New ​“Grace” Film Inspires Collaboration

New Haven-based filmmaker Stephen Dest’s upcoming full-length feature film will be launched from the rooftop patio of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven on May 10, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., affording grand views of one of the film’s stars — New Haven architecture.

Grace, a drama and the third in a series of New Haven-based films by Dest, has not yet been made. According to Dan Fitzmaurice, executive director of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, a launch party to grow support for the film and introduce the community to part of the film’s creative team — writer-director Dest, producer Trish Clark, CEO of Nutmeg Institute and producer of the 48-Hour Film Project (New Haven), lighting designer Jamie Burnett of Luminous Environments, LLC, and fashion/costume designer Neville Wisdom with NW brand director Lauren Sprague.

Dest’s first full-length feature film, My Brother Jack, held its New Haven premiere in 2013 at Criterion Cinemas. In addition to a familiar New Haven setting, the film also featured the art and inspiration of New Haven artists, painter Lawrence Morelli and sculptor Silas Finch.

My Brother Jack was followed by a second New Haven-based film, the award-winning, I am Shakespeare: The Henry Green Story, a documentary with a growing audience that is being screened for unusual but appropriate venues, given the film’s subject — the harrowing story of a promising actor whose double-life in Newhallville leads to him being shot in a street confrontation. The film was screened for 150 incoming Yale School of Medicine residents, and a screening facilitation guide is available through Connecticut Center for School Change.

In the guide’s introduction, Dest summarized the movie’s themes: ​“I Am Shakespeare, The Henry Green Story is many stories. It is a story about the tension that exists in a community when an impoverished neighborhood dominated by gangs and plagued by gun violence is in the shadow of one of the country’s wealthiest universities. It is about the complexity of identity, and the struggle for pride and self-worth. It is about suffering trauma, receiving salvation, and offering forgiveness. It is a story about hope.”

Grace will explore the psychological and social dynamics of those inhabiting the more privileged echelons of society. Without giving away too much, Dest provided this synopsis: ​“A highly respected architect, whose career is unwillingly coming to an end, must come to terms with his estranged daughter who is returning home to care for her ailing mother — a woman who neither one has spoken to in years.”

Dest said he will be emphasizing metaphor-rich examples of the Brutalist architecture Think the massive concrete examples of Temple Street Garage and Art and Architecture Building, now Rudolph Hall at Yale, both designed by architect Paul Rudolph. They became part of the mid-20th century New Haven cityscape and hint at the psychological profile of both cold and warm attributes of Grace’s father.

To further help define the film’s characters, Dest sought out fashion designer Neville Wisdom to create costumes for the film. Wisdom will have some of his early concept drawings, created on iPad, available for public viewing at the launch party.

For Wisdom and NW brand director Lauren Sprague, the role of costume designing for film represents a new challenge on the heels of the designer’s recent and current challenges. On January 8, Wisdom began a personal challenge to create 100 new garments over the following 100 days. On April 17, he completed the challenge. ​“It was definitely a boost of confidence knowing I can commit to making something for 100 days and stick to it,” Wisdom said. To date, 65 percent of the items created for the challenge have been sold.

Wisdom will also be expanding his brand’s footprint as he opens an additional storefront on one of New Haven’s premier retail and cultural blocks at 1090 Chapel Street, opposite the Yale University Art Gallery and sandwiched between Atticus Bookstore and The Juice Box (in the British Arts Center building). Last year he closed a storefront he had occupied in the Ninth Square as he focused on his Westville showroom and manufacturing business. Wisdom said he hopes to capitalize on the expanded foot traffic on Chapel Street, tourists and proximity to Yale, and will be offering unique items, funkier and ​“not so Connecticut.” 

With his own upcoming spring fashion show on May 18 at the soon-to-open Nolo restaurant on State Street, Wisdom maintains he has plenty of excitement and energy in reserve to meet the challenges of creating for Grace.

Sprague, who also works in New York City as a staging and styling assistant for commercial shoots, said she loves creating for characters. ​“The character of Grace has a cool edge — if there is a perfect description for what we would like to be doing, this would be the thing.”

Toward the end of his 100-day challenge, Wisdom took a family vacation to Paris. It was there that he said that he was inspired and deeply moved by the architecture he saw and experienced; incredible works that he said put his challenge into perspective.

Fitzmaurice said that the Arts Council of Greater New Haven will serve as the film’s fiscal sponsor. ​“The arrangement,” said Fitzmaurice, ​“empowers artists to access funds needed to do their work.” Serving as fiscal sponsor is an expanding service the Arts Council provides for those artists or organizations that do not have their own tax-exempt 501(c)3 status. Fitzmaurice said that projects and artists whose work aligns with the Arts Council mission are considered for fiscal sponsorship but a stringent application process is required.

Although New Haven is experiencing some growth in the film industry, buoyed by popular documentary and other film festivals, ​“filmmaking as an art form is one that needs more scaffolding,” Fitzmaurice said. For Dest, that scaffolding represents part of the support that will be needed as he looks to bring Grace and New Haven to the big screen once again.

Donations for Grace can be earmarked with a memo and made payable to the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. The May 10 launch party at the Arts Council, at 70 Audubon St., is free and open to the public.