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October 07. 2004 12:00AM
Out of 'Failure' comes success
Short film directed by Southmont filmmaker will air on PBS
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A short film documentary directed by D.J. Summitt, a Southmont resident
and University of North Carolina at Greensboro graduate, will air as
part of the PBS series 'North Carolina Visions' this weekend. (Bobbie Jamison/The Dispatch)
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| Want to watch? |
| 'Doomed to Failure,'
directed by Southmont's D.J. Summitt, will air Saturday at midnight as
part of PBS' 'North Carolina Visions' series. |
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By CRAIG ALLEN
The Dispatch
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It started as an ambitious film project for a class at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Southmont's D.J. Summitt and a few of his fellow students planned to
shoot a short film about three pizza delivery guys falling into
absurdly different kinds of trouble. One would have a run-in with the
Mexican mafia. Another would get involved in an underground boxing
ring. The third would be kidnapped on a rural roadside.
But the students encountered their own real-world troubles,
never shooting the film they had planned. Instead, they produced
"Doomed to Failure," a documentary about the film that wasn't.
Now, after winning the Judge's Award for best film at the 2003
High Point Independent Film Festival, "Doomed to Failure" will air as
part of a "North Carolina Visions" episode this weekend on PBS.
The documentary, described on PBS' Web site as "comically
cynical," focuses a candid eye on the students' frustrations as their
project falls apart. Volunteer actors don't show up. Equipment fails.
Hopes for success evaporate. But through it all, Summitt and others
involved in the project are able to laugh at themselves and their
failure, which gives their film a wide-ranging appeal.
"Everybody's had something that just doesn't work out," said
Summitt, who is credited as the film's director. Others involved in the
film included Desmond Johnson, Caleb Falls and Sean Patrick Henry.
Summitt, born in Gastonia, grew up in Davidson County and
graduated from Central Davidson High School in 1999. He then graduated
from UNCG in 2003.
Until recently, he was living in Maryland, working as a video
editor on commercials, corporate videos and other productions. He also
worked as a sound editor on the production of "Chainsaw Sally," a
low-budget horror film, and he has worked as a production assistant on
the unfinished "Blood Shadow."
Now, he's working to shoot a trailer for a movie idea of his
own. He hopes to use the trailer to lure investors for his film, he
said.
Summitt, the son of Danny and Debby Summitt, has wanted to
work in the entertainment industry for several years, he said. For a
time, he focused on music, but eventually he began to consider
filmmaking.
"I can't imagine why anyone would want to do anything else," said Summitt, who said filmmaking suits his creative skills.
"Doomed to Failure" rose out of the ashes of the movie Summitt
and his fellow students never finished. Summitt said they already had
footage they had planned to use for a kind of "making of ..."
documentary, a video look at the process of making their pizza guys
film.
So, after realizing they wouldn't finish the original movie
idea, Summitt told his friends he would work with the footage they had,
using it to put together a different film.
"It became more than I thought it would," Summitt said. "I
didn't think we'd still be talking about it a year after it was
finished."
Besides winning recognition at the High Point film festival,
the first festival in which Summitt has entered a film, "Doomed to
Failure" also will be shown Oct. 16 at the Cape Fear Independent Film
Festival in Wilmington.
This weekend's episode of "North Carolina Visions," which will
include three other short documentaries shot in North Carolina, was set
to air Saturday at 11 p.m. But Summitt said PBS pushed back "Visions"
to allow for the airing of a presidential debate. So, "Visions," and
Summitt's film, now will air Saturday at midnight.
In keeping with the spirit of his film, Summitt laughed about the show's less-than-desirable time slot.
"This is the equivalent of having something on your mom's
refrigerator," he said, suggesting few people besides his parents would
see the film this weekend. "That time slot's just terrible."
The "Visions" episode is scheduled to be repeated on Nov. 22, Summitt said.
Craig Allen can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 217, or at craig.allen@the-dispatch.com.
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| Copyright 2004 The Dispatch |
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