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It also features a lot of well-known denizens of downtown Olympia, including Kevin Boyer, interim executive director of The Washington Center for the Performing Arts; Cynthia Salazar of Capitol Florist; and Sid Maestoso of Basilico Ristorante Italiano, which also serves as a location for the film.
But arguably the star of the film, which premieres Wednesday in Yelm, is Olympia itself — playing the rather unlikely role of the Bronx.
“We shot part of it on Washington Avenue and part of it on Capitol Way,” said director and producer Terry Knight of Olympia. “There are exterior scenes shot in front of the Urban Onion and a getaway scene shot in front of Fish Brewery.”
So does it look like the Bronx?
“It’s a good question,” said Knight, who wrote the script, adapting a short story by New York City police officer Patrick Picciarelli. “Believe it or not, I’ve never been to New York City. I’ve studied a lot of pictures of Arthur Avenue. I sent it to Picciarelli and he says it looks great.
“Everybody said, ‘You can’t do it,’ ” Knight added. “We used a lot of close shots and kept Sylvester Park out of the frame. If you look very closely, there are all kinds of clues that you’re not in New York City.”
Indeed, while it might look like the Bronx to people who don’t live in Olympia, it’s very clearly Olympia for those who do. But suspending disbelief is part of the theme of the film, in which nothing is quite what it seems — not the Bronx, and not the plot, which puts its own twist on the gangster-movie clichés.
Even Lacey plays a role in the geography game. The film’s restaurant sequence begins in Basilico, and then the mob boss — played by opera tenor Robert Corl of Yelm — walks into a back room, actually part of Ricardo’s Restaurant.
Though this is his cinematic debut, Knight, who was publisher of the late Sitting Duck weekly newspaper in Olympia, had a lot of writing experience and some experience with video production.
“I decided I wanted to make motion pictures,” he said. A few years ago, he went to the Port Townsend Film Festival and had the chance to talk with actress Piper Laurie and producer Marc Turtletaub, who worked with two first-time directors on “Little Miss Sunshine.”
“Both of them said, ‘If you want to make a movie, go make one,’ ” he recalls. “They said, ‘After you’ve done it, you’ll know how to make a movie.’
“That turned out to be true,” he said. “My knowledge curve just exploded. I think now I could make a good feature.”
And that’s his plan. He’s in the process of optioning another story that he hopes to turn into a feature to be filmed in Thurston County.
On “Arthur Avenue,” Knight got help from notable local figures including Claudia Simpson-Jones of Opera Pacifica, who worked on the music, and novelist Jim Lynch and playwright Bryan Willis, who gave input on the script.
Both script advisers had praise for the finished product. Knight’s website quotes Lynch: “ ‘The Prince of Arthur Avenue’ is a clever and provocative twist on the modern mob story. And Terrence Knight appears to be a natural filmmaker, pushing the envelope with this short flick as his daring debut.”
Also contributing to the film: local hip-hop group Hollywood Kill Krew, which contributed music to the film and played small roles; trumpet player Andy Omdahl; and Corl, who sings an aria from Puccini’s “Tosca.”
“You can hear his voice singing over his own death scene,” Knight said. ‘The Prince of Arthur Avenue’
What: Olympia and Lacey stand in for the Bronx in this locally made short film — the directorial debut of Terrence Knight — that makes its theatrical premiere in Yelm.
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Yelm Cinemas, 201 Prairie Park St., Yelm
Tickets: Free
Information: 360-400-3456, yelmcinemas.com, knightvisionmedia.net
Trailer: youtube.com
