{"id":14567,"date":"2011-04-29T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=14567"},"modified":"2011-11-25T13:58:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-25T18:58:43","slug":"lebanon-pa-the-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=14567","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon, PA: Interview with Director Ben Hickernell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lebanon,<\/a>The independent film trenches are fraught with war stories.<\/p>\n

Some have unhappy endings, with directors overwhelmed with the demands they encounter, and the finished film\u2014if it gets completed\u2014sometimes turns out nothing like their original version. One common scenario has a film getting finished but having trouble finding distribution.<\/p>\n

Then there are the others: \u00a0Happy endings, in which the filmmakers deliver the film they made to the masses\u2014or at least a select audience in theaters or on DVD.<\/p>\n

Happily, Lebanon, PA is of the latter camp. Sure, the film took five years from conception to distribution to hit theaters, following a difficult six-days-a-week schedule using a RED digital camera on an extremely limited budget. Let\u2019s not forget an editing process which took several months to complete. Finding distribution, even after kudos at several film festivals, was no picnic either.<\/p>\n

But when all is said and done, writer-director Ben Hickernell is a happy man. And who can blame him?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lebanon, PA, now in theaters and slated for DVD in a few months, is a gorgeously shot, well-acted mix of comedy, coming of age story and family drama that succeeds in accomplishing almost everything it sets out to be. The story concerns Will (Josh Hopkins<\/a>, TV\u2019s Cougar Town), a Philly ad executive, who heads cross-state to the title town after his estranged father dies. Once in his dad\u2019s house, he meets CJ (newcomer Rachel Kitson), his 17-year-old high school student cousin, who he soon discovers is pregnant. While trying to counsel CJ about her future, the just-out-of-a relationship Will gets involved with Vicki (Samantha Mathis<\/a>), her married teacher, and crosses swords with CJ\u2019s strict, religious widowed father Andy (Ian Merrill Peakes).<\/p>\n

Hickerell lives in the Philadelphia area, but spent time in Lebanon; while he doesn\u2019t paint the film as autobiographical, he definitely sees some parallels between reel and real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set it in places I knew,\u201d Hickernell, 32, says of his film. \u201cWhen Will drives to Lebanon, and NPR fizzles out on the radio, and then he smells manure, those are things I have experienced on many a drive from Philly to Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, I was just trying to tell a good story. All writers borrow details from their lives, but none of these characters are directly based on me or anyone I know. No, the flavor is from my life, but not the particulars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of what makes Lebanon, PA compelling are the tastes of both big city Philly, where Will lives and CJ wants to go to school (at Drexel University) and homespun Lebanon, where, things are simpler, old-fashioned and, as Hickernell mentions, NPR\u2019s signal fades and religious channels pervade the airwaves.<\/p>\n

So too, does religion play a part in CJ\u2019s decision regarding abortion, as she walks into an intervention attended by her father, neighbors and a local priest, and is accosted at a Planned Parenthood clinic by an overzealous anti-choice advocate.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Hickernell and his film have CJ consider all of her options before she makes her decision. In light of some recent films that depicted similar situations, that decision may come as a surprise to some.<\/p>\n

\u201c Our goal was to fairly tell this story\u2014to show a young, responsible, mature woman going through this decision\u2014struggling with it and seeing both sides,\u201d explains Hickernell. \u201cCJ has a line in the film: \u2018None of my options seem right, but some seem less wrong than others.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advantage of doing a small, indie film like this is that we can follow the story first, and don’t have Hollywood producers leaning over our shoulder telling us the territory we can’t go into dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lebanon, PA is actually Hickernell\u2019s second feature. His first, shot entirely in Philadelphia, was a 2005 ultra-low-budget thriller called Cellar. While his follow-up took some time to complete, the young and enthusiastic filmmaker got lots of help\u2014sometimes from places he least expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were lucky,\u201d says Hickernell, an only child who claims Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, films by Howard Hawks, Frank Capra and Ang Lee\u2019s The Ice Storm made a lasting impression on him. \u201cAfter Samantha Mathis was cast, she helped us get Josh (Hopkins). It was hard to get people on the phone at first, but luckily, through persistence, the script broke through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickernell knows that a big payday wasn\u2019t the object\u2014especially to pros like Mathis, Hopkins and Mary Beth Hurt<\/a>, who plays Will\u2019s mother\u2014to make the film, but, rather his script. \u201cThey were totally invested,\u201d says Hickernell. \u201cThere are no divas here. They cared the most about the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other key members of the cast\u2014Kitson and Peakes\u2014were Philly-based. \u201cRachel is still at Temple (University),\u201d says Hickernell of the young actress who has received raves on the film festival circuit. \u201cIan and I have known each other for years and have done Shakespeare together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickernell is currently working on getting another project off the ground. Once again, he plans to shoot in and around the Philadelphia area. He hopes that he has a bigger safety net this time, though, regarding his budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have loved to have had rehearsals for Lebanon, PA,\u201d says the Haverford College graduate. \u201cJosh and Samantha would have done it. But even paying for hotels would have cost more. We didn\u2019t really rehearse. I talked with the actors. I was the editor and I knew what I was looking for, so I was just saying let them try it and see how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the evidence furnished by the finished film, everything worked out just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The independent film trenches are fraught with war stories. Some have unhappy endings, with directors overwhelmed with the demands they encounter, and the finished film\u2014if it gets completed\u2014sometimes turns out nothing like their original version. One common scenario has a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":14568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1571,5595],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-14567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-notes","tag-independent-films","tag-movie-directors"],"yoast_head":"\nLebanon, PA: Interview with Director Ben Hickernell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lebanon, PA: Independent film director Ben Hickernell talks about the making his small indie film "Lebanon, PA". 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