Eric West/ETW Productions
Childhood friends Jason Aaron Goldberg, right, and Joseph Campanale helped write, produce and edit “Every 85 Minutes,” a short film about a U.S. Army veteran struggling with the effects of military sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder during the closures of the pandemic.
Saturday, June 22, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The movie poster for “Every 85 Minutes.” The short film — 11 minutes and 45 seconds — is scheduled to be screened Sunday at the Nevada Women’s Film Festival at the Flora Dungan Humanities building at UNLV.
Las Vegas neighbors Jason Aaron Goldberg and Joseph Campanale spent their summers in the 1990s making short videos on their parents’ camcorder, and in the process they fell in love with the art of film production and storytelling.
The teens, who lived across the street from each other in a neighborhood near Tropicana Avenue and Pecos Road, would “make little movies using action figures, like sequels to “Batman” or “Indiana Jones,” Campanale recalls.
The friends, now in their 40s, were reunited behind the camera for the filming of “Every 85 Minutes,” a short film about a U.S. Army veteran struggling with the effects of military sexual trauma (MST) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the closures of the pandemic.
The film runs 11 minutes, 45 seconds, and will be screened at 12:40 p.m. Sunday during the Nevada Women’s Film Festival at the Flora Dungan Humanities building on the UNLV campus.
The story raises awareness for mental health support from veteran services, said Goldberg, the film’s producer, director and writer.
“Getting help is such a brave step,” he said.
Goldberg was influenced to do the project after learning that 1 in 4 female service members are victims of military sexual trauma.
The national suicide rate for veterans is 33.9 per 100,000 veterans, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. In Nevada, it’s 50.7 per 100,000 veterans.
“The topic is very heavy and it’s very serious,” Goldberg said. “But it’s not a downer, there is positive messaging.”
The screening at UNLV will be the sixth time the film has been shown. Last October, it won the award for Best Narrative Short at the 2023 Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles.
More important than awards, though, Goldberg said, is its impact.
Following one of the viewings, a woman approached Goldberg to express her gratitude for the project because her daughter was experiencing the drama in real life.
“Her daughter was serving and was raped and didn’t know what to do,” Goldberg said. “She is overwhelmed and terrified because the assailant is a ranking officer. (The mother said) she was going to go home and talk to her daughter about taking action.”
The fictional film is the day in the life of the character Deana, a veteran struggling with PTSD and MST along with the disillusionment many lived through during the pandemic. When memories of her assault are triggered, she has suicidal thoughts.
Goldberg and Campanale, the film’s editor, were so determined to make it authentic they recruited military members for the film’s crew. The lead character is played by Relana Jah’melle McGlothan, who was recently promoted to staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves.
“It’s important to have that credibility,” Campanale said of the crew members with a military background. “They brought the proper insight.”
It was filmed over three days locally, at a house in Henderson, Lake Mead and the VA Medical Clinic on Boulder Highway. The film cost $10,000 to make, Goldberg said. A UNLV Fine Arts seed grant and a National Endowment of the Arts grant helped with funding, he said.
Goldberg attended Green Valley High School, where he was a “theater geek” before graduating from UNLV with a degree in fine arts. He’s worked in Hollywood in the past 15 years.
Campanale has a degree in architecture from UNLV and continued his studies in film production at Chapman University in Southern California. He is a video producer for marketing campaigns in Las Vegas.
Editing “Every 85 Minutes” was a labor of love because “you want someone to get the message you are trying to convey,” he said.
And when he watches the film again on Sunday, Campanale will “be critical of every little detail” because he can’t stop the editing process — even when looking at the finished product.
It’s a finished product that makes the filmmakers proud. Working together was just like those summers in Las Vegas with the family camcorder, they said.
“It’s definitely great when you work with someone for that long,” he said. “You develop a second-hand language with each other in the process of creating something complex. It’s a small crew and low budget. It helps when you are collaborating with someone you know so well.”
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