RAMONA AT MIDLIFE is a dramatic comedy about a single mother and former Literary It Girl who discovers that her unflattering current reality is the subject of a hot filmmaker’s newest project. As Ramona faces up to her disappointments and wrecked friendships, she finds true creative power and is finally ready to become her best self.
Ramona Lee used to be a bestselling author. Now in her 40s, Ramona is a single mother working at a vet clinic and raising her daughter, Kiki. But when Ramona’s estranged husband informs her that a hot filmmaker’s new project seems ripped from her life, old wounds re-open and she needs to confront her mistakes.
Ramona needs to reclaim her own story. Determined to face what ails her, she mends old friendships and even starts dating again, all the while writing letters to her artistic idol, Patti Smith, asking how Smith survived domestic life and re-entered the world as an artist. The movie asks why a woman’s story is only marketable when told by a man, and how women can reclaim their creativity in midlife.
Brooke Berman’s feature Ramona At Midlife premiered at Bentonville Film Festival and has screened at festivals including: Woodstock, Heartland, Mystic (Audience Choice), NYITFF (Audience Choice, Best Feature), Florida Film Festival, Pasadena International Film Festival (nominated for Best Actress and Best Feature), Omaha Film Festival, Rome Independent Cinema Festival (Best Fiction Feature) and Ridgefield Independent Film Festival (Best Ensemble and Fountain Award).
Brooke has a has written films for Natalie Portman, Mark Gordon, Vox, Fugitive and Red Crown. She adapted and directed the short U4G which premiered at the Aspen International ShortsFest where it won Audience Special Recognition. ALL SAINTS DAY, a short film Brooke wrote, directed by Will Frears, won Best Narrative Short at the Savannah Film Festival and played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Brooke’s feature POLLY FREED was chosen to be part of New York Stage and Film’s Screenwriters Lab where it was mentored by Kyra Sedgewick, Zach Helm and Billy Goldberg and selected as part of the MOME (Mayor’s Office of NYC) inaugural finance lab for female filmmakers and NYWIFT From Script to Preproduction lab. PF has made it to “second round” for Sundance Screenwriting Labs two years in a row and won Best Screenplay at the Toronto Independent Film Festival in 2020.
Brooke trained as an actor with Anne Bogart and studied playwriting as a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard. She is a member of the WGA and an alumna of New Dramatists.
Bentonville Film Festival (World Premiere)
Woodstock Film Festival
Heartland International Film Festival
Florida Film Festival
Wayfarer Cinema (Highland Park, IL)
The Fountain Award, Ridgefield Independent Film Festival
Audience Choice, Mystic Film Festival
Audience Choice, New York City Indie Theater Film Festival
Best Narrative Feature, Berlin Womens Cinema Festival
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE, Ridgefield Independent Film Festival
Actor - Yvonne Woods
Actor - Alysia Reiner
Actor - Rosemarie Dewitt
Actor - April Matthis
Actor - Joel de la Fuente
