Local filmmaker scores Best Picture win

by Nikki M. Mascali
Weekender Editor

From the confines of State Correctional Institution at Retreat to Noxen and Scranton to the red carpet: That’s how far locally shot movie “Forged” has traveled.

On Sunday, the film won Best Picture at the 11th Annual New York International Latino Film Festival, which was presented by HBO.

“I said, ‘Holy f--king shit,’” Executive Producer Joe Van Wie said of his first thought upon hearing “Forged” called out. “I was a couple seats away from Will Wedig, who was the director, who just turned white. We couldn’t believe it.”

“Forged” tells the story of Chuco (Manny Perez), who gets out of prison after serving time for the murder of his son’s mother. Now, Chuco must try to be a father to the son he spent so many years away from and try to redeem himself.

“I really want to thank the other producers — Josh Crook, Stephen Holtzman and director William Wedig, our cast and our lead Manny Perez,” Van Wie said. “And I’d really love to thank the hard work that Zeus Morand did, he was our cinematographer, which really gave us that great look that this film has, that high production value that we came off with is all thanks to Zeus.”

The film will next be shown at the Mann Chinese Theater in Los Angeles Friday, Aug. 20 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the 14th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

“We feel honored, very honored to have the best time slot,” Van Wie said.

Van Wie and business partner Jason Holly own the Wilkes-Barre-based company Revere. The company has five entities: Commercials, productions, Web, market research and Revere Pictures. Van Wie feels the Best Picture win will open up many doors for the company.

“This just brings so much weight to the table,” he said. “My main concern is I love film, and this really gives me a lot of space to make more moves on different projects we’re working on.”

One of those projects is another movie shot in the area, of which Van Wie would only say it’s “something that involves Penn State.” He’s also planning on showing “Forged” locally before the movie goes into distribution after the Los Angeles

Van Wie got into the movie business after “being a total misfit my whole life.”

“I’ve been fired from every job I had, and I worked on a set once, and I said, ‘This makes more sense,’” he explained.

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