Things are hard enough for the Schaffer family of Bittersweet Place, Long Island. Pappy, the widowed patriarch and his hapless son-in-law run a local car service that?s seen better days. His two adult daughters live at home in rooms they knew as children?posters from out-dated rock bands fading on the walls. Their neighborhood is changing, the insular town developing. Pappy idealizes the past, nostalgic for a simpler time. But when Paulie, the youngest daughter, stops taking her lithium and Pappy discovers he is ill, things quickly spiral out of control. Bittersweet Place is a portrait of a family in crisis, learning to love and survive. Troubled characters fighting fear and uncertainty--trying to overcome their own selfishness and xenophobia--people who know no boundaries, bumping and clawing furiously at each other?s lives. With empathy and humor, this story describes the messy production of a family, the burden and the intensity of feeling towards those we love.

ALEXANDRA BRODSKY --- WRITTER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER Alexandra received her MFA from The Yale School of Art. She is an adjunct instructor at Long Island University. Alexandra has directed two short films, Didactic Encounter, based on the play by Elizabeth Benjami and Rabbi Rick and the Hamburger Choo-Choo. Both films have been screened at several international film festivals. Bittersweet Place is her first feature-length debut.