In my senior year at USC, I was in a production of "Much Ado About Nothing," directed by Dustin Whitehead. I played Dogberry, my friend Anthony Currie played Benedick.
On Thursday, April 4, at the Nickelodeon, I watched Anthony play Tre – passionate but shortsighted, enthusiastic and soft, central character of Local Cinema Studios’ indie film ‘Hero,’ again under the brilliant direction of Dustin.
As is obvious, I’m not used to seeing my friends onscreen at the Nick. I’m also not used to seeing Columbia up there, central, endearing and rich in all of its dirt, train trestles, tree-shaded neighborhoods and crumbling half-neighborhoods. (Olympia.) I don’t think any of us are used to seeing a film so close to home. To me it struck close to home in a series of compounding ways, one atop another.
As a young person, as an arts student, a student of acting in the South, it’s easy to feel many lifetimes, lengthy distances away from ‘the industry’ ... it's easy to silently harp for days at a time on the perceived kaleidoscopic distance between being a student of film and being within a legitimate film production. This is a way in particular that "Hero" strikes at the heart of the young artist, the ground-up, paycheck-to-paycheck, do-it-oneself artist – I recognized friends from my theater classes in the cast. I saw names of my friends in the credits.
"Hero" is the first chapter in Local Cinema Studios’ ‘Get on Set’ initiative – an effort designed specifically to bridge the gap between academia and industry.
Every summer, Local Cinema Studios produces a feature-length film, specifically designing a production team and environment partly made up of young, starting-out artists.
The stone "Hero" threw closest to home in my experience of premiere night, was the vote of confidence cast on the young artist, the student artist, the curious, hungry & inexperienced & infinitely small, one of many in line to go do something. I’m an actor, but I don’t seem to be edging any closer to Broadway or LA – "Hero" was a vote of confidence in me, in Columbia as a place for me for now.
Director Dustin Whitehead on the set of "Hero."
The next day, my partner sent me a video online. A local musician, Tiffany J, had been featured in the film. In the scene, her character sings on the street on her way home, setting out a pinprick of light for Tre in a dark stretch. For the movie premiere, she sang outside the Nick after the screening, accompanied by a pianist.
The video in question was of Tiffany holding out the microphone to a young girl. The young girl (8,9 years old?) is singing into the mic, in classic young-nervous posture, one foot twisted around behind her and hands clenching and fidgeting. The caption: “She was smiling so hard while I was singing, I had to invite her up to sing with me.”
Hilariously, maybe movingly, Dustin is doing the same. He teaches at USC. He looked out, saw some kids in the crowd with the look in their eyes that said “I am ready to get up there.” He held out the mic. Every summer, he still is.
