A ten minute feature short that spotlights addiction and recovery programs that was filmed in Roanoke made its debut at the Taubman Museum of Art last month inside a packed auditorium. Roanoke native Andrea Shreeman, who now works in the movie business in Los Angeles, directed “Sienna Burning” and hopes to go on to direct a feature film, a comedy about assisted suicide, that she has been raising money for over the past several years.
Sienna Burning highlights an addiction recovery program at the Roanoke Rescue Mission and is based on the life of the late Diana Covey, who went through the program herself. Covey had a twin sister who did not want to associate with Diana while she was in the grip of addiction; Sienna Burning is also about reconciliation of the two sisters after Diana begins to get her life together.
“Diana was one of our success stories,” says Rescue Mission CEO Joy Sylvester Johnson. “She lived long enough to give her blessing to this film.” Covey died of unrelated causes (cancer) last summer. “It was inspired by her life and the way God transformed her.”
The short film, which is being shopped around to assorted festivals, also focuses on a study of twins (filmed at the Virginia Tech-Carilion Medical School) and how the family dynamic is impacted when one person is addicted and the other is not.
“How relationships that have been shattered can be healed,” said Sylvester-Johnson, who said she pitched the Covey story to Shreeman and the film producers. Sylvester-Johnson said both the recovery program at the Rescue Mission and the Virginia Tech-Carilion research on addiction have drawn national attention, so it “seemed like a natural” to her to tell Covey’s story in that context. “That no matter what’s happened before there is always hope for restoration.”
An actress from the TV show Supernatural (Ruth Connell) plays both twins “and does an excellent job I think,” said Sylvester-Johnson, who admits the short time frame of ten minutes “leaves you wanting more.” Shreeman said after the film showing she would be open to fleshing out Sienna Burning into a full length film if she can find backers. Sylvester-Johnson hopes to make it available through her website after Sienna Burning goes through the film festival circuit. “It’s a very hopeful film.”
Gene Marrano
