Queens Gazette

The Stars On NYC’s Streets


Miley Rost. Photo Filippo Paratore

Miley Rose. Photo Filippo Paratore

Stars is the new black and white art­house dramatic feature film about home­lessness in NYC with an all-female lead ensemble including legendary rapper Rah Digga, the one and only Sophia Lamar and underground starlet Debra Haden, based on the play by eccentric Israeli playwright Doron Braunshtein.

Written and directed by Mars Roberge, the new feature film, Stars, is an original story about a group of homeless women in NYC who must learn that a glimmer of hope is worth more than all the money in the world while they hide from society under the pseudonyms of their pop idols.

Roberge describes his movie as “a cross between Rachel Amodeo’s What About Me and Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Having once lived as a homeless immigrant in NYC, surviving on wit and Canadian friendly charm, Roberge felt the need to make this film was now, when fellow for­mer NYC homeless immigrant, Doron Braunshtein mailed the script for his new play from Israel to Roberge’s home in Los Angeles. The cast and crew believed in this film so much that they were willing to risk all while shooting on outdoor night loca­tions in March during the peak of the COVID pandemic. They did whatever it took to get it made against all odds. We Make Movies believed in Roberge’s pas­sion about the project so much that he beat out the hundreds of other applicants for their first-ever contest in the 10 years they have been around.

The cast of Stars. Photo Allyson Sereboff

The cast of Stars. Photo Filippo Paratore

Roberge brought us the feel-good dram­edy Mister Sister (closing film for 2021 Dances With Films+ Winter Film Award where it won Best NYC Film), the hilari­ous punk comedy film Scumbag (World Premiere @ International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017), and The Little House That Could, a documentary on Sex & the City’s stylist Patricia Field (2015 Audience Choice Winner for Best Film at NewFilm­makers Los Angeles + World Premiere at Frameline 2013).

Roberge won We Make Movies’s first ever Make Your Feature pitch contest beat­ing out hundreds of other applicants. And as a result he was able to fully fund Stars, which features guest appear­ances by Jim Sclavunos (of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds), Canadian pop music sensation Spookey Ruben, vocal virtuoso Coby Koehl, local LGBTQ hero Michael Musto and has an original score from Current 93’s Michael Cashmore.

World Domination Pictures and We Make Movies cordially invite you to join them for the world premiere of Stars as the official opening film for the 11th Winter Film Awards Interna­tional Film Festival on February 17th @ 9pm, held at Cinema Village (22 E 12th St. NY, NY 10003). Trailer:vimeo.com/720824631 Website: www.worlddomination.pictures/stars IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt18802282 Twitter @StarsTheMovie / IG @stars_themovie / FB @Starsthefilm

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