‘LOST ON PURPOSE’ CAPTURES AUDIENCES

‘LOST ON PURPOSE’ CAPTURES AUDIENCES

By:  Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger

Photographer:  George Whylie

Videographer:  Maxine Nolan

 

One of the biggest thrills of the Palm Beach International Film Festival was having the opportunity to interview the Directors/Writers of the World Premiere film, Lost On Purpose.  They had a vitality and vigor about them that immediately puts you at ease.

Eshom and Ian Nelms grew up in Central Valley, California and the older they get, the more they appreciate the power of film.  The Palm Beach International Film Festival  holds a sacred place in their hearts as one of their first films debuted at the festival back in 2004 and in 2005, their film, ‘Night of the Dog’, won Audience Award for Best Feature Film.  It was a humbling and rewarding experience.  After having such sweet success, they switched gears for 6-7 years and improved their writing skills as they created scripts and made short films giving them a wealth of new expertise.

But now they are back with an emotional film writing their own lives into the story.  This is a personal film for them, they have created characters that are a severe side of themselves and their friends.  They wrote the story as a tribute for their hometown.  A childhood filled with tubing on the St. Johns River and roping cattle gave them the greatest satisfaction to put into film.

Think back to ‘American Graffiti’, 20 something coming of age young adults and you get the picture of the storyline behind ‘Lost On Purpose.’

Eshom & Ian look back on 10 years of hard work, the evolution of the cast and the concept of their friends and the result is a “coming home” picture, a masterpiece of success that moved audiences at the Palm Beach International Film Festival.   It’s stars include Jane Kaczmarek in the leading role along with James Lafferty who signed on as soon as he read the script and Aaron Hall, C. Thomas Howell and Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe winner, Octavia Spencer.

‘Lost On Purpose’ examines the element of the Baby Boomer generation and our new generation in a type of X vs. Y generation contrast.  Baby Boomers are set in their ways and most live by the motto of “My way or the highway.”  The younger generation seems to be lost and meandering for their purpose in life leaning towards self-destruction.  In the end, ironically, mutual self-destruction takes hold.  It is a story about finding your way through loss and danger and taking steps to go for what you truly believe in.

Kaczmarek plays a surrogate mother to five renegade ranchers on a third-generation dairy farm in jeopardy of being sold.  This farm is like a safe place where the young ranchers can stay and feel invulnerable.  We watch as they experience daily ups and downs and we enter each scene so realistically from our seats.

So much goes into the production of a film.  Raising funds is the largest priority and doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes drive and determination and a passion for self-expression.  This film took two years to come to full fruition divided evenly between the production and raising the funds.  Another important aspect of making the film involved putting the music that you imagine with the film in the proper places.  Having access to so much musical genius in California afforded Eshom & Ian the ability to put the appropriate music to the film to make it work so well.

So what is next for these talented brothers?  They are pursuing a ‘Kickstarter’ campaign to push awareness of this latest film simultaneously hitting festivals along the way.  The next stop after the Palm Beach International Film Festival  was Kansas City and then on to Newport Beach and finally close to home in Los Angeles with hopefully more viewings to follow.  The wish is that this campaign will afford them the ability to raise funds to distribute the film as they would like to.

When asked where do they see themselves in the future, their faces light up as they tell me that there will be many more films.  They compare their achievement to a ladder.  Right now they are at the first rung but eagerly making their way up the ladder one step at a time.

Check out the trailer and see what all the buzz is about on www.lostonpurposethemovie.com.  It is a totally enjoyable film for all.

Portion of the photos taken from Google Images