Program Overview

"Loren Cass" began sometime around 1997 when I was about fifteen years old and living in St. Petersburg, Florida. The city was being consumed by what would be called “riots” on the Northside and “rebellions” on the Southside; things were racially polarized and strange and you could literally cross the one street that divided the city, Central Avenue, and be in a different world. All this tension and destruction was going on in the background while I grew up and I dealt with it the best way I could in a screenplay that wouldn’t get finished until I was eighteen years old.

The moment it was done I began putting together a package to shop around to anyone who would listen in order to solicit the financing necessary to make the film a reality. I dropped out of college, started pulling odd graveyard-shift jobs until sunrise, and over the next three and a half years my production partner Frank Craft and I spent day and night binding and mailing packages and arranging meetings, discussions, presentations.

In May of 2004 we began principal photography and wrapped after a grueling but productive shoot. This was followed by an even-more-grueling year and a half long post-production sound process spearheaded by a single sound engineer, Gary Boggess, in Tampa, Florida. The result is a mix that we’re all extremely proud of and that brings the delicate "Loren Cass" world of sparse dialogue to a perfect balance. Our filming took us all over this old Florida city, from historic cemeteries to the top of the national landmark Sunshine Skyway Bridge, to the backseats of public transportation in the heart of downtown where the homeless sleep, to the lawn in front of the house where Beat Generation author and legend Jack Kerouac died. All in an effort to tell a coming-of-age story in a way that I didn’t think had been done before, with an experiential, dreamlike look into the mind and soul of an adolescent during a time of toil and tension. A cinema of moods and feelings rather than plot and clearly-defined narrative. A celebration of the ugly things.

Chris Fuller, Director

Frank Craft, Producer

Program Date & Time

10/14/06
7:30 pm

Admission

$5