I just attended the Gasparilla International Film Festival and one of the advantages of doing this is because I got to see a lot of 'small pictures'. What I mean by this is that in addition to showing the big-budget extravaganzas from Hollywood, this festival gives you a chance to see quite a few independent films that might otherwise slip between the cracks...independent films that are shockingly good. A great example is last night's debut of "Waiting on Mary". This film was shot by a young director, Corey Horton, mostly over a period of two weeks! This was simply because it's expensive to make a full-length film and he had to work quickly and economically. As far as the actors go, they were mostly local talent--folks who generally appear in local community theater. But here is what I loved....the film was still very, very good...better than most films I usually get a chance to review. I just hope that Waiting for Mary gets some attention and backing, as it really deserves to be seen outside of this and the Sunscreen Film Festival where it will play again at the end of April.

The film begins at a strange place for Florida, Jamestown Park. This park is a replica of colonial America and the folks working there all appear in period costumes and stay in character. One of these folks, Nathan (Brian Shea), is having a horrible day. Apparently the park is failing and his boss informs him that he's being let go. To make matters worse, as he's leaving work he stumbles upon his wife having sex with another man. This is a very rough way to discover she wants a divorce! Does he handle this by exploding or falling apart? No...he handles it by staying in character. This woman is not his wife, so he hasn't been betrayed. And, he has not lost his job...he's still Nathaniel...an 18th century American patriot!

Throughout the rest of the film, Nathan's parents are naturally concerned and send him to meet an emissary from their colony....in other words, a psychotherapist! Throughout their sessions, he insists that he's an emissary from the colony of Jamestown Park and that all this strange technology he sees about him are because this 'other colony' (in essence, modern America) is just more advanced than his beloved Jamestown Park. He also insists that a ship, the Mary, will one day return to take him back to his real home. So, as he interacts with folks in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, Nathaniel is always in colonial garb and speaks like a man taken out of time. Naturally, folks around him are shocked and think he's a nut and this gets him a lot of unwanted attention! Despite these challenges, he meets a lovely lady named Allison...a photographer who accepts him for who he is and doesn't feel threatened or afraid of his delusions. What's next for poor Nathaniel? See the film and find out for yourself.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this is a low budget film and it needs to be seen. Corey Horton is planning on working on crowd funding so that they can afford to get this film out there so everyone will have a chance to see it. At this point, this Kickstarter campaign has not yet begun, but if you are interested, I suggest you try to Facebook page for Waiting for Mary. Here you can not only find out how you can help this lovely film but, more importantly, how and where you can find it to see it. I also plan to update this information here at Influx when it becomes available.

While the plot is pretty weird, the film is not strictly played for laughs...and that's one of the reasons I really loved this picture. Instead, there is a lot of charm, a little pain and a bit of romance....and it all works well because the direction of the film was quite nice. That, and because Brian Shea really, really did a great job in the lead. He managed to play the part so that he wasn't a buffoon, but a man who is simply too overwhelmed and heartbroken to accept what his life really has become. The rest of the cast also did a lovely job and the film certainly is a crowd pleaser.

Divorce sucks! Most people describe feeling pain and confusion, some describe feeling utterly 'lost', as if they are in a pitch black room, wandering about looking for the door when faced with divorce. Ever wonder how you would handle it, how do you deal with faded dreams? In locally shot Waiting on Mary, Nathaniel, a struggling actor chooses to become a Colonial character he once played at an amusement park to cope with his pain in this bittersweet small budget adventure.

Premiered at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg last fall, Waiting on Mary was shot locally for under $30,000 using paid professional actors, each with roots in Tampa Bay. The St. Petersburg / Clearwater Film Commission gave film producers Corey Horton, Joseph Papa and Brian Shea from Dolphin In A Drum Productions, Inc. an open permit allowing them to shoot anywhere they liked in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties for 14 days! Yes, this hilarious motion picture, Waiting on Mary, came in in 14 days for under $30K!

With the help of friends and family filling in as everything from extras, sound mixers, production assistants and more, Waiting on Mary is not only a story about love and forgiveness it is a labor of love. From the first lines to the closing credits you get the sense of partnership and community underscoring this heart-felt funny feature film set against the backdrop of beautiful St. Petersburg, FL. Following the fall premier, Film Festivals were the next step, the next Big Dream for this indie, a dream set to become a reality on March 31st thanks to GIFF!

Waiting on Mary is Dolphin In A Drum's first feature film and stars local actor Brian Shea as quirky Nathaniel. Award-winning stage actress Katherine Michelle Tanner plays the intangible Mary while Broadway actress Emilee Dupre' from St. Petersburg plays the sweetest character and Nathaniel's love interest. Bonnie Agan and Jim Wicker act as Nathaniel's parents and Bob Devin Jones his terribly patient therapist. Actor Matthew McGee plays Colonel Pennington, an eccentric co-worker and Matt Lunsford fills the role of an interested (this is a nicer word for something else) local TV reporter while Ned Averill-Snell plays lovable lush Rodney, friend to Nathaniel.

Sharing the screen you can see current Assistant Principal at Gibbs High School and former drama teacher to producer/director Corey Horton and Cinematographer Joseph Papa, Mike Vasallo with his son as well as local theater actor Jim Sorensen, Bill Miller, Peter Lynch and actor/director Paul Potenza as a shopkeeper. Several people you might recognize took this incredible journey with Dolphin in A Drum last fall, a journey extended by GIFF. A journey leading to an opportunity for us to support their efforts.

Locals will recognize venues like Heritage Village, freeFall Theater, The Emerald Bar, Gratzzi's, local beaches and more. From the first day of filming until the heart-wrenching climax shots filmed two weeks later, the hopes and dreams of many people tied to the Tampa Bay Area went into those film canisters.

I loved this endearing, small budget comedy-drama film and recommend watching if you get the chance!

Just to get it out of the way, I went to school with some of the filmmakers of Waiting On Mary.

I was lucky enough to get the chance to see it a while back, and for a micro- budget indie romantic comedy, it was a very endearing watch with the kind of story that you're unlikely to find with a bigger production. The production values, despite a low budget, shine through and you can tell the people involved were very passionate about making up for a lack of funds through ingenuity, resourcefulness, and talent. If I have one gripe, it's that the tone of the story can shift abruptly at points from quirky romantic comedy to lowbrow humor, but this again just helps provide a more wacky ride that you're unlikely to see from a big name studio.