Eventually, the Oak Park writer is hoping to see it appear in schools across the country. But in a week and a half, Felice Bassuk will head west to film her first movie script — a film short targeted at middle school students.
Bassuk, the co-writer and producer, has been working on “The Call” for about two years. She’s always been involved in writing and editing, and, about 10 years ago, decided to try telling stories in a more creative way. Bassuk said she loved movies and wanted to try her hand at writing something better than what was out there.
She did some reading and connected with a co-writer online from North Carolina. The distance between them and freedom it provides seems to suit them.
“I think it would be harder to do it sitting side-by-side in a room for hours,” she said.
Since then, they’ve worked together on a few feature-length film concepts. One of their stories is about human trafficking and is currently in development, Bassuk said.
On Nov. 5 and 6, she and her team of about 30 people will start filming “The Call” in Santa Monica, California.
“It’s really a thrill to see it come to fruition,” Bassuk said.
The short film is about the relationship between a 13-year-old girl and her grandfather who is dying from a smoking-related disease in a nursing home. The anti-smoking message was not part of the original plan, but Bassuk said once the director honed in on it, she did a little research.
She found out that more than 400,000 people die in the U.S. from smoking-related diseases every year, and 50,000 non-smokers die from second-hand smoke every year.
“I don’t think people are really aware of that,” Bassuk said. “The more I got into it, the more I saw that something like this could be really helpful and is vitally necessary.”
The movie will be produced in three versions, Bassuk said. One will be for film festivals, another will be a three to five minute public service announcement and the third will be a school video that will be about eight minutes long. Bassuk said she’s developing a curriculum for middle school-aged students to go along with the video.
“If kids can get the message through a story like that, I think it’s so much better than something that’s more didactic with a heavy-handed message of ‘don’t smoke,'” Bassuk said.