A Palmerton native’s documentary has been selected as the winner of the 2019 Dan Eldon Activist Award and Best Documentary Award.

The Documentary Short Film, “What if …” was chosen for the awards at the 15th Annual My Hero International Film Festival in Laguna Beach, California, Film Festival Director Wendy Milette announced.

Filmmaker Noah Berlow, of Immortal Cinema International, directed the short documentary about the life-changing activism of the Illumination Foundation of Orange County and its founder and CEO Paul Leon, who are beginning to solve the problem of homelessness in Orange County, one family at a time. The film’s emotional score was composed by Chris Landon and recording artist Szilva Vecserdy of 222 Music Group.

The Dan Eldon Activist Award is named for Dan Eldon, a passionate activist, artist and photojournalist who was fearless in his quest to help others and his desire to tell the stories that others would not. Sadly, Dan was killed at the age of 22 while working as a photojournalist in Somalia.

Kathy Eldon, of the Creative Visions Foundation, presents the Dan Eldon Activist Award in memory of her son to the filmmaker who best uses media to effect positive change. She said, “With emotional interviews and eye opening footage, “What if ...” provides an intimate look into the heartbreaking reality of the homelessness crisis. Not only does it bring critical awareness to the issue, but it also sheds light on the hope that organizations like the Illumination Foundation ifhomeless.org provide to those suffering from it. It’s sure to impact anyone who watches it and will hopefully encourage people to support the Illumination Foundation and organizations like it.”

“It is such an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as heroic activist and photojournalist Dan Eldon,” said Berlow. “It has always been part of the mission of our film production company, Immortal Cinema, to use our creative skills to shed light on socially conscious projects and to activists and cultural leaders like the Illumination Foundation who are bringing about positive social change.”

He added, ”We are also grateful for the participation of the Veterans in Cinema Foundation who contributed to this project.”

In the spirit of the philanthropic mission of the film, Berlow donated the cash award presented by the MY HERO International Film Festival to the Illumination Foundation and Veterans in Cinema Foundation.

MY HERO is a nonprofit educational project that empowers people to effect positive change in the world through cross-cultural communication, human rights, environmental awareness, tolerance, media literacy and the arts. Since 1995, more than 100 million people from 197 countries have participated in the MY HERO Project (https://myhero.com) where visitors can search a vast multimedia journal to learn about heroes from all walks of life. It’s a great resource for teachers.

For those who wish to view “What if …,” the direct link to the film is: https://myhero.com/what-if-2.

Noah Berlow is a graduate of Palmerton High School and the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, where he received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2014. He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he runs his film production company, Immortal Cinema International LLC, and is the co-founder and chairman of the Veterans in Cinema Foundation.