Interview with Jed

Sudbury filmmaker gets hometown debut of movie
By Michael Wyner

Fri Nov 08, 2002, 07:00 PM EST


SUDBURY - After numerous adventures in Hollywood, filmmaker Jed Hammel has come back to his hometown to screen his new short film at the Goodnow Library next Sunday.

Hammel, 29, a 1992 graduate of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, wrote and directed the 45-minute "all that is not" in Los Angeles in 2000-01. The story revolves around a basketball game between a black man, played by Arlow Stewart, who has appeared on TV's "The Practice" and "Judging Amy," and a white man, played by Andy Dylan.

"It starts out as a lesson in basketball, and ends up as a lesson in life for both players," Hammel said. "Every time you think you have it figured out, you don't. Basically, I wanted to get people to think about the way they view race relations, and more importantly, how they make assumptions in general based on insufficient information, and what to do about that."

The movie cost only $500 to make over two weekends, but the promotion of the film has cost $10,000 so far.

Hammel chose friends to be part of the cast and crew.

"What ended up happening is I sort of put the word out that I needed help, and all these friends of mine came out of the woodwork, and went above and beyond what I had asked of them," Hammel said. "There were a number of people clamoring to be a part of this project. They all worked for free and for long hours. It was a nice feeling to be in such good company."

Hammel held a screening of the film in Los Angeles in October 2001 with 300 people, and received a standing ovation.

At the same time, Hammel appreciates the criticism that he receives from audience members.

"Every piece of criticism I've gotten so far has been constructive," he said. "The movie does exactly what I intended it to do, which is to get people thinking. The worst thing that can happen to a movie is that an audience couldn't care less about it one way or the other."

Throughout "all that is not," Hammel experiments with many traditional filmmaking techniques.

"The film has a lot of highs and lows, a lot of very quiet moments, music that will come out of nowhere, a scene with a lot of choppy editing and a scene with one long shot," Hammel said. "The whole movie is about contrast, as seen through one black character and one white character."

Hammel cites Paul Thomas Anderson, director of "Boogie Nights" and the current "Punch-Drunk Love" with Adam Sandler, as one of his biggest influences.

"I tend to do the same thing that he does. He doesn't always follow the traditional structure. Sometimes there are just random things in his films that come out of nowhere," Hammel said. "It's a precarious balance to stay within the rules, but then also to go outside of them to show the audience something they haven't seen before."

"All that is not" was also screened at the Curtis Middle School in April.

"I said to everybody there, 'If you like what you see, get the word out,' " Hammel remembers. "The great thing was that one week later, the Friends of the Goodnow Library said they wanted to screen the movie. The cool thing about Sudbury is that it's a community in the truest sense of the word - they want to support their own."

Before he began working on "all that is not," Hammel worked at NBC studios for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and later as a producer for "Later," now called "Last Call with Carson Daly."

"Jay was always a really nice guy. He treats everybody he comes across with a great deal of respect," Hammel said. "Celebrities meet a billion people a day. But Jay really makes an effort to take the time with people, and he puts on the performance he knows people want."

One of the most energetic celebrities that Hammel met was Will Smith, who was a guest on "Later."

"Will came on, and he lit up the room. He was just being really funny with the crew, making the audience feel very welcome. That takes effort, and that more than anything is what people appreciate - the effort," Hammel said.

Of course, Hammel has come across celebrities who have not been as gracious. One woman starring on an NBC sitcom refused to get into a limousine because it was not a "stretch" limo.

"We had to wait there and order a new stretch limo for her," Hammel said. "That doesn't happen that often, though. Most celebrities are pretty cool. Nine times out of 10, they're very appreciative of their success, especially the ones who have been successful for a long time."

In addition to working on NBC, Hammel has also written and sold a feature-length screenplay called "Last Summer" to Division One Entertainment, for which he received some advice from another Boston native - Ben Affleck.

"Ben was really helpful. I talked to him three or four times, and he never talked down to me. He gave me good advice and encouragement," Hammel said.

Hammel is headed back to Los Angeles in February, planning to organize another screening of "all that is not" and hoping to make another movie. He is still waiting to hear whether the film will be screened at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It has already been accepted into the 2002 Boston Film Festival.

Whenever people see the movie, Hammel said he likes that they walk out with a positive feeling.

"My hope for this film is to have people leave the theater wanting to help somebody or themselves, or help the world become a better place, and do something positive with their lives or someone else's life," he said.

In the end, Hammel said he has ended up learning from his own film. "It ended up being that the lessons that I was trying to impart were lessons that I hadn't learned myself yet. It was so great to sort of have my own movie turn in on me," he said.

The movie will be screened Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. at the library.