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SMALL WAGERS
Local color on film
BY MIKE MILIARD

Filmmaker Jon Artigo hails from San Francisco and he’s spent most of the last five years in Hollywood, but he’s fallen for the charms of semirural Massachusetts. And although he’s a rabid Giants fan, he’s also developed an unhealthy love for the Boston Red Sox. So Freedom Park, his winsome, weird new film about Little League and gambling (it starts a preliminary weeklong run in theaters across the state this Friday, September 10), was filmed entirely in the Bay State, and features cameos from hometown heroes like NESN announcer Jerry Remy and legendary Sox pitcher Luis Tiant. It also boasts a huge cast of locals, most of them amateurs, many of them kids.

When Stephen (Matt McDonald) and David (Tim Fields) return to their fictional hometown of Freedom Park from a bad-luck Las Vegas jag, they’re in a tough spot. A half-million dollars in arrears to lurking loan sharks, they concoct a scheme to make it back: a betting racket for local Little League games. A bad idea, of course. But as the guys find this out the hard way, other lessons are learned. David reconnects with his little brother, Johnny (Brendon Boyd), and Stephen rekindles things with a high-school crush, Abby (Andrea Ajemian). Comic relief comes courtesy of the bumbling bad guys and some of the town’s more eccentric denizens. Think The Bad News Bears meets Rounders meets Beautiful Girls.

Artigo may be responsible for a jokey 2001 animated short called "Vagina for Christmas" (about a boy who wants one), but here he hews to a family-friendly tone. "It’s always been very important [to me] to have it be appropriate for all ages," he says. So we see avuncular Tiant, playing himself, dispensing sage wisdom about staying true to the love of the game. Remy, of course, is the voice of the Freedom Park Baseball League, encouraging sportsmanship. "Please do not make fun of the athletes. We will shoot you in the neck with a dart and you will be fined $12 for parts and labor." Ex-Bruins winger Lyndon Byers is the opposite, playing an overzealous tee-ball coach. And former Worcester chief of police Edward Gardella is disturbingly perfect as mock-menacing crime boss Tommy the Goat.

As local productions go, Freedom Park is top-notch. The lighting, sound, and cinematography are all a cut above, thanks to a state-of-the-art digital camera that, Artigo says, "really knocks on the door of high definition." The acting impresses too. Auditions were held in LA as well as in Massachusetts, but Artigo didn’t have to look far for the vast majority of his sizable cast. "I found people out here really support what’s going on in the film world," says Artigo. "In LA, nobody really cares. ‘Oh, there goes Jack Nicholson.’ Out here, people think it’s fun. And the kids are having some rewarding activities that they’ll never forget. I was very happy with the job people were able to do, considering that most of them had never done any sort of feature-length project before. They’re amateurs in the sense of experience, but not in the sense of how they come across on camera."

The kids’ performances are especially striking. Boyd has a steely swagger as a Little League slugger who’s corrupted by the promise of filthy lucre. And Bridget O’Sullivan, who plays his heat-hurling nemesis, channels fiery Tatum O’Neal from The Bad News Bears. "She can really pitch," Artigo marvels. "When we first started shooting in the field, and Bridget had to pitch to [Boyd], she struck him out three times."

Filming took place last October, which, of course, was smack in the middle of the Red Sox’ exhilarating but ultimately disappointing playoff run. "We had problems with shooting on certain days," says Artigo. "Parents didn’t want to take their kids to the set because there was a playoff game. We really had days where we thought we’d have a lot more people showing up as extras, but they didn’t, because they were at home watching the Red Sox."

After that horrifying game-seven loss put the kibosh on the good guys’ World Series hopes, did anyone, especially kids, feel like showing up the next day to act in a baseball movie? "People did show up, and I think the movie helped to keep their minds off the fact that the Red Sox lost," says Artigo.

But this year, of course, will be different. "I fully believe that the Red Sox are going to win the World Series. The Yankees, this year, just don’t have what it takes."

Freedom Park screens Friday, September 10 through Thursday, September 16 at Loews Copley Place, in Boston, and in the suburbs. See the Phoenix film listings in the Arts section or visit www.freedomparkthemovie.com for more information.


Issue Date: September 11 - 16, 2004
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