Local movie set for world premiere
Lights, camera, action! On Thursday, July 18, director and writer Zachary Kerschberg, will launch the world premiere of his short film One Trick Dieter at the Long Island International Film Expo (LIIFE), which was filmed in East Meadow.
Kerschberg got his start in filmmaking while in college at UC Berkeley, where he made documentaries about disabilities with his best friend Victor Pineda, who currently runs the Pineda Foundation, an educational foundation for youth with disabilities. After screening some of his films for smaller audiences at the United Nations, World Bank and Paralympics, Kerschberg wanted to do more with his filmmaking talents and decided to go to film school. “I wanted to reach a bigger audience,” said Kerschberg.
His eight-minute movie, One Trick Dieter, set in East Meadow, is about an awkward and overweight 12-year-old boy, Dieter (played by Brenden Coors) who just wants attention from his dad. His dad would rather sit in the park with Fifi, the family pug, and read his paper, which sets the competition for Dieter and the dog to compete for Dad’s attention.
Kerschberg and producers Christina Pierre and Ryan Johnson were looking for the perfect location to shoot the film and they found it right in Nassau County. “We needed a high dive for our film, some place in New York with a 10-meter Olympic size diving board,” stated Kerschberg. “Of course when we saw it, we realized it was way too high.” They were able to shoot most of the dialogue and action on the lower diving board and then get a few dramatic shots from higher up.
On Dieter, he collaborated with actors Jess Dela Merced, and Olek Krupa, and also with NYU graduate students, Mira Viekley and Dan Soule.
His inspiration comes from his mother, who didn’t just point him to movies, but pushed him to go after his dreams and that he could do anything. Kerschberg said Debra Markovitz and NYU professors Alex Rockwell and David Stein, who oversaw the project, also inspired Dieter.
“The transformative process I go through while working on a film and the incredible collaborations with such talented people,” are the two aspects of filmmaking that fascinate Kerschberg. “It really is a privilege.”
For more about Kerschberg’s movies, visit: www.windmillsandgiants.com/. One Trick Dieter, will premiere at the 16th Annual LIIFE being held at Bellmore Movies, 222 Pettit Avenue. Dieter will show in the 5 p.m. block of movies on July 18. Visit www.longislandfilm.com for the complete schedule and movie details.
