Anthony Ambrosino was 28 years old in 2005, working in retail after he dropped out of college and wondering what he was going to do with the rest of his life.
“I was making stupid videos of my friends,” he recalled.
He considered attending film school or buying a house, but decided to focus his limited resources on one project. He started writing a script for a full-length feature film and found some local folks who helped him make it. He always knew it was a risk and his movie could end up on a shelf someday – never screened, never seen.
Now five years later, after a lot of tenacity, hard work and invaluable help from family, friends and the film community in Rhode Island, Ambrosino is about to see the movie he co-wrote and directed presented on the big screen, as part of the Rhode Island International Film Festival taking place in August.
“We are lucky,” he said of himself and his team, The 989 Project based in Cranston. “You know, you submit your movie to film festivals all over the world and usually your film is shown in another state or another country. Hardly anybody gets to see their movie in their home state.”
Ambrosino’s film “Sleather” is one of 175 films, shot and produced in 62 countries, that will be shown during the 14th annual six-day festival Aug. 10 through Aug. 15, taking place at various venues in Rhode Island, mostly in Providence.
Ranked as one of the top 12 film festivals in the nation, organizers say, RIIFF is the only qualifying venue in New England for the Short Film Academy Award, also known as the Oscar. Countries where this year’s selected films were made run the gamut from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. More than 4,200 films were submitted for consideration, a 20 percent increase above 2009, organizers said.
Other highlights of this year’s event include the world premiere of “Behind the Hedgerow: Eileen Slocum and the Meaning of Newport Society,” a documentary film about the late grande dame of Bellevue Avenue, directed by David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller and executive-produced by Flickers, RIIFF’s parent group. The Slocum film will be shown twice, on opening night Aug. 10 and in Newport on Aug. 14.
For the first time this year, gala opening night festivities will take place at RIIFF’s new headquarters, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium Arts & Cultural Center in Providence. The film organization moved there in January after the city closed its former home, the Columbus Theatre on Broadway, for fire-code violations last year.
Scheduled to receive this year’s special achievement award is Jonathan Katz, best known for his starring role in the animated situation comedy “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” which aired on Comedy Central from 1995 to 2002. He co-wrote “House of Games” with playwright David Mamet, a close friend of his, and has had minor roles in several Mamet films. More recently, after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996, Katz has toured the country to raise awareness about the disease.
An animated film that Katz narrated, “Death Row Diet,” will be shown at the festival at a date and time to be announced. George T. Marshall, executive director of RIIFF, is virtually certain Katz will be present, unlike last year when William Shatner, the actor who starred in the TV series “Star Trek” and “The Practice,” cost RIIFF a lot of money.
The film group was all set to recognize Shatner for his achievements. It had an award specially made for him. It rented the Aurora Club for a private, high-priced reception. It even managed to arrange for Shatner, an equestrian, to use a horse from the Providence Police Department to trot over to the Aurora.
And then Shatner backed out, just days before the festival, citing a last-minute scheduling conflict.
Marshall said RIIFF returned more than $10,000 to those who had bought tickets for just the Shatner events. “That’s what happens when you run an arts event,” Marshall said matter-of-factly. “That could have happened to any group anywhere. Things change in this business, but you have to keep moving forward.”
No one needs to tell Ambrosino that.
With starts and stops, Ambrosino’s film took more than two years to make. At one point, filmmaking stopped because Ambrosino ran out of money. With an infusion of cash from business partner Steve T. Skoly, he was able to proceed and the movie ended up costing $23,000 to make – a drop in the proverbial bucket in the film world, but quite a lot of money for Ambrosino.
He describes “Sleather” as an “upbeat, fast-paced journey about fame, friends and family,” a cross between “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
He estimated that as many as 600 extras and 100 crew members worked on the comedy, explaining the large numbers were a result of several stops and starts in the filmmaking process. Filmmakers worked at more than 50 locations throughout the Ocean State, and the movie benefits greatly, Ambrosino said, from the prominent placement of Rhode Island products such as Yacht Club soda and Rhody Fresh milk.
As a result of his foray into the world of moviemaking, he now does a lot of crew work and recently finished working as a crew member on “Incubus,” a movie by Rhode Island filmmaker Michael Corrente that was shot in Cranston. “I never thought I would be able to work in movies in Rhode Island,” said Ambrosino, a California native who grew up in the Ocean State.
Other festival highlights:
• Closing night Aug. 15 will focus on films that illustrate the business, sustainability and importance of the fishing industry in New England.
• A screenwriting workshop Aug. 11 will offer advice from Thomas Cobb, Rhode Island College professor who wrote the novel “Crazy Heart,” and writer/director Chris Sparling, recently hired to write the screenplay for director M. Night Shyamalan’s next project, “Twelve Strangers.”
• Children and students have not been forgotten, with three small festivals taking place within the larger RIIFF agenda: the KidsEye festival will feature the work of teen video-makers; the third annual youth filmmaker festival will show the output of 8- to 16-year-olds who attended RIIFF’s summer camp; and the New England student fest will present films made by college and university students throughout the region.
• A salute to Disney animation will feature the screening of “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” a 2010 documentary about Disney animators from 1984 to 1994. •
