Student directed drama entered into Missouri film fest

RICHARD HINKSON
A&E REPORTER

Life of Charlie, a small film made by former Humber students, is causing quite a stir on both sides of the border.

The film was recently selected as one of the works shown at the 2009 American Artist Film Festival, which the film’s producer Kenneth Molen, 32, attended in Hannibal, Mo. in September.

Molen said he found out the piece was selected last minute. “We found out, I think, like a week before the festival,” he said.

“It was interesting because I’ve never been in a film festival. I mean I’ve gone to a couple of movies at TIFF but not really doing the festival thing.”

The film was written and directed by Humber grad David Grimes and follows the story of it’s title character – played by Rick Jon Egan – an aimless would-be musician who changes his mindset after meeting a girl named Sarah – played by Kati Durst.

“It was one of the first films I did in a starring role. It was amazing because they were working in my hometown of Goderich, Ont.,” Egan said.

Egan, 27, who has starred in the CBC miniseries Darwin’s Brave New World, spoke about the work ethic of the team who worked on Life of Charlie.

“It was filled with long days and nights but there was a real sense of community,” Egan said. “Everyone was pitching in.”

Egan said he felt a connection to his character and saw similarities in himself.

“He’s one who struggles with his true calling. I was lucky to have some people take note of my passions and push me to pursue them.”

Although the hard work paid off Grimes, 28, said it was a tough process.

“There’s just an immense pressure – five days into it, I thought the shoot itself was just going to be just a joy,” Grimes said.

And five days in, I realized how exhausted everyone was, myself included and how far morale had fallen and thinking that we had 22 more days of this to go, you know, and like just trying to keep sane and stay positive and think ‘yeah, you can do this and like we can get through it.’”

For more information about the film go to LifeofCharlie.com.