Let's Do a Miracle
The Story of Elissa Montanti and the Global Medial Relief Fund
— a feature documentary film —
Our Film
Let’s Do a Miracle tells the story of how Elissa Montanti formed the Global Medical Relief Fund, and how, over the past 25 years she has helped more than 500 children from 60 countries who have been injured by war, natural disaster, and human cruelty. We follow the return of four Tanzanian children to Elissa to have their prostheses refitted. They have albinism, and their limbs were hacked off by machete-wielding henchman in the service of witch doctors who believe the severed limbs of children with albinism which are ground into a powder confer health and wealth on the recipient. Elissa helps them to heal, and to determine their future free of such threats. You can read more about them in our News section.
A child’s plea for help asking “God and all merciful people to help me getting prosthetics”, forever changed Elissa Montanti's life.
In 1997, Elissa reached out to the then UN Ambassador from Bosnia, with an offer to send school supplies and toys to the child victims of the war in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The Ambassador responded by reading her a young boy’s letter. The Bosnian child, Kenan Malkic, had lost both arms and one leg when he had stepped on a land mine. Elissa quickly comprehended the far more urgent needs of the children in war-torn Bosnia. She immediately recruited airlines, hospitals, physicians and prosthetic companies to donate their services. Shortly after Kenan and his mother arrived at JFK Airport. During their four months stay with Elissa, and through Elissa’s tireless actions, Kenan received two new arms, a new leg, and a new life.
Soon after, out of the walk-in closet of her one-bedroom home, Elissa founded the non-profit, non-partisan Global Medical Relief. Since its founding in 1997, Elissa and GMRF have helped more than 500 children from more than 60 countries, and have hosted 1500 follow-up visits. The injured children come from regions that offer only minimal medical care, poorly fitted prostheses, or none at all.
Ms. Montanti lives in Staten Island, New York. Her passions include music, painting and poetry. Her poetry has won recognition from the American Poetry Society.
Elissa, dubbed "the Saint of Staten Island” by People Magazine was recognized as a CNN Hero in 2018. Her numerous awards include the Amnesty International “Modern Day Saints” award, the “Heart of a Woman” award from Dr. Phil and his wife, Robin; Wagner College De Vinci award; New York State Women of Distinction; and Staten Island Advance’s 2012 Woman of Achievement award. She has an Honorary Doctorate degree from Muhlenberg College, the President’s Medal from St. John University and was voted one of the 12 most Inspiring Persons of the Year by beliefnet.com in 2006 and was featured in The Women's Eye.
Elissa Montanti
Our Story
What would you do if a child cried out to you for help?
Elissa Montanti answered. Autumn, 1996. The past few years of her life had been devastating: her mother died of cancer, her first love was murdered, and her move from Staten Island to Florida to find some sunshine had plunged her into darkness when she lost her business, and her money. Elissa sits alone in the dark of her Staten Island apartment, feeling lost and hopeless, writing letters to God, asking for help.
The world matches her mood. There’s a terrible civil war lurching to a close in Bosnia, and when Elissa gets a call to write a song to help the Bosnians, she feels the music will not come. But the music does come, and when a child's cry for help comes back, it launches the journey Elissa never imagined that she would, that she could, make. It is her fearless journey to heal the world…
Let’s Do a Miracle is a feature documentary film that tells the story of how Elissa Montanti rose from the darkness to find the light in helping children damaged by war, natural disaster, accidents of birth, or who are victims of violent superstition.
After helping Kenan Malkic, the Bosnian boy who stepped on a landmine while playing soccer and who lost both arms and a leg, Elissa could not say no to the next child. And so, from her walk-in closet that became her office, Elissa contacted airlines, hospitals, and governments around the world to help the children who were calling out to her.
And so, the Global Medical Relief Fund was born, and with a generous donation from Tyler Perry, The Dare to Dream House, where Elissa hosts these children, came to be. Since then, Elissa has helped 500 children from 60 countries. Her help is not a one-off, but continues as the children grow, for they must return to the US for surgery and to get their prosthetic limbs adjusted -- and to date, those children have made 1,500 return visits.
Kenan, the first child whom Elissa helped, is a Executive Board Member at GMRF and a Vice President at Credit Suisse, and today he helps Elissa in the way she helped him. We tell their remarkable story as we connect with four children from Tanzania who will be the first to return since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world to have their prosthetics refitted.
We combine Elissa's Origin Story with the story of these Tanzanian children, who have albinism. As a result, they were stolen from their homes in the middle of the night and had their limbs brutally amputated by machete-wielding witch doctors, in the belief that limbs torn from children with albinism are magical-- and profitable. The witch doctors grind the limbs into a powder which they sell for tens of thousands of dollars. The government of Tanzania does not take this problem seriously, and so the evil persists.
Through the story of these children, we take our audience on a powerful and emotional journey with Elissa as she helps these children to heal-- and as she has healed herself.
Elissa is also aiming to stop this barbaric practise, and by telling this story, we aim to do the same. We have substantial archival footage to compliment what
We shot with the Tanzanian children during June and part of July 2021. Elissa has been profiled by multiple media-- from People Magazine to CBS 60 Minutes to CNN to hundreds of local TV and new outlets --and her home movies and photographs stretching back decades.
