Nominated for 10 Festival Awards!
Winner of 3! (highlighted below)

Best Film – “Saving Levi”
Best Director - James Randall Argue
Best Actor - Jack Ong
Best Actress - Yan Cui
Best Screenplay (Drama) – James Randall Argue
Best Cinematography - Ralph Linhardt
Best Editing - Ralph Linhardt
Best Sound Design - Bryan Miller
Best Original Score - Bryan Miller
Best Production Design - Chris Tornow

See “Saving Levi” on DVD…“The Best of 168 Film Project ‘09”…a collection
of 20 short films now available at www.168project.com.

             Imagine, if you will, a collaborative endeavor already charged with enough pressure to blow even the best-sealed cooker (we’re waxing metaphoric, folks, and the object is movies, the making of!). Add to this pressure a deadline of 168 hours – yes, one week – to complete your movie, which must not exceed 11 minutes. Ready, set, go…from writing to post production…casting, costuming, filming, editing, music scoring, everything, sometimes simultaneously! Plus…just before filming begins, each producer is assigned a specific Scripture, the thematic essence of which must be incorporated into the movie. Pressure upon pressure. Get the picture?

            The picture made by Team 18, written and directed by Randy Argue under these challenging circumstances, is “Saving Levi,” based on the bestselling nonfiction book by Lisa Misraje Bentley. Completed on schedule, something accomplished by the majority of entered teams, “Saving Levi” was one of 67 other shorts made simultaneously during a single week in February for Project 168, an international faith-based contest designed to encourage filmmakers to produce short movies with evangelical potential. This year, teams from throughout the United States as well as Canada, England and the Philippines entered the competition.

            The films were judged. Team 18’s entry – shot on location in the Santa Ynez mountains under the watchful eye of line producer Michael Ramsey -- made the Top 20, and will be shown during the annual two-day Project 168 Film Festival in L.A. April 3 and 4. (“Saving Levi” is scheduled for the Saturday evening slate of screenings at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, with the award ceremony following.)  “Best Picture” of the festival will win $10,000 for its producer and a one-on-one with A-list producer Ralph Winter, one of the judges, whose film credits include such hits as the “X-Men” trilogy, “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” “Mighty Joe Young,” and “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.”

            The festival is “changing the world through the media, one short film at a time,” according to John David Ware, founder/director of Project 168.

            “Saving Levi,” set in rural China, is a drama about a severely burned infant left to die in the fields, but rescued by a farmer (Jack Ong) who dares to get involved -- a great risk under communist rule. After doing all he and his protesting wife (Yan Cui) are able to keep the child alive, the farmer – haunted by his compassion for the horribly injured baby while pondering about the circumstances of his abandonment -- cautiously leaves the child at a government facility, and eventually witnesses his adoption at an orphanage, where he encounters a young woman (Candace Leung) whom he thinks might just be Levi’s birth mother.

            David Bradshaw, executive producer and Team 18 leader, said upon completion of the film: “The story that Randy Argue (writer-director) pitched to me only recently now lives in ‘Saving Levi.’ The movie turned out great, a home run in my eyes, has great promise of not just doing well in the upcoming festival competition, but living beyond the 168 Film Festival. I think the film will live to influence the lives of those touched by adoption. Estimates say there are over 14 million orphans in the world today in Africa alone, mostly due to AIDS, disease, natural disasters, etc. My prayer is that our film can speak to others about the needs of orphans and the goodness of people who wish to help those who cannot speak for or defend themselves.”

            SAVING LEVI: written and directed by J. Randall Argue. Based on the book “Saving Levi: Left to Die, Destined to Live”by Lisa Misraje Bentley (Focus on the Family Books). Exec. Producer: David Bradshaw. Producer: Mike Ramsey. Director of Photography: Ralph Linhardt. Production design by Chris Tornow, original music score and sound design by Bryan Miller, costume design and makeup by Laura Manchester, special effects makeup by Rose Marie Gelart. PRODUCTION CREW: Krystof Andres, Kraig Kishi, Stefan Tarzan, Terence Truong, Lillian A. Zheng. With Jack Ong, Yan Cui, Candace Leung, Champin Chen, Sachi Ohtake and Nicholas Kreng as “Levi”.