January 10, 2005

By JOHN Y. REID

FILM FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS CONTROVERSIAL “HATE CRIME”

The Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop, March 3-6, will feature Hate Crime, a suspense thriller that shows the destruction ignited when religious intolerance and homophobia overwhelm love.

Shot in Dallas, the film was written and directed by Sedona resident Tommy Stovall, a University of Texas graduate in radio, television, and film. Marc Sterling, Stovall’s partner, was the film’s executive producer.

Hate Crime is a movie that shows that even the most unlikely among us is capable of exacting Old Testament revenge and justice and that there can be an impulse to act in God’s stead when we suspect he isn’t doing enough. The movie is visually and psychologically dark, though there are glimpses of the possibility of redemption.

Stovall said, “I tend to like movies that are dark. My favorite movie is Silence of the Lambs. I set out to make something enjoyable and entertaining for the audience, but I wanted to lay out the issues of homophobia and gay-bashing. It’s hard not to force-feed people the information, and audiences don’t appreciate being beaten over the head with the message.”

While the movie shows what can result from blind hatred and bigotry — the multiple messages are not far from the viewer’s mind — there is plenty of edge-of-the-seat excitement. But Hate Crime is not obvious in the way most contemporary American thrillers and horror films are. There are no car chases, no explosions, no gratuitous blood and gore, no AK 47s mowing down the masses, no asteroids crashing into Earth.

Rather, Stovall lets characters blinded by bigotry, fear, and hate clarify what is possible when all restraint is lost. He shows the members of the audience the true horror of what they’re witnessing; he does not tell them about it.

The audience sees what happens when Robbie Levinson and Trey McCoy find their loving relationship and peaceful lives overwhelmed by the prejudice of their new neighbor, Chris Boyd, and his fundamentalist preacher father, Pastor Boyd.

In making Hate Crime, Stovall and Sterling started with a solid business plan that allowed them to finish the project with few hitches in just over a year.

Stovall said this was important in getting name actors and others to commit to the project. “One of the first questions that comes up is ‘Are you funded?’ because once the money runs out, the project folds, and you’re nowhere,” he said.

That Hate Crime, unlike many independent films, was on sound financial footing from the beginning was no accident. Sterling is an accountant, who in 1985 started Sterling’s Bookkeeping and Tax Service with one client in Dallas. The firm now serves more than 2,200 clients throughout the U.S. and specializes in advising people on starting and maintaining successful businesses. And Stovall worked at Sterling’s Bookkeeping and Tax Service before realizing his dream of making a feature film.

“We ran it like a business,” Sterling said.

Even though the first words of the Hate Crime script were written in August 2003 and the film was finished on Dec. 6, 2004, the idea for the movie had been in Stovall’s mind for a number of years.

“I came up with the idea six or seven years ago, and it really started with the title,” Stovall said. “I thought ‘Hate Crime’ would be a good idea. I wanted to explore religion as a catalyst for hate. The idea came from real events, and I wanted to show people this does exist.”

The cast for Hate Crime includes Hollywood standouts Bruce Davison, Cindy Pickett, Susan Blakely, Lin Shaye, and Giancarlo Esposito, in addition to Seth Peterson and Brian J. Smith, who star as the victims of the hate crime.

Stovall said that in casting Hate Crime, he looked for “people who wanted to be involved and had a passion for it.”

While directing Hollywood actors for the first time was at first intimidating, Stovall said, “They were down to earth and easy to work with.”

Sterling said the most satisfying thing about making Hate Crime was “how well everyone worked together and how enjoyable and light it was during the entire filming. The whole process was learning how everything works.”

For Stovall, what was most satisfying was the fact “I did the movie and finished it. From now on I can say I made a movie.”

More movies will be forthcoming from the Stovall and Sterling team.

“Our goal is to make movie after movie,” Sterling said.

And Stovall said, “I have an idea for a movie shot in Sedona, but I haven’t written the first word. That’s the goal, to make a movie in Sedona.”

For now, the two are enjoying the reactions of test audiences. Sterling said, “As soon as it stops, people take a deep breath. We had a screening in Dallas, and people were laughing, crying, and talking to the screen during the showing. That was really great.”

For more information about the Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop or to order passes, call the festival office at (928) 282-1177 or visit www.sedonafilmfestival.com.