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Russell Blanchard sat at a coffee shop near his Algiers home a while back and heard a heartwarming true story from that Mississippi River-separated portion of the Crescent City.
As a filmmaker with a degree in fine arts cinematic production from the University of Hawaii, the Thibodaux native recalls thinking ‘What is the best way that I can help?’
Blanchard decided the best way he knew how was the best way to do it, and the short film entitled “The Lot” was born.
It is about how, In 2007, Algiers resident Baakir Tyehimba saw an opportunity to help community kids by attempting to take a blighted and abandoned lot across the street and turn it into an after school workshop to teach area children building skills while creating a park for them.
After achieving success for several months and touching the lives of between 50 and 60 area children from six to nine years old, the park and program was discontinued due to lack of insurance and for not abiding by historical district codes
“It’s really all about relationships,” Blanchard said. “Now several years later even though the project was ultimately not successful, he still formed a relationship with all of those kids, and they all remembered him as trying to do something better in the community. So hopefully each of them takes that with them that you can make a difference if you just try, even if it doesn’t work out.”
In the 16-minute film based on true events, Grady (played by Escalante Lundy), a lonely café owner, meets a boy named Christian (played by Justus Denair Breston) while trying to build a playhouse on an empty lot. Their friendship grows through the ups and downs of building the playhouse together and facing challenges along the way.
“Their relationship is put to the test when the park project comes under fire and is in jeopardy. Is their relationship stronger than the project or not? What’s more important at the end of the day?” Blanchard, director, writer and producer of the film said “The premise of the film is that what’s more important at the end of the day is working toward a goal it’s always ideal if that goal succeeds but we all know goals don’t always succeed but what lasts more is if you try to work on a project and build something is that those relationships you form with people usually last longer than the goal.”
Blanchard said he felt telling the story in a narrative format instead of a documentary style would allow it to reach more audiences and while entertaining and spreading the message throughout the country and abroad that people can make a difference in their own communities.
“It’s about trying to make a difference in your own community and understanding that while there’s people all over the world that need help, there’s most likely people outside your own window that need some assistance, so it’s about looking closer to home in your own community, in your own block to see what you can do to help there,” Blanchard said.
The film was recorded last summer and is currently in the post-production stage. It was funded by a Kickstarter campaign online and won Indiewire awards for Project of the Day, Week and Month (all in July 2014) and was a finalist for 2014 Project of the Year.
Blanchard hopes the film will be released around June 2015, and he will try to get it shown at film festivals both locally and afar.
But inspiring others to help their communities is only part of the goal of the film. Blanchard said its ultimate goal is to “complete the story” by turning an Algiers blighted lot into a park for area children.
NOVAC, a 501c3 non-profit organization, has partnered with the film and is accepting tax-deductable donations to help make that dream a reality, and Blanchard is asking companies that do landscaping or can provide playground equipment to donate their services to the effort.
Blanchard said he’s already seen the positive effects in the Algiers neighborhood.
“What’s really interesting is we used a lot of neighborhood children, and the community got really involved, and Baakir actually said that the process of making the film got the community more together and out in the street and talking to each other for the first time since they actually did the park project several years ago. He said this was the biggest thing to bring the community together since the actual project.”
“The Lot” director, writer and producer Russell Blanchard (arms crossed) directs a scene in the short narrative film. Escalante Lundy (in the red shirt) plays one of the main characters, Grady, in “The Lot.” Lundy has had previous notable roles in HBO’s “Treme,” “Django Unchained” and a commercial with Drew Brees.
