Eric Mendelsohn's Judy Berlin is a contemporary indie film variation on "Our Town" with all the offhand pathos of Thornton Wilder's theatrical standard. Mendelsohn's film, however, unfolds in Babylon, Long Island over a 24-hour period during which a solar eclipse inspires some very strange behavior.

Judy Berlin (Edie Falco) is a blithe, would-be starlet making final farewells to friends before leaving for L.A. to be discovered. For the desperate David Gold, a failed director who has returned to Babylon from his own charge on Hollywood, a chance encounter with the charismatic Judy quickly becomes a romantic connection.

Mendelsohn graduated from SUNY Purchase in '86 with a Fine Arts degree and soon after signed on for the first of a half-dozen gigs working in Woody Allen's costume department. He also made three shorts with Purchase '87 film grad Rocco Caruso as producer before a fourth collaboration, the Sundance and Cannes-selection Through An Open Window, put both partners on the map.

"Delia", Mendelsohn's first feature script, was workshopped at the '94 Sundance Screen-writers' Lab while Caruso spent five years racking up producing credits on the staff of Warner Brothers' New York cable network arm. When the multi-million-dollar financing they needed for Delia proved impossible to raise, Caruso personally put up the cash necessary to get Judy in the can on 35mm. Mendelsohn got venerable stage actress Barbara Barrie to play one of the leads and cast her real-life son Aaron Harnick as David.

Judy began shooting October 27 in Old Bethpage, Long Island, where Mendelsohn grew up. The film begins at dawn and Mendelsohn used graded filters to effect the otherworldly look he wanted Babylon to have as the eclipse approaches. All rights are available.

Cast: Madeline Kahn, Bob Dishy, Barbara Barrie, Edie Falco, Aaron Harnick, Anne Meara, Julie Kavner. Crew: Producer, Rocco Caruso; Associate Producer, Wendy Jo Cohen; Screenwriter/Director, Eric Mendelsohn; Director of Photography, Jeffrey Seckendorf; Production Designer, Charlie Kulsziski; Line Producer, Lisa Kolasa; Costume Designer, Sue Gandy; Casting, Laura Rosenthal. Contact: Rocco Caruso, Caruso-Mendelsohn Productions, 375 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: (212) 941-4036, Fax: (212) 941-3997.

Afraid of Everything - David Barker
Chutney Popcorn - Nisha Ganatra
Dark Harbor - Adam Coleman Howard
Fear of Fiction - Charlie Ahearn
The History of Luminous Motion - Bette Gordon
Judy Berlin - Eric Mendelsohn
The Last Big Attraction - T. Hopwood DePree
Me and Will - Sherrie Rose and Melissa Behr
Mute Love - Patrice Mallard
Origin of the Species - Andres Heinz
The Two Ninas - Neil Turitz