Article in Ashland newspaper about MOLAD

Ashland film festival article about MOLAD:

Short Films Pack Big Entertainment
By Chris Honore

"Matters of Life and Death," written and directed by Joseph Mazzello, is a remarkably polished and tightly constructed film. This is excellent filmmaking and it's one not to miss. The portrayals by Mazzello, along with Daniel Gillies, Nick Heyman and Rachael Leigh Cook are top drawer.

The film follows the lives of three siblings — two brothers and a sister — whose parents are abruptly killed on 9/11. The opening frame shows the three seated in the office of the family attorney who is reading their parents' will. They sit in stoic silence as the terms are delineated, too stunned to comment, all in the grip of a grief that threatens to unhinge them as individuals and as a family.

Though the film is only 29 minutes long, it fills every moment with a genuine intensity, the dialogue spot-on, with a nice backstory scene starring David Strathairn as the father, playing baseball with his two sons. It's a wonderful moment, both joyous and sad, for the audience knows what awaits them only a few years away.