With a population of 6,000 in an area just over 1 square mile, the village of Larchmont may not seem so small to its residents. However, “Larchmont,” a new indie film from two village natives, highlights just how quickly news can spread, and how inescapable that can be.
Twenty-four-year-olds Ben Zuckert and Will Seife, both former Larchmont residents who now live in Brooklyn, co-produced the movie.
“We were born [in Larchmont] and grew up there; we both went to Chatsworth, and then Hommocks and then Mamaroneck High School,” Seife said.
“We actually grew up down the street from each other [in Larchmont Manor],” Zuckert added.
“Larchmont” marks the duo’s first feature film, which was shot in various locations in Larchmont in the summer of 2015 in just 18 days with help from about 70 people—many of them local residents—in front and behind the camera.
“The shoot was very exciting, but also very stressful,” Zuckert told the Review. “We had to make sure we got everything in those 18 days.”
Obstacles included working with actor union guidelines and labor rules. “It was a blind faith operation that it was going to work out,” Zuckert said. “We both lost a lot of weight.”
Seife said, “We were both wearing a lot of different hats for the shoot.”
Zuckert said he realized he wanted to shoot a movie in his “beautiful” hometown while he attended Tufts University. “Larchmont” focuses on the relationship between a recent college grad questioning his choice to continue on to medical school and a recently unemployed father.
“[Larchmont] affects both of the characters’ stories; at least for the dad, who lost his job but doesn’t want his friends to know,” Zuckert added. “But because Larchmont is such a small town, word starts to get out quickly, and people start to approach him about it.”
The son is affected by the village because not many people his age, between 22 and 30, live there, while his father has to deal with neighbors and friends wondering what he is doing with his life.
“If we had taken this story and placed it somewhere else, it would have been a totally different story with how these characters would’ve coped with these situations,” Seife said.
“Larchmont” is an independent release; the company that released the film, Sugarsoap Productions, was founded in the fall of 2014 by Zuckert and Seife, a few months after the movie was conceptualized. The film simultaneously premiered on Oct. 22 at the Yonkers Film Festival, YoFiFest, and the Twin Cities Film Festival in Minneapolis.
“It was really nice to have the premiere very close to Larchmont so we could get a lot of the cast [and crew] out, and people who are close to us,” Seife said of the Yonkers premiere.
The Emelin Theatre in the village of Mamaroneck, in conjunction with the Center for Continuing Education’s Notable Neighbors series, will hold a screening on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.
“People have been hearing about this [movie] or maybe saw us shooting around town,” Seife said. “We want to give a lot of opportunities for [local residents] to see it.”
For more information, visit larchmontmovie.com.
