Like so many filmmakers, Bob Hercules of Media Process Group, a company acclaimed for its many award-winning TV documentaries, labored over a narrative feature screenplay on and off for many years.
Now, after a total of 10 years in the works, his comedy, “Waiting for the Clash,” will be one of six projects competing at Sunday’s The Pitch session, for a substantial award of in-kind services, at Gallery at GreenRiver, 259 E. Erie, from 2 to 6 p.m., co-produced by CIFF and IFP Chicago.
Based on Hercules’ experiences as the college station manager at Western Michigan University / Kalamazoo in 1978, the story is about station manager Wade Russell and his Midwestern posse of punk rock pals, who hatch an unlikely scheme to bring the British punk band, The Clash, to play at a fundraising concert to save the station from losing its license.
Hercules says the script didn’t get its legs until he teamed up with Jeff Rogers, a former Second City Main Stage writer-performer, who heads Zap Creative. They co-wrote the comedy which they will pitch together on Sunday.
The other film projects being Pitched:
BIRTHDAY SUIT. On Elaine’s 55th birthday, she realizes that she is becoming invisible to her husband, her family and her town. So she decides to be seen in a radical way: she takes her clothes off, and doesn’t put them on again.
Director Aemilia Scott and producer Holli McGinley will make the pitch.
RANTOUL AND DIE. Rallis and Debbie’s marriage has soured and is stuck to the bottom of the carton. She wants him to hit the bricks, but he’s clingin’ to the past like a cat on a screen door. How far will a man go to hang on to his lady fair? It’s a thin line between love and hate.
Director, comedian/actor/writer Mark Roberts; producers Brett Hays, Jen Shelby and Luke Boyce. Pitched by Hays and Shelby.
THE REAL LIFE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY DE LAS ROSAS. It’s a hot summer and people from the hood are disappearing. Can Jimmy de las Rosas turn up the heat on his mutant abilities to find them?
Co-directors: Ricardo Gamboa, who will pitch, and Reshmi Hazra Rustebakke. Producer, Ben Kolak.
STATIC. Offbeat Internet radio host, Gio LaRocca has mastered living his life with his glass half full – artistically fulfilled, but financially strapped. Shocking news causes Gio to find himself stripped of his identity and forced to finally define himself amidst all the Static. A feature film created in tandem with a music web series.
Director, Rocco Cataldo and co-owner Michael Kwielford of Potenza Productions will pitch; producer, Mary Kay Cook, senior producer at Potenza Productions.
THREE SISTERS. In 2011, 42 immigrants were trapped inside a suffocating box truck for hours during the peak of the Texas summer. One of those who made it out alive tells her harrowing story.
Director John Rangel and producer Margaret Byrne will pitch their project.
The Pitch will be judged by Molly O’Keefe (Tribeca Film Industry), Eddie Linker (Forager Films), Aiah Keith (IFC Films) and Rebecca Green (Two Flints).
