Brothers Piotr and Milosz Skowronski say they’ve seen their film These Lovers hundreds of times.
Still, they’re excited to see it at least once more.
On Thursday night, in conjunction with the North of Superior Film Association, the filmmakers plan to premiere the romantic drama at Silver City Cinemas, with a pair of evening shows scheduled.
“We are excited about showing it here locally at first because there are so many local people who contributed to the film,” said Piotr, who directed the movie.
“So it really makes sense to show it here first –share it with the community, share it with everybody that was involved – before we take it broader.”
The brothers have high hopes for the film, planning within the next year to submit it for consideration at a variety of festivals around the world. While the Sundance or Toronto film festivals might be a bit of a stretch at this stage in their careers, they think it could be a great fit at many others.
“I think the journey for the film is going to be an interesting one,” Piotr said. “For a feature film, unlike a lot of the short films we’ve done in the past, there’s an opportunity to submit to festivals, to look at film markets, to look at proper distribution.
“After the film screens locally, there’s really about a year of work to try to get it out to a much broader public.”
These Lovers - Film Trailer from Imaginarium Studio on Vimeo.
The Skowronskis says the film looks at a series of relationships at various stages of life, centred around an unassuming room at the Hotel Grace.“It’s sort of a young, first-love type of thing, to a much older, more mature type of love that’s evolved over time. It’s kind of a slice of life from this whole experience of love and life,” Piotr said.
The movie, which runs 84 minutes in length, stars Emily Upper, Peeyush Ranjan, Levan Sonego, Roison Roberts and tbnewswatch.com reporter Jamie Smith, was a labour of love, said Milosz Skowronski, the film’s producer.
“There’s just something that drives you to it,” Milosz said Monday, explaining why they took on the challenge of making a feature-length movie in Thunder Bay.
“For me, personally, a lot of it is the challenge. It is a lot of work. There are a lot of things you have to sort through, but you have a lot of awesome people around you. The energy is always good, it’s exciting. I love the process of doing it.”
North of Superior Film Association president Marty Mascarin said the partnership was a natural fit with the organization’s mandate to feature homegrown talent whenever they can. The group has been involved with a number of local initiatives over the year, but Thursday marks the first time they’ve premiered a full-length, Thunder Bay-produced movie.
“Upon screening the film and seeing the talent involved, we became excited about showcasing it,” said Mascarin, adding he hopes it’s just the beginning.
In addition to Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. screenings at Silver City, the movie will also be shown Nov. 10 to 12 at 7 p.m. at Magnus Theatre.
