Filmmaker hosting Bremerton screening Jan. 21

Writer-director Brion Rockwell knows film, and he knows the Northwest, so he's hoping the next year or two will help him launch his latest in-progress feature films, set in the Northwest, to an audience of his fellow residents, and possibly beyond, starting with a select screening at the Roxy Theatre in Bremerton on Jan. 21.

Rockwell boasts a bicoastal film and writing education pedigree, with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from The Evergreen State College in 1990, a Trustee Scholarship for New York University's Tisch School of the Arts undergraduate film program from 1986-88, and a full teaching assistantship in the Master of Fine Arts creative writing program headed by "This Boy's Life" author Tobias Wolff at Syracuse University from 1990-91.

Rockwell is no novice at filmmaking, having produced and directed the 1991 dark comedy short film, "Love Will Kill You Quicker Than You Think," written by T.S. Cook, and directed a music video for Seattle-founded rock band The Walkabouts, which was voted one of the 10 best of 1991 by viewers of the Seattle-based TV program "Bombshelter Videos."

Rockwell won a drama award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and was offered a directing fellowship to the American Film Institute, for writing, producing, directing and editing the 23-minute student version of "Where the Air Is Cool and Dark" in 1990.

Rockwell subsequently turned "Where the Air Is Cool and Dark" into a feature film that became one of six films chosen in 1997, from more than 800 entries, by the Independent Feature Project/West (later renamed Film Independent, sponsor of the Independent Spirit Awards) for a New Visions screening at the Writer's Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, California, before it received a broader release in 1999, and has since become available on Amazon.

"Where the Air Is Cool and Dark" was set and filmed in Shelton and Port Townsend, both of which are mentioned by name, while Rockwell's 2022 feature film, "Not the Most Careful of Girls," was set and filmed in West Seattle and Seabeck on the Kitsap Peninsula, but he doesn't plan to distribute that later film until after his Jan. 21 screening for the two most recent films he's directed and produced.

The main feature Jan. 21 is "Till I Reach You," a nearly completed mid-1990s period piece set and filmed in Tacoma, shot on 16mm film and starring actors Julienne Hanzelka Kim and Dylan Gary as young blue-collar lovers Josie and Daryl, whose whirlwind courtship whisks them from Milwaukee to the Northwest, where Josie's gambler father (Damien P. Daley) had briefly contacted her from, after leaving Josie and her mother behind.

Rockwell touted "Till I Reach You" as "a beautiful love story played by two talented actors" with "shared chemistry," plus a screenplay by Brendan Besa, which he noted would be accompanied by key scenes from the still-in-progress "We All Got Up to Dance," a period piece spanning 1969-70, set and filmed in Rockwell's hometown of Bremerton, which he wrote himself.

Rockwell described "We All Got Up to Dance" as "a coming-of-age dramedy, following the comic misadventures of 13-year-old Emmett LeClair, a rebel with a heart of gold," whose humorous moments are interspersed with more serious family drama, from an abusive alcoholic father to a draftee cousin who's temporarily on leave from Vietnam, to visit his sick mother in the hospital.

"We All Got Up to Dance" has already cast Brecken Merrill, who plays Kevin Costner's grandson on the Paramount+ series "Yellowstone," as Emmett LeClair, but Rockwell hopes screening scenes from the film at the Roxy will help fill out its cast and complete its production.

"That film has 71 speaking parts, most of them teenagers and young adults, which we're still casting," Rockwell said. "So we can both market and cast the movie, which takes a great deal of time. Except for Brecken Merrill, almost every actor who's already been cast is from the Pacific Northwest. We want to keep going with that, because we've had good luck."

Rockwell intends for his screening to generate interest not only among prospective child and adult actors, but also among theatrical venues including Olympia, Shelton, Port Townsend, Ocean Shores and beyond, all while fundraising in support of the nonprofit Roxy Theatre in Bremerton, followed by live musical performances by some of the musicians who contributed to his films.

Members of the public who aren't able to catch the Jan. 21 screening shouldn't worry, because Rockwell's goal is to use the Roxy screening to bring those movies to them in the coming year or two, in part by attracting as many Olympic Peninsula theater owners as possible.

"We're putting the infrastructure together right now," Rockwell said. "In March, the Washington state film office will be rolling out a program to enhance their 30% rebates for movies shot in Washington. For films written by state residents, and specifically set in rural parts of the state, they'll invest up to $1 million in the film, and will even help promote it."

The fundraiser for the Roxy Theatre in Bremerton is at 1 p.m. Jan. 21, followed by Carla Torgerson's musical performance at Brother Don's at 4 p.m., for $15.

In the meantime, "Where the Air Is Cool and Dark" is available to rent or buy on Amazon.

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
[email protected]