co-produced by small angst films

A film about finding the path that sets you free, the delicately nuanced AMERICAN WAKE tells the parallel stories of a fireman and a musician, both discovering the difference between what’s expected of them and the men they really are.

Jack (Billy Smith) has fulfilled the dream of his late father, a Boston cop, by becoming a distinguished firefighter and a hero. But now, in the aftermath of a blaze that claimed his closest friend, he is struggling to make sense of his life. And of his feelings for a beautiful young woman on a journey of her own.

Niall (Sam Amidon) is a gifted fiddle player who is offered the chance of a lifetime: he can have everything his father ever wanted for him, if only he gives up everything he wants for himself.

An “American wake” was a party, held on the eve of an Irish immigrant’s journey across the sea. Joyous and yet infused with the grief of parting, it marked the moment when one said goodbye to an old way of life, in order to say hello to the new.