And in a wonderful bonus, Elissa is a musician, whose musical talents are what set her Global Medical Relief Fund in motion, 25 years ago. We will use her music to soundtrack our film.
Who We Are
Since 1996, Elissa Montanti has been helping injured children around the world— more than 500, from 60 countries, who have returned for 1,500 follow-up visits. She does this through her non-profit The Global Medical Relief Fund.
We have a talented and dedicated team of filmmakers bringing Elissa’s story to life.
Alice Barrett Mitchell is a producer and actor well known for her long-running portrayal of Frankie Frame on daytime television's "Another World." Her many prime time appearances include guest starring roles on "Heels," "The Thing About Pam," "Chicago Med," "Billions," and "Law & Order: SVU," as well as numerous commercials. On film, she has appeared in "Choke" with Academy Award winning actor Sam Rockwell and "Brooklyn's Finest" with Richard Gere, among others. She appeared on Broadway with Alan Alda in Neil Simon's “Jake's Women” and was Managing Director of the critically acclaimed, Brooklyn-based theatre, Brave New World Repertory Theatre. Ms. Barrett Mitchell is married to musician/songwriter Stanley John Mitchell. They live in Brooklyn, NY.
Nancy Merritt Bell is a writer and editor, filmmaker and playwright. Eight original plays, including the award-winning The Mean Time, have been performed in Paris, Berlin, Toronto, New York City and Cordoba. Nancy’s expertise in drama inspired her work as a writer and story editor in film and TV on Degrassi, The Odyssey, My Secret Identity, Due South, Anne of Green Gables, Northrop Frye: A Personal View, etc. Nancy’s work takes her around the world where her collaborations include CNN, Disney (USA); Sunrise Films, National Film Board, Sullivan Entertainment, Playing with Time Productions, Cambium Pictures, Waterstreet Productions, Pink Slip Productions (Canada); Teatrosim (Argentina); MightEMedi (Germany); Therefore Films, FireWater Productions (UK).
Nancy’s work in publishing includes co-authoring of new Vatican spy thriller Glamour of Evil with Michael McKinley (BookGo 2024). As a book editor, Nancy has 20 books to her credit, such as the award-winning children’s books Wings and Clarence Cochran a Human Boy by William Liozeaux, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), also What’s Wrong with Normal, a workbook on sexism by Dr. Jen Roberts (UEImprints), and The Penalty Killing by Michael McKinley (Penguin Random House Canada) nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel. Nancy lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Michael McKinley is an author, filmmaker, journalist and producer. He was educated at the University of British Columbia, and at St. John’s College, University of Oxford. He co-created and co-executive produced “Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell” for NBC Peacock and Sky UK. He co-produced and co-wrote several documentaries for CNN Presents: “The Mystery of Jesus,” a documentary examining the historical Jesus, “The Two Marys: The Madonna and the Magdalene” which won a Gracie Award for Best Hour-long Documentary aired in the US, and the two-hour documentary “After Jesus: the Birth of Christianity”. Mr. McKinley co-created and produced “The Jesus Strand” for History TV, and was also Executive Producer of Man Vs. Machine for TSN. In addition, Mr. McKinley wrote several episodes for “Perfect Disasters” on the Discovery Channel. He is the author of several books, most recently “Willie: The Willie: The Game Changing Story of the NHL’s First Black Player” was named one of the Top 20 Books of 2020 by the CBC and nominated for a 2021 NAACP Image Award. He co-wrote A Quiet Life, a cybercrime thriller, with Will Cooper, to be published by Skyhorse Publishing, 2024; Lou Vairo: The Godfather of U.S. Hockey, to be published by Rowman and Littlefield, 2024; “Yardley’s Ace: The Making and Breaking of US Military Intelligence; Codebreakers: The Secret Intelligence Unit that Changed the Course of the First World War” (with James Wyllie) and “Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery,” the companion book to the CNN TV series he created with David Gibson. Mr. McKinley’s first novel, “The Penalty Killing: A Martin Carter Mystery”, was nominated in 2011 for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel. His novella, “Facetime: a story of art, time and murder”, is an Amazon Kindle Single best-seller. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Anthony D’Antuono Musician/Composer • Photographer/Videographer • Editor/Graphic Design, For over thirty years, Ironhorse Digital Media has provided music production and video services to the New York City area. It began its run as a project based recording studio offering state of the art recording and production. Not long after, it began offering filming and editing as well.
As fate would have it, owner Anthony D’Antuono crossed paths with Elissa Montanti, soon to be Founder of The Global Medical Relief Fund.
The song “Let’s Do A Miracle” was recorded at the studio and a special friendship was formed. Anthony has accompanied Elissa on many trips to Bosnia, capturing the very beginnings of the GMRF.
Now, thirty years later, Anthony has been blessed with the task of editing, and as one of the producers of Elissa’s documentary, “Let’s Do A Miracle”.
Contact us.
Be Noble Productions
220 Westminster Road
Brooklyn, NY 11218