Federal Way resident and filmmaker Steve Edmiston hit it big this year at the Seattle International Film Festival, scoring two movies into the event.
“It can be very intimidating. It’s huge,” Edmiston said. “People say your words on a very very large screen. Then that usually passes.”
His short comedy, “The Day My Parents Became Cool,” which he wrote and directed, played on May 31. His second film, “The Spy and the Sparrow,” which he wrote and co-produced, will premiere at 9 p.m. June 10 and again at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 13, at the the Egyptian, 801 Pine St., Seattle.
“The Day My Parents Became Cool” revolves around a world where teenagers wake up to find that the adults have begun dressing like them, complete with tattoos, body piercings and sagging jeans. The film featured almost 150 local students from the Highline and Federal Way school districts — including Sacajawea Middle School and Decatur, Thomas Jefferson and Todd Beamer high schools — and Federal Way High School, where Edmiston’s children attend.
They shot over four days, mainly at Highline High School and a house in Normandy Park.
Those days, with more than 100 high school students as background, was “high energy chaos,” Edmiston said.
Several local community organizations helped Edmiston is his directorial debut, including the Federal Way Arts Commission and King County 4Arts.
“They kind of early on let me come in and be the crazy artist,” Edmiston said. “I don’t think it would have happened without them.”
The 16-minute film has already received some national attention, winning best short comedy at the International Family Film Festival in Los Angeles.
“The Spy and the Sparrow,” which was directed by Garrett Bennett, also features some big(ish) names, especially considering the film was produced entirely in Seattle, not Los Angeles. Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts (“The Dark Knight,” “Heroes”), David Rasche (“Burn After Reading,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Flight 93,” “Just Married”), Elisabeth Rohm (“Law and Order,” “The Mentalist,” “Miss Congeniality 2”) and Chad Lindberg (“CSI: NY,” “The Rookie,” “The Fast and the Furious,” “October Sky”) are all starring in the film, which focuses on a father and daughter following two decades of separation.
After Tommy Sparrow (played by David Rasche) is wounded in his work as a CIA agent, he comes home to discover his wife with another man, and his wounds and reaction to his wife’s infidelity frighten his young daughter. Sparrow leaves then for 25 years until his retirement from the CIA, when he tries reaching out to his now-grown daughter Josephine, played by Elisabeth Rohm. However, Josephine has her own issues due to her father’s abandonment, and Sparrow risks his life to become her father once again.
Edmiston started in the business 15 years ago when he wrote his first screenplay.
“I just took a shot at writing a script,” Edmiston said. “I just went to Barnes and Noble and bought a book on writing. I wrote a dark thriller and it got optioned. It never got made, but I got to go to L.A. and I got the bug.”
Learn more
Each year, the Seattle International Film Festival shows more than 400 films from more than 60 countries, and more than 150,000 people attend. For more information, visit www.siff.net/index.aspx. The festival began May 14 and runs until June 14.
