Amber's Halfway Home - Short Documentary - USA

​A day of rescue in the fields and dog pounds of western Tennessee.

Amber Reynolds runs her nonprofit, the Halfway Home Animal Rescue, in Greenfield, TN, a tiny farming community hidden somewhere between Nashville and Memphis. At a glance, Greenfield is pastoral, beautiful even. But underneath idyllic scenes of meandering creeks and cotton fields, is a raging problem of too many unwanted animals.
In Amber’s Halfway Home, a film crew follows Amber for one day. During that day, she rescues 19 dogs. Some are dumped on the roadside and left to survive on their own. Others are living in unhealthy conditions at the unregulated and pitifully funded shelters. Watch as one woman saves these homeless animals from certain death.

Amber’s Halfway Home is an exploration of the conditions at government-funded shelters and the consequences of ignoring our country’s homeless animals. But, it’s also a celebration of a woman battling for change in her Southern community, a warrior who saved 2000 dogs in one year.

Director StatementWe are certain that the problem of 'throwaway dogs', unregulated shelters, and so much suffering does not exist because people don’t care, but because they don’t know.

Director's Melissa Armstrong & Jason Pidgeon

Melissa Armstrong lives outside of Nashville, TN and is the author of Catching Dawn. She has been independently rescuing strays for over fifteen years. From 2013-2015 she fostered and trained 30 dogs for a local nonprofit. Melissa walks with her husband Mason and their four mutts in rural Tennessee.

Jason Pidgeon lives in Charlotte, NC. When he isn't editing features for ESPN, he's traveling with his wife Honora and their three rescue dogs. Jason loves adventure, and he's found it all over the globe, from chasing cherry blossoms in Japan, snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef to surfing in Costa Rica to salmon-fishing in Alaska. Although his expertise is editing, he's also an animator, designer, journalist, and videographer. He graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

AniFab judge's aggregate score for Amber's Halfway Home is 6.9 out of 10 left with these comments, "Reached out to this filmmaking team.  Amber's Halfway Home resonates with the core of the work of the World Animal Awareness Society.  It is recommended this project become serialized.