To Be Of Service
Academy Award nominee Josh Aronson stops by to visit with Marcie and Lovey about his new documentary, To Be Of Service Josh wrote, directed and produced this powerful film that explores the complex stories of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the impeccably trained service dogs they're partnered with. This film reveals the magic bullet these dogs can be to veterans who are experiencing debilitating PTSD. Josh also talks about the Paws Act legislative bill that would mandate that the VA pay for services dogs for veterans with PTSD. He also shares a special story about his experience working with Jon Bon Jovi who wrote the film’s original song, “Unbroken."
BIO:
After starting his career as a still photographer for Time Life, Aronson began directing television films and commercials. Through Aronson Films, he directed MTV videos, television pilots and specials and over 500 commercials before turning to documentaries in 1999. Since then, Aronson has made award winning documentaries on a fascinating variety of topics. He is also a concert pianist and regularly plays chamber music in New York and at the Telluride Musicfest, the chamber music festival he founded in 2002 with his wife, violinist Maria Bachmann.
RECENT NEWS
2019 marks producer/director Josh Aronson's latest documentary, To Be Of Service, a feature documentary that explores complex stories of veterans with PTSD and the impeccably trained service dogs they're paired with. These dogs bring independence and a feeling of safety along with a new measure of happiness and hope to these brave warriors we sent into the maw. The film features Jon Bon Jovi's original song "Unbroken," which he wrote for the film.
To Be of Service is currently available on Netflix and iTunes.
THE FILMS
Josh Aronson was the Director/Executive Producer of SOUND AND FURY, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It was distributed theatrically and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary among many other international awards. The film was broadcast on PBS and television stations around the world.
PLAYING FOR REAL followed 2 young musicians for a year as they struggled to begin their careers in classical music. It has been broadcast on PBS and is now available on DVD.
Aronson's FEELIN' NO PAIN, follows Kenny Vance and the Planotones for 5 years and features Doo Wop legends Little Anthony, Pookie Hudson, and other oldies. In DVD release.
In 2005, Aronson completed 2 documentaries that were released in
2006 : BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS, an hour film about the first all transsexual production of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" premiered on LOGO, and BULLRIDER, a film that at first blush is about the exciting dangerous world of professional bullriding, but slyly emerges as a metaphor for America's movement to the political right.
In 2006, Aronson completed SOUND AND FURY : 6 YEARS LATER, the much-awaited follow up to his Sound and Fury.
That year he was also the Director/Co-Producer of THE OPPOSITE SEX, 2 feature documentaries following the the lives of 2 transsexuals in the year of their transition. Broadcast on Showtime and LOGO.
In 2008, Aronson produced a series of short films celebrating our dynamic relationship with the Hudson River Valley. The series contains 20 shorts designed for interstitial programming on PBS stations. The films focus on individual stories and characters found up and down the Hudson.
2010-2012 took the filmmaker all over the world in the making of ORCHESTRA OF EXILES, Aronson's film about Bronislaw Huberman, the Polish violinist who founded the orchestra that became the Israel Philharmonic.
In 2014, Aronson released ANDREW & WENDY. In this film, guitarist, Andrew Schulman fell into a coma during a surgery and nothing revived him until his wife, Wendy, had the insight to play him the Bach St. Matthew's Passion. His doctors all concurred it was the music that saved his life. The film was broadcasted on PBS.
2015 marked the final year of production and the editing of Aronson’s TALENT HAS HUNGER, the 7 year odyssey following the cello students of master cello teacher Paul Katz at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. The film premiered in Boston in early 2016 and rolled out across the country on PBS stations. The DVD is presently available.
In 2016 Producer/Director Josh Aronson, with co-author Denise George, created a book based on his film ORCHESTRA OF EXILES. They have expanded on many of the stories only touched on in the film. Published by Penguin Books the book is available on Amazon.