How to go
What: Screening of “The Almond Tree”
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Berachah Baptist Church, 1914 First Ave., Middletown
Cost: Free
MIDDLETOWN — “The Almond Tree,” the first film by Shane M. Pergrem, is an emotional tale of love, loss and the will to overcome.
Danny and Leslie Engle were the typical high school sweethearts. They attended the same school, went to the same church and were a part of the same youth group. After dating, getting married and building a home together, a family looked to be the next step for the happy couple. After failing to become pregnant, the Engles find out they have a very slim chance of conceiving. The idea of never having a family of their own nearly tore the couple apart.
“There were times in our marriage when we both wanted to give up,” said Danny Engle in the trailer for the film. “We both said it’s not working. The pain, the money, the difficulties. We can’t even complete a family.”
Through struggles and mistakes, the couple finally learns what love really is.
Pergrem, a Middletown native of 18 years, was commissioned by Berachah Baptist Church to make a short, 5-minute film about the couple and their unique story. Pergrem says after doing a few interviews with the couple he knew the story was much larger.
“A whole universe of a story was behind the original project,” said Pergrem. “I knew there was something larger here.”
After completing the 5-minute project for the church, Pergrem volunteered his time and expertise in film to shoot a full documentary about the couple and their struggle to complete a family.
The film took 10 months of filming before it was finally completed, a short amount of time for a documentary to be filmed, said Pergrem.
And as hard as it was for the couple to endure 10 months of filming and having their lives broadcast to the world, Pergrem also had a tough time taking on the role of producer, director and cameraman, as well as editing the entire movie, with little to no help.
Other than the musical composition — composed by ‘Starving in the Belly of the Whale” — and for the graphic design, Pergrem said he did everything else to get the film to where it stands today.
“The Almond Tree” was recently given an official selection at the Appalachian Film Festival in Huntington, W.Va., later this month.
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