PRESS

 
News Magazine

SPAGHETTI AND MATSO BALLS’ Director and Star Appear on TV Show

SPAGHETTI AND MATSO BALLS has been selected to appear on a new indie film TV show called “The Screening Room.” The show flew the film’s writer/director David Lewis and star Victor Martins to West Palm Beach on December 6th to tape the show.

“The Screening Room” airs airs Monday evening December12th at 8 pm in the southern Florida area on both cable and broadcast channels. The interview style show has been on the air in Florida since October of 2005 and will be broadcast in Boston sometime after the first of the year on WHDT TV 26.

Lewis plans to show a tape of the show at SPAGHETTI AND MATSO BALLS’ DVD release party that will be scheduled early next year.

“The Screening Room” is the brainchild of and hosted by Hollywood producer Jonathan Krane who has produced over 40 big budget films and was John Travolta’s producing partner and manager for many years. Lewis plans to use this opportunity to give Krane a treatment for his evolving feature, “Mob Yoga.”

Victor Martins (Vinny Rigatoni in the movie) submitted the film to “The Screening Room”. Their format allows two people from each project to appear on the show and Lewis, of course, included Victor for unearthing such good exposure for SPAGHETTI AND MATSO BALLS.

News Magazine

Filmmaker Dave Lewis' directorial debut SPAGETTI AND MATZO BALLS premiered at the end of April at the Arlington's Regent Theatre. Almost 500 people attended the short shot on 35mm. A comedy about Joshua, a boy in a religious Jewish family who has unusually strong inclinations toward an Italian heritage, the film uses strong suggestive humor with emotional depth to convey the message that perhaps one can't escape his true nature.

Actor Justin Sorvillo and his parents Marilyn and John Sorvillo at the Regent Theatre in Arlington for the premier screening of Dave Lewis' short film SPAGHETTI AND MATZO BALLS. Justin plays one of the lead characters, Joshua. An IMAGINE photo by Erika Hahn.

Originally conceived by Dave Lewis and Co-Producer J. P. Ouellette, it’s a concept piece, a back story designed to interest investors in a feature production titled “Mob Yoga,” a script that Dave is completing. The two said the film slowly morphed into a hilarious stand-alone short that will be making the film festival rounds soon.  Both Dave and J.P. said parts of the film will be cut into a concept piece to show Dave's range of directing ability, but the short had so much promise they decided to write more story around it to make it into a proper short, and based on the audiences reaction that night, it works.

The after party for the premiere screening of SPAGHETTI AND MATZO BALLS, hosted at the Cambridge home of filmmaker Dave Lewis and his lovely wife Maxi. Party goers from left: Robin Chan, Sergio Viana, Maxi, Loyve Lucena. An IMAGINE photo by Erika Hahn.	Filmmaker Dave Lewis (in hat) and Co-Producer J. P. Ouellette, (third from left,) with cast and crew of their new short SPAGHETTI AND MATZO BALLS take questions from the audience at the film's premiere at The Regent Theatre. An IMAGINE photo by Erika Hahn.

The short features local cast and crew, many of whom turned out with their family and friends to see the finished project. Dave and J.P. held an audience Q and A session after the film with the cast and crew on stage. Dave said to get the period cars in the film he literally went up to car owners on the street in Boston and Cambridge and asked them if they wanted their car to be in a film.

J.P. said he was thrilled to hear the large audience responsive laughter.  "Laughter is one of the hardest things to make people do, and judging by the audience’s reactions, I'd say we succeeded," he added.

Dave said he was thrilled that people came up to him afterwards to ask him for a DVD copy of the short. "That was very reassuring to us as filmmakers," Dave said. While cast and crew will get advance DVD copies, he said the short will make the festival circuit.

Currently the two companies, Maven Productions and Yankee Classic Pictures, are in consultation with Los Angeles investors for the two million dollar financing of “Mob Yoga,” a story about Joshua as a grown-up, who becomes an adult mobster running a franchise yoga business and all the hi-jinks that entails.

After the premier Dave Lewis and his lovely wife Maxi invited cast and crew to his house for a rousing after-party. The party featured live performances by Jewish and Italian musicians, and a catered spread of Italian and Jewish gourmet delicacies like lasagna, matzo balls, antipasto, gefilte fish, cannolis, and more.

THE NEW TINSEL TOWN?
Arlington Advocate, MA
By Brooke Leister
Thursday, April 28, 2005

      At first glance, "Spaghetti and Matzo Balls" may come across as an over-the-top comedy, but deep down it's really a story about the relationship between a father and son.
      "The movie is Farrelly-esque (in the genre of filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly) over the top comedy, good-naturedly playing against stereotypes. At the end of the day, the story is really about the relationship between the father and son," said Paul Blumenfeld, an Arlington resident who plays a dutifully Orthodox deli owner in the film.
      The short film will premiere at Arlington's Regent Theatre Saturday, April 30 at 7 p.m. A $10 donation is suggested.
      Cambridge resident Dave Lewis wrote and directed the film, which chronicles a boy caught between his Italian and Jewish heritages. The film was shot last summer at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Arlington, as well as in a Cambridge deli and a Belmont home.
      "It's very much a story we all know. Everyone has felt out of place for some reason or another, and this little boy feels extremely out of place. It's not until the end of the movie that he understands why," Lewis said. "In the end, there's a reunification of father and son."
      The film opens in 1969 and tells the story of Joey Manischevitz, the son of a dutiful Orthodox Jewish housewife and a philandering Italian milkman.
      The film runs for 22 minutes, and Lewis, who produced Arlington resident Joe Gatto's 2004 film "Overserved," hopes to use it as a springboard to secure financing for a feature-length film based on the story. He's working on a full-length screenplay titled "Mob Yoga."
      "I've been studying yoga for four years and realized there hasn't been a spoof yet on yoga," said Lewis, who added, "My first wife was Italian and I'm Jewish. For 13 years, I was married into an
Italian family. We have a son, so the film is an homage to him."
      He hopes to secure at least $1 million to $1.5 million in financing for a feature-length film, as well as shop the short film around to various festivals. Emmy-winning photography director Will Barrett shot the film.
      We've been working on post production for eight months. We shot it on 35 millimeter film because it's the highest media we can use," Lewis said.
      He continued, "The cast and crew did an amazing job. As a filmmaker, you have a vision of what you want your script to look like when it hits the screen, and what we have fits very closely to what we set out to do."
      "Everybody's Got One," a film he co-produced with J.P. Ouellette of Yankee [Classic] Pictures, won the 2003 Boston Society of Film Critics' Best New England Feature/Comedy prize. In 2002, he founded Maven Productions.
      Blumenfeld, whose day job is an executive recruiter for software startups, was drawn to the script because of its familiarity.
      "I thought it was funny," he said. "I could relate to the characters. It mimicked a lot of people I knew... This is a part I really coveted. It really tapped into my Jewish roots."... It's a cute little film," said Blumenfeld...

CONTACT

Maven Productions L.L.C.
58 Regent Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
tel: 617-212-5429
email: dave.lewis@comcast.net