screener series features Portsmouth filmmakers

The first two films to be shared as part of the new New Hampshire Film Office "Works-In-Process" screening and discussion series happen to be made by two Seacoast filmmakers.

Tom Jackson will show excerpts from Worlds Apart: 9/11 First Responders Against War. The film, which Jackson has been working on for about a year, depicts a group of New York City first responders who worked to save lives on 9/11, but who also seek to get to the roots of terrorism rather than continuing the cycle of violence. In an attempt to reach out to Afghan counterparts, the group's founder goes to Afghanistan to befriend Afghan first responders.

Ron Wyman will show his work in progress, African Rhythms, a pilot for the series World Rhythms, which seeks to offer insight into world cultures through music, musicians and instruments. The pilot features performances by Tunde Jegede and Nana Danso Abiam (Pan Africa Orchestra), and virtuoso musical performances on traditional instruments are presented both in West African villages and in worldwide concerts.

The films' combined running times are about an hour, and a discussion, led by Gary Anderson of Cineworks Productions, Inc., an Emmy Award-winning production house located in Deerfield, will follow the screenings. This all takes place at the State Library, 20 Park St. in Concord, on Thursday, March 17, beginning at 7:30 p.m. For more information about the screenings or the New Hampshire Film Office, call 603-271-2540 or visit www.filmnh.org.

In other news from the Film Office, they've received permission from the state to go ahead with hiring a film office specialist, and will be starting to interview candidates this month. The film office specialist is a new position, and whoever fills it will help to promote New Hampshire as a production destination and help with in-state projects.

Golyadkin post-production

Barrington filmmaker Ti Chase recently left with his wife to visit her parents in Romania with a laptop, Final Cut Pro and a lot of data on an external hard drive. When he returns next month, he hopes to have a final cut of the drama Golyadkin, a drama featuring a handful of main characters and shot in Portsmouth in January.

"I've been working on writing it for quite a while. It's a project I've been wanting to get up and going for a long time and I finally got to the point where I did," Chase said about the script, which began as a play of his produced at the Players' Ring a few summers ago. Laurelin Films, made up of Seacoast natives Chase, G. Matthew Gaskell and Andrew Fling, produced the film.

"The original idea was to take that play and put that on film, but through the development process, and again we wrote this five or six years ago, I ended up keeping most of the same characters but changed the story," Chase said. He realized in the process that his play was "an interesting story, but not anything that's going to change anyone's life." Writing the screenplay, he said, "I realized that was going to be true of the film, too. I wanted to ... create something that people would either love or hate, that either way they would have a strong reaction, not just an 'it's a nice thing' kind of reaction."

The crew shot the 90-minute film digitally and plans to transfer to 35mm for projection. They hope to have it finished in time to send off to premier film festivals this year. "We have our hopes set pretty high to begin with. The ultimate goal would be to be picked up for distribution," Chase said.

The real goal, however, is to keep making films. "The core group of three or four of us is really committed to this idea of making one film a year," he said.