One Year Later, a film by Lucia Mauro, tells the story of an American woman who takes a cathartic trip to the Italian Alps one year after completing cancer treatment. Liz, a dedicated college professor, 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. 

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Changed...but not defined by illness.

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The film premiered on September 18, 2016 at Loyola University Medical Center’s new Center for Translational Research & Education in Maywood, Ill. Funds raised benefited the Christl Burgess Memorial Fund for ovarian cancer research at Loyola University Medical Center’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. A special screening of One Year Later was held on December 4, 2016 at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago -- a collaboration with the Illinois Chapter of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, with funds raised benefiting the NOCC's Stand Up To Cancer initiative for ovarian cancer research. More screenings have taken place at the University of Chicago Medicine, SwedishAmerican Regional Cancer Center in conjunction with the Rockford Area Ovarian Cancer Support Group and the NOCC, Rush-Copley Medical Center's Waterford Place Cancer Resource Center in Aurora, Ill., University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics for A View Beyond Support Group for Women with Gynecologic Cancers in Madison, Wisconsin, the Lilies of the Valley Gynecologic Cancer Support & Awareness Group in conjunction with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and l'Associazione V.I.O.L.A. -- a breast cancer/tumor support group in Aosta, Italy (where filming took place). The film also has been presented at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, Italy, at Loyola University Chicago Damen Center Cinema, and as part of Casa Italia's film series. One Year Later screened at Montreal's 2016 Visions of the World Film & Music Festival, where it was nominated for Best Original Score by Enzo De Rosa.

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The original soundtrack is available on iTunes.

 

One Year Later is part of In My Brother's Shoes Inc., a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to helping individuals suffering from the many forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).