A good walk, filmed

Good morning. It’s Monday. I’m on duty today while my colleague James Barron takes a well deserved vacation. Today we talk to a local filmmaker who uses the New York City suburb of Hastings-on-Hudson as his muse.

In the most isolating days of the pandemic, walking around the neighborhood became for many a ritual of community, fresh air and mental release. These constitutions also provided the backdrop for a (re)kindled love and appreciation for all things local – not accessible by plane or iPhone, but on foot.

Peter Callahan, a filmmaker in the New York City suburb of Hastings-on-Hudson, is the writer, director and star of a new movie,”Out and about”, which takes its entire story from a man’s afternoon stroll through his city, a familiar environment in which he struggles to find his place in the world. “There’s something universal about small towns that I think makes the movie resonate,” Callahan said in an interview. “Hastings is both unique and everywhere.”

The film draws some influence, Callahan said, from a story written by another suburban New Yorker, John Cheever.

In “The SwimmerCheever tells of Neddy Merrill, a seemingly well-to-do guy who, while lounging by a friend’s pool, decides to go home by taking a dip in more than a dozen pools that separate the friend’s house from that of Neddy.

The 1964 New Yorker short story became the 1968 movie, starring Burt Lancaster – and featuring a cameo from the ultimate New Yawker, Joan Rivers.

Callahan’s “Out and About” focuses on Jeff Fisher, a middle-aged man stuck in the weeds at an age when it’s not so easy to pull yourself out.

The magazine for which Jeff spent years as an editor plans to cut his salary by a quarter (in exchange for not firing him… yet). He devises a strategy to force his daughter, who has left Hastings to start her own life, to return home for his mother’s birthday party. He seeks his help ex-wifewho now lives with a new husband who has taken care of the conventional life that wouldn’t be Jeff’s.

On his late-summer afternoon walk, we witness a cascade of encounters: with dreaded transplants in Brooklyn, with working-class workers living in the homes of their elderly parents, and with Type-A arrivals who see Jeff as a creepy lurker.

There’s also the former high school baseball coach (the stage actor Tom Nelis) who remembers Jeff as a talented athlete but lazy; a black man who is Jeff’s boyfriend (Avery Glymph, a frequent Callahan collaborator) whose simple hello raises concerns in Jeffs about his experience of living in a predominantly white town; and a former high school girlfriend (Bridget Ann White) – now a happily married adult enjoying a walk with her dog when faced with the existential-crisis-on-two-feet and his need to reflect on the past. (“You slept with half the girls in our class,” she says. “Half?” Jeff replies, surprised. “I wish.”)

The audience witnesses his conversations, but much more revealing is his inner conversation.

“How did all these people find out?” he wonders as he passes beautiful homes against winding roads and idyllic landscapes. For 83 minutes he ponders the big questions, without acknowledging that the grass is usually greener because we are unaware of our neighbors’ doubts.

Callahan’s co-star is the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, which is about three square miles in size and is located in Westchester County, north of Yonkers and on the banks of the Hudson River. Hastings is less than an hour from New York City by train.

Once home to working, middle and upper middle class families, today Hastings-on-Hudson is a mostly affluent community that prides itself on being a magnet for creative professionals – artists and writers – who want more space and quieter than the city can offer, but are turned off by the conspicuous wealth of some neighboring towns. Hastings is known for its progressive politics, but its demographics are fairly homogeneous (white) and, like many communities, suffer from a shortage of affordable housing.

Callahan, 60, grew up in a house on the hill with his parents and five siblings. Although he has lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Boston, he has always been reclusive.

“Out and About” is the third film he has written and directed, all centered in the Hudson Valley. ‘Last Ball’, a 2001 film, focuses on a privileged child in his twenties who rejects the path his parents set out for him and instead chooses to ride a taxi across town.

Callahan’s 2009 film ‘Against the Current’ is a darker personal story that struggles with death and depression. Starring Joseph Fiennes and Mary Tyler Moore, it debuted at Sundance, bringing the blessings of industry attention and the curse of high expectations. “Sundance is like Harvard,” Callahan said. “It’s great that you got there, but it doesn’t guarantee you’re ready for life.”

Indeed, Callahan fell into a rut over the next several years, struggling to come up with a screenplay that could attract financing as the movie market shifted in the clutter of Marvel tentpoles and streaming services.

In 2017 he started to think practically and locally. “What movie could I make almost on my own?” Callahan wondered. “I started thinking about the old saying, ‘Write down what you know.’ What I know is walking in my hometown. I walk around and like many Americans I am jealous and compare myself to others.”

He then wrote the screenplay for “Out and About” and began working with producers. They struggled to find the right actor to play the lead role. Two days before filming began, he cast himself.

“I’ve never acted before,” he said. “It’s harder than it looks.” (Rex Reed, the critic, called Callahan a “charismatic and very attractive actor”.)

Callahan and his team shot the film over 14 days in August 2019, pausing to raise funds for post-production. He said the film’s simplicity made it difficult for financiers — “there’s no sex, there’s no violence, it’s just a day in the life of an ordinary man,” he said — and the pandemic brought its own challenges with himself along. He declined to share the budget or cost, but said, “This isn’t a movie shot on an iPhone, but we did it as cheaply as you can do professionally.”

The movie, that is available on the streaming platforms of Apple, Amazon and Google, has won several awards, many deservedly awarded by small town film festivals. Last week, the film was named best feature film by The Guardian Romford Film Festival in Great Britain. “Hastings is where I grew up and when you’re young you don’t know anything but what you’ve been through,” Callahan said. “But now I know how really special it is.”

Weather

It is a partly sunny day near the high 70s. The evening is partly cloudy, with a chance of showers later and temperatures around 60 degrees.

ALTERNATIVE SIDE PARKING

Effective until June 19 (June 10th).

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