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Her art is painstaking, personal

With the help of friends and volunteers, a Spring Hill woman, battling multiple sclerosis, is producing an independant film of her self-published novelette.

By LOGAN NEILL
Published May 23, 2005

SPRING HILL - For the past two years Mary Lou Pennisi's sole ambition has been to see her longtime dream finally come true. And on a recent Saturday afternoon inside her handsome home, one more step was being completed.

Camera operator Archie Scott signals to the actors that the camera is rolling. Although it's a short scene that Pennisi shares with actor and good friend Tom Sannuto, Jr., both are very nervous. Several tries are needed before Pennisi is happy with the final take. A relieved Sannuto rushes to get out of his costume.

Since production began in mid-April on her low-budget independent film, Suicide of Sudden Death , few days have gone as smoothly, says Pennisi. As director, financier and writer for the project, she admits there have been many disappointments, technical failures and miscues. Actors, who volunteered to help with the project have quit unexpectedly or never showed up for scheduled shoots.

Added to the strain has been Pennisi's ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis, a disease which is slowly robbing her physical and mental stamina. Despite the setbacks, however, the novice filmmaker seems more determined than ever to see the project through.

"It's become a huge personal goal to see it get completed," said Pennisi during a break in filming. "I know that because of my health I'm probably not going to get another chance at it. Whatever comes out of this, I'll be happy with. And I'll be able to look back and say that I turned my dream into reality."

Pennisi admits that it's a undeniable eccentric streak that drives her to turn her 140-page novelette titled , Suicide or Death: The Spirit of the Singer Louisa L'Amour into a film. The book, which Pennisi self-published in 1999, revolves around a young jazz singer's struggles with drugs and her encounters with greedy record company executives and criminals in pursuit of her art.

Although Pennisi had some background in live theater and helped out on a couple of independent films that her daughter Angela made while she was studing mass communications at the New York Institute for Technology, the majority of her film making knowledge has come from books.

"Had it not been for the MS, I'd probably be doing more of the hands-on stuff myself," she said. "I'm fascinated with cameras and lighting, but I'm physically unable to do what needs to be done."

Pennisi was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks the motor sensors of nerves and muscles in late 2001, just a few months before her move from Long Island, N.Y., to Spring Hill. Though the diagnosis of the incurable disease left Pennisi devastated, she became even more determined to make the film.

Shortly after the move, she began laying the groundwork by contacting the county's film commission for local resources. In January, she began running ads in local newspapers in search of volunteers to help with production and for anyone wishing to act in one of the 35 roles in the film. With limited funds, she couldn't afford to pay anyone.

"It's extremely low budget, so the best I could do was to offer to cook a meal," said Pennisi. "I even managed to talk some businesses into donating food and drinks in exchange for credit in the film."

Filming occurs on weekends when volunteers are best able to give their time. Most of the interior scenes are being shot in Pennisi's home. Filming is done with a digital video camera and the scenes are stored on a computer to be edited later.

"It's not a complex as most people probably think it is," said camera operator Archie Scott. "The technology of today is advanced and cheap enough so that making a film doesn't have to involve an army of people. We've gotten some good stuff so far."

Scott, who works as a video technician at Hernando government TV Channel 19, has been on board since the project began. So has Jeff McDowell, another Channel 19 employee, who records sound levels.

Pennisi, who portrays singer Louisa L'Amour in later life in the film, found few experienced local actors willing to take on the project. So she has had to find actors from unlikely sources. She asked friend Tom Sannuto if he would take on the part of the singer's uncle in some scenes. The 53-year-old had no prior acting experience and was hesitant at first.

"I'm very camera shy to begin with," Sannuto said. "But I figure as long as she wasn't expecting Mel Gibson I'd be okay. It was rough at first, but I eventually got the hang of it."

Pennisi estimates she has about $14,000 invested in the film so far, mostly in equipment costs. Once completed, she plans to release the film on DVD and hopes to enter it into some film festivals. And though recent independent films such as Blair Witch Project, Sideways and Napoleon Dynomite , managed to find unexpected success at the box office, Pennisi has no illusions that her film will be a blockbuster hit.

"It would be a wonderful surprise it that happened," she says. "But all I'm really doing is trying to tell a story. And I think it's a good one."

--Logan Neill can be reached at 352 848-1435 or lneill@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 23, 2005, 01:23:18]