Sudbury born Corey Ceccarelli, 28, made a two hour feature film, enlisting 34 local actors, for $500. He screened  Minds Tolerance Saturday, at SilverCity.
"I filmed this production two years ago and spent eight months dissecting minimal footage as though it were surgery....the experience in shooting this project, in my birthplace Sudbury, was phenomenal," said Ceccarelli, a graduate of McMaster and Ryerson universities film studies programs.
"Using all non-acting local talent and with a budget of a measly $500, I was able to overcome many obstacles to create a work of art," he said. Over 30 local and northern Ontario actors volunteered their time and honed their talents on the flick.
The movie centres on the bizarre life of Johnny, played by Lee Kant of Iroquois Falls. Johnny owns a pub, where he and his friends cavort-drinking and carousing with local women. However, the character skips back and forth between episodes in a psychiatric ward, his future, and various meeting with his unconscious where various angels and demons await. Johnny is also a genius, an experiment for the greater good of humanity, constantly scribbling down complicated formulas on paper.
Through it all, his girl, Sindel, played by Kelly Heindl, comforts him and tries to anchor his sense of reality.
The footage of the scenes is very familiar to Greater Sudbury residents. Johnny's bar is Peddler's Pub downtown. Various car scenes are reminiscent of the Valley, Azilda and Hanmer.
Ward 1 Councillor Joe Cimino said he was moved by the film. He and  over a hundred family and friends showed up for the screening at SilverCity.
"Some days, especially after a long long series of budget
deliberations, I can empathize with a character like Johnny
tied up in knots in a psychiatric room," he joked.
 
Ceccarelli has been developing and writing his next film with a
much larger budget to be shot in Ireland. So far he has not
named his latest venture.
The plot centres around a young very bright yet eccentric microbiologist who develops a drug that can control and manipulate dreams. The product is then distributed with a whirlwind of events following distorting the line between reality and the dream world.
His biggest supporter is his dad, Joe Ceccarelli, his manager.
"We as a family have always supported Corey in his creative pursuits, and I am so happy so many people came out today at SilverCity to show their support. Corey has a lot of drive to succeed and the creative abilities to do just that."
