David Spaltro's First Feature Film …Around

This Low-Budget Independent Movie Now Making the Festival Circuit

Mar 14, 2009

"...Around" is the product of one man, forty credit cards, and nearly two hundred locations.

According to independent filmmaker David Spaltro, his first full-length feature film …Around was truly a labor of love. Shot over 21 days in 190 locations in New York City, the film was self-financed for $175,000 using 40 credit cards.

The Story of … Around

Throughout the movie, Doyle Simms (Robert Evans), the central character who moves from New Jersey to New York City to pursue his dream of filmmaking, deals with his dysfunctional family, administrative red tape, pretentious classmates, poverty, homelessness, and snobbery. On top of his other problems, the struggling film student has no ideas for his film project. The story follows Doyle during his college years as he builds relationships (including with an attractive young waitress/model/actress [Molly Ryman]) while hiding his family history and current homelessness.

“The film is about a young man with a dual life ‘living’ out of Penn and Grand Central Station while going to film school, based on my own personal experiences a few years ago in this city,” Spaltro says. “It’s very much based on myself, but I wouldn’t call it an autobiography as it has a narrative dramatic structure I had to create…I did do some creative living like Doyle during a financial hardship my sophomore year, and the heart of the film is very much me. Doyle is a snapshot of me at 18-22, someone I was and in a lot of ways still am.”

Spaltro says that he scribbled notes and treatments on napkins while he was in Asia teaching English a few years ago. Trapped inside during a monsoon, he wrote the first drafts of …Around. When he returned to New York City, he fine-tuned the script until he was ready to begin casting during winter 2006.

Twenty-seven days of production began in New York City during September 2007 and was cursed with many obstacles, such as changes in locations, car accidents, and unreliable extras. Even so, everything eventually came together, and Spaltro produced a two-hour rough cut of the film that was screened for cast, crew, and friends in January 2008.

According to Spaltro, the film has been getting lots of positive buzz online and on the festival circuit, which includes a premiere at Tribeca Cinemas, NewFilmmakers NY, Big Apple Film Festival, and others. He’s working on an upcoming DVD and a digital distribution deal in the United States and abroad with Cinetic Media Rights, a division of John Sloss’s Cinetic Media.

“We are awaiting selection in a few festivals and mostly working on our digital distribution deal through Cinetic Rights Management,” Spaltro says. “We are also currently working with a record label on a tie-in soundtrack album of all the great music in the film, and they were interested in a DVD combo and small theatrical release.”

For updated screenings and more production information about …Around, visit the official website.

The copyright of the article David Spaltro's First Feature Film …Around in Independent Films is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish David Spaltro's First Feature Film …Around in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.