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Another Chagrin product pursues his dream
(by Sue Hoffman - August 21, 2008)
Another Chagrin product pursues his dream
By SUE HOFFMAN
Chagrin Falls High School 1988 graduate Matthew Stanton had a dream, and he's about to share it with the world through his film, "North Starr."
After working on the film for the last 10 years and recently completing it as writer, director, producer and supporting actor, Mr. Stanton received one of the highest honors for his achievement last winter. From 3,624 feature film submissions, "North Starr" was one of 121 selected for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The film was one of the top 16 films that competed in the prestigious dramatic competition category, earning a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. Five of the film's six screenings at Sundance were sellouts.
"Sundance gave us an amazing endorsement," Mr. Stanton said. "Our strategy now is to take the movie to film festivals around the world."
The project has required much sacrifice on the part of Mr. Stanton, a former Chagrin Falls High School football and track star, student council member and middle school class president. To pursue his dream, he worked odd jobs in Los Angeles while living in less than ideal conditions, including his 1996 Ford Explorer.
A 2001 graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he majored in theater, Mr. Stanton said he had to learn filmmaking on his own since he never was accepted into film school.
Despite his struggle, he quickly adds that he was fortunate to grow up in "beautiful Chagrin Falls," where his family had a house and horses at the top of the hill on Summit Street.
Mr. Stanton, recently a featured guest of the Chagrin Falls Alumni Association, showed his film to an enthusiastic audience at the district's performing arts center. Viewers included his parents, retired Chagrin Falls teacher John (Jack) and Nora Stanton, who adopted and raised a multiracial family.
Racial strife is one of the themes of "North Starr," but it goes much deeper, Mr. Stanton said. "We're all products of our environment. There's a universal theme that's not just black or white. It's when you take a fish out of water, how do people react?"
That "fish" in "North Starr" is Demetrius, played by Jerome Hawkins.
"The story is about a journey," Mr. Stanton said. "Demetrius is an inner-city black male who witnesses a brutal execution of his best friend."
That's when Demetrius, an aspiring rap singer with baggy jeans and a Walkman, leaves Houston and heads for San Antonio. He ends up in the rural Texas hinterland in the racially-segregated fictional town of Trublin, where he meets Darring (Mr. Stanton), a ranch hand who is also in search of more meaning in his life.
Mr. Stanton said the two characters, from the same cultural background, "are so uniquely different." Darring, country-music lover and insightful, "is the perfect escort" for Demetrius, who is searching for his own identity in a town with a shameful past. And Demetrius is willing to do the work. Unfortunately, the identities of others in Trublin are based on hatred.
One of the most inspiring moments of the film is when Demetrius and country band Texas Touch blend cultures in a rap-country song at a dance.
"Jerome Hawkins and Bo McDowell (of Texas Touch) wrote the song under a tree the day we shot the movie," Mr. Stanton said. "It's an amazing song."
Mr. Stanton said he was working with horses at Craighead Farms on Music Street in Newbury when he conceived of the idea for the film in 1994. He was listening to a country song and the lyrics inspired him to write the script. "It's a freedom song, visually and musically," he said about his final product.
"I've cleaned horse stalls on each coast, been a substitute teacher, bartended, worked in museums," he said about his efforts to fund the film. "At one point it was a multimillion dollar venture. I re-evaluated it and did the film low budget."
That was the right decision, he said. His friend, Wayne Campbell, whom he met in the Cleveland area and provides the comic relief in the film, convinced him to do the filming in his hometown near Abilene, Texas. The two friends shared the script with the local townspeople and won their support.
Much of the supporting cast members are locals, Mr. Stanton said. "We used the resources and amenities available for free. We were so fortunate. The film benefited. We accomplished so much more with so much less."
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