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Title: The Light of Pip
Runtime: 11 min
Country: USA
Director: Ken Merritt
Placement: Award of Excellence
Competition: December, 2022
Synopsis: An 8-year-old girl connects with a lonely homeless man with a stricken heart.
Pip, a young girl full of light and hope, connects with a homeless man while playing at the park. Through a child-like discernment, she coerces her mother to connect with him by inviting him to a picnic and then to church. They never make it to church, but Pip accomplishes more by sharing the hope within. We find out later that Mr. Jesse had a heart problem and that he lost his wife and little girl, who was the same age as Pip, in an auto accident years before.
The Light of Pip contains an original song written and performed by Michael Merritt, who played the role of Mr. Jesse.