IT’S NOT ABOUT THE SHAWERMA (73 minutes, Color, ©2003 Feature Workshops. Santa Cruz, CA USA). TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/shawerma

This posting of the multi-collaborative feature 'Shawerma' completes the 6-movie/"Double-Trilogy" run of brilliant yahn soon/John Balquist performances in Feature Workshops flicks. THANKS AGAIN JOHN!

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE SHAWERMA is a feature-length no-budget (and strangely cohesive!) “indie film” (shot on DV) about twenty-something life in the California sun, made by myself and 22-writer/director/shooters/editors in a crunch 3-week start-2-finish IMPROV production frenzy, at my on-location Feature Workshops, UC Santa Cruz, CA, 2003.
Our amazing cast included John Balquist (<https://www.facebook.com/jbalquist>), also collaborator on LONELINESS IS SOUL, MAISY'S GARDEN, CRASH MY FUNERAL, SUN AND MOON, THE FIFTH WALL). Plus Kelly-Karagas & Maya Berthoud joined the shoot as major characters. They were lead actors in my son Morgan Schmidt-Feng’s and my historical Dogme #10 movie, CHETZEMOKA’S CURSE (TRAILER<https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dogme10> or catch the NY Premiere in March!): See Morgan’s incredible current ‘Reel’ of images at his website: <www.filmsight.com>: !) ). Poster (below) features yahn/John, Adam, Maya, plus Piper Corbett (playing “Clair”), who was visiting Santa Cruz from my old homestead of Port Townsend, WA and dropped in to perform a beautiful and meaningful bunch of scenes (she steals the shawerma!). THANKS AGAIN ALL!

SYNOPSIS

NOT ABOUT THE SHAWERMA is a story about obsessions, centered on a young hippie-style writer, Mikey (played by yahn soon/John Balquist), who let's his imagination run wild after his chicken shawerma order is stolen from a Falafel cafe in Santa Cruz, California. Caught in his fiction/non-fiction fancies is a couple in their twenties who virtually take on the roles of his parents. Dean, played by Adam Karagas (Chetzemoka’s Curse), though a “friend,” can't help cutting him down at every opportunity, while Yvette, played by Maya Berthoud (Chetzemoka’s Curse) is supportive to a fault. A new roommate, Claire (Piper Corbett), becomes a handy foil, generating new material for the notebook. Real-life stories from main characters and outsiders track the development to Mikey's circular writing jag, with some final cautionary notes tailoring out the hilarious, yet dark comedy.
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Actor/collaborator yahn soon/John Balquist.

A DV CO-WRITTEN/CO-DIRECTED/CO-SHOT & CO-EDITED BY Andrea Ament, Aaron Anderson, Pedro Avila, Vaughn Blake, Tavon Boldurchi, Daniel Boynton, Jaron Burnett, Christine Corrigan, Glenn Douglass, Adeline Fong, Ryan Gallagher, Peter Galvin, Timothy Graham, Laurel Graydon, Daniel Harbin, Nicholas Johansson, Chris Jones-Marino, Kathleen Lindenmuth, Anish Patel, Nicholas Philbrook, Philip Rashkovetsky, Grant Richards, and Rick Schmidt. Music by Paul Baker. Produced by Rick Schmidt.

Chris Jones-Marino, ACTOR (REAL-LIFE STORY), CO-WRITER, CO-DIRECTOR, CO_SHOOTER, CO-EDITOR.

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If you want to get a laugh at how complicated this production was, with 20+ WRITERS/DIRECTORS working together in a tight three-week production schedule on IT'S NOT ABOUT THE SHAWERMA read about it below (here’s link for excerpt) in my book, EXTREME DV (Penguin/Random House ©2004): <https://books.google.com/books?id=kPBaxrpkDfAC&pg=PT37&lpg=PT37&dq=extreme+dv+rick+schmidt+ucsc&source=bl&ots=f8yiECJ5l8&sig=8nfR_EvahsdKrO0E39SMF3lZyTc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK6diXx5DTAhUQyWMKHcpDDFwQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=extreme%20dv%20rick%20schmidt%20ucsc&f=false>.