Regional filmmaker's work draws fans in Bremerton

Western Washington filmmaker Brion Rockwell, and Don Manning, with whom he's worked on three of his films, found themselves overwhelmed by the bustling turnout for a Jan. 21 afternoon screening at the Roxy Theater in Bremerton.

The screening included the Rockwell-directed, Tacoma-based "Till I Reach You" and selected scenes from the still-under-production "We All Got Up to Dance," which Rockwell wrote and directed, and filmed in Bremerton.

"We got about 100 folks on Facebook who said they'd be there, but of course, you don't expect all of those folks to show up," Rockwell said. He was joined by Manning and several other creative and business partners, and invited guests, at a reception at Brother Don's Bar & Grill that same evening.

The screening drew 125 to 150 moviegoers to the Roxy, enough that the start of the screening was delayed 30 minutes so everyone in the line extending down the block could be admitted.

Rockwell was tasked with taking popcorn and soda orders at the concession stand.

"Brion is a multifaceted director," said Manning, who executive-produced and scripted Rockwell's 2015 short film "Closing Time," executive-produced his 2022 feature film "Not the Most Careful of Girls," and is now co-producing "We All Got Up to Dance." "He gets right in there, hands-on, to help out."

Even Rockwell's revels at Brother Don's saw the filmmaker continuing to hustle as he discussed playback sound matters from that day's screening at the Roxy with his editor, Lilith Morris, while friends and collaborators, including recurring cast member Tony Doupe, entered the restaurant.

"The screening was a weird experience for me, because it basically spanned more than two decades of my life," said Doupe, who played Jimmy the hitman in "Till I Reach You," and abusive alcoholic father Alton LeClair in "We All Got Up to Dance." "You get to see me before and after," he chuckled.

"Till I Reach You" was originally shot near the end of the 1990s, but when the production's financing fell through, the film sat dormant for more than a decade, until Rockwell was able to transfer and clean up the footage around the mid-2010s.

Although Doupe remains proud of the work he did in "Till I Reach You," seeing it screen alongside "We All Got Up to Dance" heightened his enthusiasm for the current production.

"We all learn how to get better at what we do as we get older," said Doupe, who praised "We All Got Up to Dance" as "a solid film, with a really good script and story, that showcases the identity of Bremerton and what it's all about. I'm excited about this production."

Rockwell was effusive about his actors. The cast for "We All Got Up to Dance" includes Doupe and Brecken Merrill of Paramount's "Yellowstone," the latter as 13-year-old protagonist Emmett LeClair. Merrill's mother and sister played Emmett's mother and sister onscreen.

For the rest of the film's cast, though, Rockwell is continuing to seek out child, teen and adult actors from the Olympic Peninsula to increase the film's eligibility for money from the Washington film office, which is looking to promote filmmaking in the more rural parts of the state.

As it stands, Rockwell sees independent filmmaking outgrowing Seattle as a supposed hotspot for events such as film festivals, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

"I don't think we really need Seattle, so we're not going there," Rockwell said. "It's these local film venues in smaller towns, like the Roxy in Bremerton, the Shelton Cinemas and the Rose Theatre in Port Townsend, that are where independent films thrive now. I'd love to line up half a dozen screenings with them, all at once, this spring."

As the evening at Brother Don's finally afforded Rockwell time to relax, he stared at the band setting up to perform on the restaurant's stage, led by Carla Torgerson, who appeared onscreen for a musical number in "Till I Reach You."

"She does the music for all my films," Rockwell said, as Torgerson crooned and her band played on. "I should do a documentary on them."

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

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