An Indo immigrant refugee living the American Dream returns to her Indonesian motherland to confront her biracial heritage and redefine “home.”
Dr. Jane Vogel Mantiri is a social justice activist, retired child trauma psychologist and professional actor living in Portland, Oregon. Against the backdrop of renewed anti-Asian and anti-refugee rhetoric, Jane embodies the immigrant success story and the fulfillment of her father’s all-American dreams. But Jane’s story of resilience and triumph is colored by her aunt’s brutal murder in Indonesia before she was born and her Indonesian-Dutch parents’ subsequent traumatic flight from their beloved homeland during the revolution after WWII. On his death bed, believing Jane was his sister, her father urged her to, “Run!”
Now in her golden years, Jane has shared her story in a memoir, at speaking events, and in podcasts. The desire that drives her to cook nasi kuning and lempers also uncovered a longing to return to her motherland to reconnect with family and lay flowers on her aunt’s grave. Her pilgrimage leads to a cousin’s living room in Jakarta, a university classroom in Yokyakarta, and a cemetery in Surabaya where she meets a historian who offers answers Jane never realized she needed on her way to defining her family’s legacy of love.
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Tax-deductible donations via The Bridge Initiative will be used for post-production expenses including picture edit, sound edit, composer, color correction, and festival submissions.
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will be updated summer 2024
Brenda Jean Foley (producer/writer) has produced theater, cabaret, digital events, and film screenings and has a thriving acting career on stage and screen. Though now she calls Phoenix, Arizona home, her decades of experience have taken her from New York to Tokyo. She co-founded CEO Theater in NYC and nonprofit theater & media production company The Bridge Initiative in Phoenix with whom she produced virtual/digital content in 2020-21. Two of her feature-length screenplays with writing partner Linnea Liu Dakin are in talks for production. She volunteers and consults with the Worldwide Women’s Film Festival, CineStory and more.
Bruce Nelson (producer/director)’s award-winning documentary short Gospel Radio Man has been optioned for screening on PBS. He won a Telly Award for his first short film, Tales of Tobacco. His film Raglin Tales was an official selection of the Arizona Black Film Showcase, Phoenix Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, Mid-Atlantic Black Film Festival and Rhode Island International Film Festival. Bruce’s feature-length documentary North Town was an official selection of the Jerome Independent Film & Music Festival, the American Online Film Awards Festival and The Sir Charles Darwin Film Festival (UK), TruDocumentary Film Festival 2016, and Docs Without Borders Film Festival 2016 (Exceptional Merit award winner). North Town is now streaming on Amazon. Bruce employs his storytelling to shed light on often-overlooked dark chapters in American history.
Barri Chase (director of photography) is an award-winning writer/producer/director of the feature motion picture The Watchman’s Canoe, available on Amazon Prime. She is a member of the Southeastern Cherokee Council which has influenced her craft of telling cross-cultural, relatable stories. After a career in beauty, fashion, and fine-art photography, she became a cinematographer, then a director of a number of music videos and short films. She finished her MFA in Screenwriting in April 2020. She has a television series in consideration with several major networks and is in development on a narrative feature film called “In the Shadow of War Clouds.” Barri has been a guest lecturer, judge and panelist on multiple International Film Festivals since 2017. She is an entrepreneur and creator of Light Dancing Productions.
From Executive Producer Brenda Foley
I grew up feeling like an outsider. I was a diplomat’s kid and struggled to fit in as an American overseas and then as an “un-American” teen in the United States. Ballet was my escape and constant – I could always stand at a barre and speak the language, but I’ve never been quite sure where “home” is. When I met Jane, I found a kindred spirit. Her story delights, infuriates, and most of all inspires me. I want to share her wisdom, humor, passion, and talent with the world – it has made me better and I know it has the power to do the same for others!
JOIN US
I have assembled a team including director/producer Bruce Nelson of NEB Productions, director of photography Barri Chase, cinematographer Kevin Forrest, location sound Kai Tillman, editor Aleks Hollis, and story consultant/voiceover artist Andréa Morales de Castellano. We are well into production with principal photography wrapped in Portland in May 2023, and are actively seeking investors to help the team get to Indonesia in February 2024 where Jane has been invited to engage with a community of history lovers in Yogyakarta and will visit Surabaya for the first time, her father’s family home.
**NOTE: PayPal charges fees so a check is preferred.
Email artsavesLLC@gmail.com for mailing address.
Tax-deductible donations via
The Bridge Initiative, 501(c)3 81-2423693
For more about the project, please email ArtSavesLLC@gmail.com