all  original photos: Dakota Fine

Many of us like to sit around and talk about the kind of movies we’d like to make. I know my friends and I have discussed writing sequels to Cocktail and  Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. These conversations amount to little, so it’s inspiring when a working stiff actually follows through with an idea. Noticing how most DC-centric movies involve issues of national security, Paul DeVeaux decided to take matters into his own hands and make a movie about our city and its residents. The result is Adams Morgan: The Movie, a romantic comedy set during Halloween weekend, which was shot on location and features local actors. Production has wrapped, so now DeVeaux focuses on promoting his film. On the heels of a successful viewing party, Paul and I talked about the titular neighborhood, and how his movie came to be.

What inspired you to make Adams Morgan: The Movie?

I’ve always fancied myself a storyteller, and in my twenties I used to hang out a lot in Adams Morgan (back in the early 90s). I never had a bad time there. I went on the first date with my wife there.

Where did you go?

A place called Cities, which doesn’t exist anymore. I think it’s the Left Bank now. I remember going to Habana Village and dancing, I remember going to Cafe Lautrec and watching  the bartender dance on the bar at the end of the night. It’s such a diverse place in terms of the food and people, which always appealed to me. It’s also a great name – a great name for a story.

How has the neighborhood changed since you went on the first date with your wife?

It’s funny. We went last fall before we started shooting to do a little research, and I don’t remember it being so boisterous so late into the night. By the end of the evening five bachelorette parties approached us. It seems a  lot younger, maybe I’m  just older now. The bars changed, but the vibe hasn’t. There’s still this great energy there, which we hopefully tapped into for the movie… I love the fact you can have El Salvadorean food next to West African food in a fifty food radius. I don’t think there are many places in the world like that.

What is the history of the production, and the biggest challenge you faced?

I started writing this about three years ago. I’m a creative type and a lawyer by day, so there’s not a lot of room for creative energy at work. I started writing on the side. One day sitting in my office when I should have been working, one of my friends read [the screenplay] over my shoulder and started laughing. I never showed it to anybody, but when someone read it and laughed at it, it inspired me to keep writing. I probably went through twelve different drafts. About a year and a half ago I had a bunch of friends over for a table reading. It was great, man. It was the first time I heard my words come to life. Some of it worked, most of it didn’t. I thought, “I may have something here, so I better keep tweaking this.” Fast forward to this fall – I went to this open audition called Stone Henge in Baltimore. In eight hours I saw about one hundred people, I liked about ten of them. All of them were non-union and willing to work for deferred compensation. I found a camera guy on craigslist, and he’s amazing. With a friend of a friend who knows a director, it all just came together. As for the biggest challenge, well, I like writing and I’ll probably direct the next one, but producing is a pain in the ass.You know, juggling all these schedules and making sure everyone shows up on time. And because we’re independent (I guess the new term is “micro-budget”) we had to be flexible in terms of locations.

How did the screening at Bottom Line go?

Really well! We had about forty people show up. Full disclosure: it’s been by rugby bar since 1992. I spent so many Saturday’s drinking there after the game, so it had to be in the movie. The owner is a friend of mine, and he said, “Sunday’s are usually slow here. Come in, we’ll have space for you in the back.” It was great – slowly but surely we’re getting the word out. Friends of mine who were just trying to be supportive and had no real ideas said, “Wow, this is a real movie!” Oh, and we also had a viewing at my house two weeks ago. Got some feedback, made some more edits. Now I think we’re at where we want to be.

How would you describe the movie?

It’s a relationship comedy. There are three couples, all in different stages: one is beginning, one is ending, and the other is continuing. It’s about the similarities [in relationships] that occur no matter where you are. The married couple, for example, are still in love but keep missing each other. He’s too busy with work, and when she tries to make a romantic dinner, he arrives late with her already asleep on the couch. They both have the best intentions, but keep missing opportunities. The same goes for the couple that breaks up. The guy is just a flake, not a bad guy, he just can’t keep his shit together. In the earlier drafts, it was written to early from a guy’s perspective, but later I tried to make it more equitable. With the breaking up story, I had a lot of women tell me, “Yeah, that’s the way it would be.” Also, everything in the movie is loosely based on stuff that happened to me or friends of mine. I have a very good memory, so while I can’t make up fanciful plotlines, I can tweak my memories to tell a good story. Friends of mine who’ve seen the movie say, “Oh, yeah, I remember when that happened.” [laughs] Writing is fun, editing is a pain in the ass. The script is 92 pages, and I started with about 180.

Wow.

Yeah, I’m a big fan of Robert Altman, so at first I wanted a story like his, one with a mutliple arcs and stories that all connect. Of course, I’m not Robert Altman, but that’s ok. What he did is a hard thing to do, and while the characters of my screenplay are somewhat connected, it’s not tight as I wanted.  Maybe we’ll try something like [more like Altman] next time.

What do you have planned next?

We’re submitting it to film festivals now. We submitted it to the Atlanta Independent Film Festival. Now we’re on a list of upcoming festivals, and there are between five and ten I think we have a shot of getting into. We’re doing a lot of local stuff. We’ve met with the DC Office of Motion Picture and Television Development. They’ve been very supportive of us, and my producer is good friends with Kathy Hollinger, who runs the office. We’re going to do a screening for them, and see what happens from there. Councilman Jim Graham appears in our movie, so we’re showing the movie at his office. There will hopefully be a premiere at the Avalon in the spring.

Great! Thanks for taking the time to talk.

No problem, man!

Just in case you missed it, here again is the site for Adams Morgan: The Movie.