Award-winning COM short is (sort of) all in the family

By Hope Green

Director Tom Danon (COM'95)

The gentle pace of life in the fictional town of Wizzichuck Bay is a far remove from the Los Angeles existence to which independent filmmaker Tom Danon has grown accustomed.

Gentle, that is, except when a human-size, demented clothespin-doll-come-to-life goes on the rampage in a local bank, a mysterious hooker whispering in a French accent arrives in a cloud of mist, and an oddball assortment of townspeople starts phoning in UFO sightings to the police.

So goes the onscreen action in Cuppa Cabby, Piece O' Pie, a short film directed by Danon (COM'95) and written by COM Associate Professor Stephen Geller and his wife, Kae, an adjunct instructor. The screen is not the silver kind, though that could soon change.

The 28-minute film, produced and directed by BU alumni and students, recently won the award for best comedy at ZoieFest 2000. The prize is one of the most prestigious in the expanding arena of Internet film festivals. Anyone with the requisite computer connection and software can view the winning films on the Web site of Zoie Films International.

Within 5 or 10 years, Internet cinema is expected to chip away at the videocassette rental market and change the face of home entertainment, with movies-on-demand being streamed into living rooms via satellite. But for the time being, Internet festivals provide exposure for small-budget films that might otherwise be crowded out of a screening at traditional indie contests.

"This is the first step toward where we want to go," says Danon of the Zoie award. "Even though it's neat to be part of the cutting edge on the Internet, we eventually want to get our film into a roomful of 150 people at a place like the Venice Film Festival. This is a comedy and it's meant to be seen larger than life, on a big screen."

Surreal slice o' life

The film was shot on six days last August in several of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay communities, including Jamestown, where the Gellers live. Its chief protagonist is Clyve Pegg (Stephen Geller), a mild-mannered policeman who drawls out strange and meandering tales at the local diner over his coffee and summerberry pie.

Most of the action alternates between the diner -- where the owner's waitressing daughters are perpetually engaged in a King Lear-inspired feud -- and flashbacks to surreal events Pegg is recounting from a long night of taking UFO statements around town.

Kae Geller had multiple roles as a reporter, as Clyve's deranged, mop-haired younger sister, Clove, and as Clove's demonic hero Jimmy Clothespin, who raids an ATM and tosses deposit slips around a bank in a wild jig before absconding with a 4-month-old baby (played by the Gellers' daughter, Florrie, now 13 months).

A local housepainter had a major part as Ray Hoxsey, the diner's cigar-chewing proprietor. Danon's parents, Milton and Ardis, were among the extras in the cast. Others were recruited from the Bay area, impressing Danon with their patience as they bided their time for hours on the set.

Businesses were happy to donate food and locations, sometimes closing early or keeping their staff a few hours late to help with a scene.

"Filming in Rhode Island was so great," Danon says, "because in California you go for a walk in the neighborhood and you run into a movie set and there's no magic. But if you show up with a film crew in Rhode Island, there is instantly a sense of wonder and excitement. Three of our extras were just people who came up to us and volunteered."

Camping out

Danon and the Gellers marveled at how smoothly the project went. Fortunately, the weather cooperated -- as even one day lost to a rainstorm might have crippled their budget. But a winning group spirit also kept up the momentum. "We shot one scene in a parking lot where it was 100 degrees," Kae Geller recalls. "Nobody complained."

Cast and crew had lodgings at Rhode Island College in Providence, a half-hour's drive north of the shooting locations, but when filming ran into the night, the Gellers let the group camp out on their lawn.

"The crew was just so happy working these ridiculous 14-hour days," Danon says. "Nobody was getting paid but everyone was working hard and putting energy and creativity to make this happen. It was a fun place to be."

'Peers and friends'

The project was not the first Danon-Geller collaboration. Stephen Geller was one of Danon's professors at COM, and later starred in his first film, Bleached, a runner-up for best director at the 1997 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.

"We really started to go beyond the student-teacher relationship and become more peers and friends," says Danon, who earns his living as an editor for television sitcoms and A&E's Biography. So when the Gellers were trying to attract financial backing for two of their screenplays, Danon was eager to help in the search.

"We decided to form a little partnership and get these movies made," he says, "and after a year and a half of trying without success, we decided to do something a little different."

The result was Cuppa Cabby, which combines story lines and characters from both scripts (one of which is an adaptation of the play Opportunities in Zero Gravity, first performed at the Boston Playwrights Theater at BU in 1997).

"We wanted to use this short film as a springboard to gain exposure before a wider audience," Danon explains. "We hope to use it to show the agents, producers, and money people what we're capable of doing."

At one time, independent filmmakers stood a chance of being screened at a prestigious festival such as Sundance. Stephen Geller, in fact, won a special jury prize at Cannes in 1972 for his screenplay adaptation of Slaughterhouse-5.

But as Danon observes, in just three years the number of applicants to Sundance has tripled to 3,000, and indies with star power -- such as those with Ron Howard as producer or Ethan Hawke in a leading role -- usually have the edge.

"The Zoie award is exciting for us," Stephen Geller says, "because the Internet is where film is going and it's something we've talked about in class. And for somebody like me who has been in the film industry for over 30 years, it means I have a future. The gray list is a reality in Hollywood, and for me this is a real shot in the arm."

Cast and crew hope to reunite for another film. "The Gellers are such intensely fun and creative people," Danon says. "They don't rest for a moment and they're always thinking of something new. When you inject that into a film set, everyone wants to get involved."

Cuppa Cabby, Piece O' Pie is now posted on www.zoiefilms.com/zoiefest2000.htm and is available for screening on computers with high-speed connections.