On Oct. 11, Glenbrook North alumnus Gary Donatelli (‘69) debuted his first movie, “23 Blast,” at a screening in the CPA.
“23 Blast” is based on the true story of Travis Freeman, a teenager from a small town in Kentucky who lost his sight due to an infection in the middle of his high school football career. Freeman, formerly a wide receiver, managed to overcome his disability by returning to the football field as an offensive lineman.
Donatelli graduated from GBN in 1969. Since then, he has won several Emmys for his work as a cameraman at ABC and for Best Directing Team in Daytime for “One Life to Live.”
Donatelli said his flexible high school experience allowed him to pursue his artistic interests while being an athlete.
“I had a coach, Charles Hansen, who was our wrestling coach, but he was also a sculptor and a painter,” said Donatelli. “He taught me that in the middle of all the militarism of Vietnam and things going on, that you could still be a man. You could be an athlete, but you could also be an artist.”
Donatelli said he was able to pursue a career in film because he received an athletic scholarship from Indiana University. Since all of Donatelli’s classes were paid for, he was able to explore the photography, art and news departments.
Donatelli began working on “23 Blast” around three years ago. Donatelli’s soap opera had just gone off the air and he was trying to figure out what to do with the “fourth quarter” of his career when his longtime colleague, director Dylan Baker, brought the script to him.
Upon reading the script, Donatelli said he thought the movie was a perfect fit for him, considering he had the tools and background knowledge about football from his high school and college experiences.
A challenge Donatelli said he ran into during the creation of the film, was working within the budget. But, since Baker was friends with actors such as Stephen Lang, who starred in “Avatar,” they were able to get several “mature” actors to come in and work for “scale,” the lowest rate actors get paid. The fans at the football games in the movie were locals, and many of the football players in the movie were former players at Corbin High School, located in Kentucky, where Freeman played.
According to Donatelli, the movie theater in Corbin held a special showing for Freeman and his family.
“In Corbin, the [local] theater shows the Freeman family the big movies the night before they come out so that [Freeman’s] dad, Larry, can explain to Travis what is on the screen,” said Donatelli. “So the night before we showed it in Corbin as a ‘thank you,’ I got to watch the family watch their story.”
According to Donatelli, the family enjoyed the movie, laughing at some parts and crying during others.
Distinguished Alumnus Dennis Downes (‘69) is a longtime friend of Donatelli. In addition to his art being featured in the film, Downes himself also made an appearance in the movie.
“To an artist, having your paintings featured in a movie is an unbelievable compliment,” Downes said.
Donatelli said integrating his life and career together in order to produce a movie was a very unique moment for him.
“To be able to take my sports experience and my career experience and blend them together to tell a high school story, and then come back to that high school at Homecoming and have my brother here…it’s almost indescribable,” said Donatelli. “It’s darn near overwhelming in a really, really wonderful way.”