated to charitable services, including assistance for the homeless population, immigrant & refugee support, and the poor.
Who we are
An Illinois 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded by producer Joe Orlandino and writer-director Lucia Mauro in 2014 to create dialogue and a sense of community around their films addressing vital issues of our times, from PTSD to the emotional side of cancer survivorship to those in need. Its films (streaming, DVDs) and live & online showings raise funds for those causes.
Impact of your donation
Your donation allows In My Brother's Shoes, Inc., to create and produce films that make a difference and bring them (both live & online) to communities. Funds raised benefit veterans' PTSD resources & programs; the Christl Burgess Memorial Fund for Ovarian Cancer Research at Loyola University Medical Center; Ovarian Cancer Symptom Awareness; the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition; Mother Cabrini churches/shrines; and initiatives that assist immigrants and those experiencing homelessness & poverty.
All donations are tax-deductible.
Lucia Mauro's short film, Inverno (Winter), follows a day in the life of a man who resides in the Italian town of Fiumefreddo Bruzio, Calabria, where he sets upon his daily routine close to the locals, his environment and the natural path of his existence. On a larger scale, Inverno addresses our place in the universe – the life cycle both mundane and magnificent. It celebrates a Calabrian town that is more than a beach stop during Ferragosto. There’s life and history behind the distressed facades and heavy stones of the old borgo. The film is dedicated to those inhabitants of small villages in Calabria – to those who stay. It’s a testament to the realities and resilience of Southern Italy. In Italian with English subtitles. Now available to rent on Vimeo on Demand.
Our latest release: Lucia Mauro's 2024 documentary,
The Loneliest Road, honors the five Italian-immigrant charcoal burners shot dead by a sheriff's posse while striking for better wages in the mining boom town of Eureka, Nevada. Called the 1879 Fish Creek Massacre, this little-known injustice is chronicled in Silvio Manno's book, Charcoal and Blood. The film retraces Mr. Manno's journey (both as an Italian immigrant & as a champion of the charcoal burners' plight). It explores the circumstances that led up to the Massacre, from the Gold Rush to the heyday of mining, along U.S. Highway 50 -- the "Loneliest Road in America." Featuring interviews with historians and descendants who are part of Eureka's legacy community.
Now available to rent on Vimeo on Demand.