No More Goodbyes, directed by James Ganiere and written by Rebekah Ganiere, premiered at the Santa Fe Film Festival last month where it won the Best Picture / Feature Audience Choice Award. No More Goodbyes tackles the topics of autism, foster care, family and redemption when interracial foster brothers, 17 year-old Mark and 8 year-old Tristan with Autism and PTSD, go on the run after their foster mom passes away. The brothers must rely on a gruff retired military veteran named Stan to keep their secret safe and from being split up by the system that is supposed to be protecting them.
“The thought of Mark and Tristan actually being separated is terrifying because they need each other that much,” James Ganiere said. “And, of course, they’re not blood related; for goodness sakes, they’re not even the same race. But that’s the point. Family is who we make. Is family those who we share DNA with, or is it something more? There’s the family you choose or create. It’s the folks who sacrifice for each other, and it’s the bond that you create.”
The film aims to explore foster care in the United States, where a child is entered into the system every two minutes. Of the children who reach 18 and age out of the system without being adopted, half of them will end up in prison within two years, one in five will become homeless, and only 3% will go on to earn a college degree.
Mrs. Ganiere came up with the idea for the script after her son Christian presented at the Emmys with Marcus Scribner (Black-ish). Scribner’s manager said that the two boys would be great for a movie together. Mrs. Ganiere thought, “Where would a six year-old white kid and teenage black kid meet and be friends?” Then she thought, what if they were foster brothers living in the same house? She felt very inspired by the story, and writing it flowed easily to her – it took only a week to write.
No More Goodbyes stars Tom Nowicki (MacGyver, Preach, The Blind Side, Remember the Titans, Punisher, Flight), Christian Ganiere (Fox’s 9-1-1, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy), and Jequan Jackson (Tyler Perry’s Atlanta, NBC’s New Amsterdam, Amazon’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, CBS’s FBI). Christian Ganiere plays foster brother Tristan Elmer, Jackson plays brother Mark Joshua Williams, and Nowicki plays Stan. Top cast includes Starletta DuPois (The Notebook, HBO’s Friday After Next, Fox’s Big Momma’s House), Zuri Starks (NBC’s This is Us, NBC’s Chicago Fire), Ethan McDowell (AMC’s The Walking Dead, DC’s Doom Patrol), Stacy Haiduk (NBC’s Days of Our Lives, HBO’s True Blood), Sal Velez Jr (Netflix’s Black Summer and Gentrified), Michael Patrick Lane (Blumhouse’s Unseen, Saban’s Redemption Day), and Eric Robers (Oscar nominated).
The film has been in the works for more than three years and was one of the first few films the Screen Actors Guild approved to move forward to production during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ganiere established safety measures before the Guild announced their recommendations, and his measures kept all members of the crew safe from getting infected.
No More Goodbyes will be screening Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 2 p.m. MST at The CCA: Center for Contemporary Arts. Tickets can be purchased at the box office for $10 each and online here. The Ganieres are producing No More Goodbyes through their production company, Rio Vista Universal. In the same screening block is Land of the Free in the Shadows with Priscilla Presley documentary short, also directed by James Ganiere.
