Nathan Walker is a young man living in Chicago Heights, Illinois, many miles south of downtown Chicago. He finds himself entwined every day in the lives of his neighbors. They're polite, friendly, down-to-earth people. But in any community, individuals have their own private passions that their neighbors will never know. Each has a dark secret, a disappointed dream, a fervent hope, a spirit-breaking fear. We accompany Nathan while he comes of age and observe with him as the layers fall away from this seemingly random array of ordinary people who, below their practiced, Christian surfaces, are extraordinarily human.

Chicago Heights

In 1919, Hart Crane said of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: "America should read this book on her knees. It is a chapter in the Bible of her consciousness." The Last Soul on a Summer Night is a contemporary reinterpretation of the antique narrative with an African American cast and a dash of ecstatic reality. This critically acclaimed adaptation of one of the most highly regarded books in the history of American literature, tells the story, almost in mythical fashion, of lost and lonely souls taken to a Chicago Heights boarding house where layfolk and churchfolk alike struggle with their personal demons. It is a journey of self discovery where a man takes a truth to himself...

The Last Soul on a Summer Night

A man disappears on the same day he makes his fortune in this re-imagining of a true story, which is still unsolved.  In this version of the disappearance of Ambrose Small, the setting has been changed from Toronto, 1919, to Chicago of the same year. Gorgeous cinematography in mostly black and white underscores the racial tensions of the time, while intentional anachronisms and Calgary-raised director Daniel Nearing’s postmodern vision give the film an otherworldly quality.  While the investigation of Small’s case is a central device, Nearing’s real objective is to expose the characters of the time and stoke the flames of mystery.