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Filmmaker Tom Quinn brings his film, The New Year Parade, to the Ritz.

by Mark Maurer

Neal Santos PUTTING ON THE RITZ: Filmmaker Tom Quinn used the Mummers Parade as the backdrop for his domestic drama in The New Year Parade.

When Tom Quinn approached the Mummers for feedback on the script for his feature-length debut, The New Year Parade, they reacted with "friendly ball-busting."

"They just wanted to tear it apart," Quinn says, who grew up in Bucks County and attended La Salle and Temple but is otherwise far removed from the string and fancy bands that set The New Year Parade scene. "They know this world so much better than I ever will." Quinn saw value in letting the Mummers retain their own voice, so he encouraged ad-libbing with the mostly first-time actors.

The story of The New Year Parade is loosely based on oral histories Quinn conducted with friends who have divorced parents and reflects one year in the life of the McMonogul family, whose patriarch — a string band captain played by Andrew Conway — leaves his adulterous wife, causing their two children emotional distress. The McMonogul family and the Mummers' tales examine how tradition functions in times of struggle.

A film that could have easily never made it out of Philadelphia ultimately launched the 33-year-old writer/director/producer/editor/cinematographer from film festival to film festival, starting with the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival where Quinn took home Best Narrative Feature. The latest checkpoint is a homecoming of sorts: a Philly-only one-week theatrical run beginning tomorrow. Following the Ritz run, Parade will be released on DVD.

Quinn got into film at age 7, making mini-movies with family members or action figures but got serious as a communications undergrad at La Salle. He made a few shorts and trained as a camera assistant under directors Eugene Martin and Lance Weiler.

Quinn's co-producer, Steve Beal, calls Quinn an intuitive people-person who knows how to evoke realism from his novice actors. Beal says Quinn often lingered with his camera for hours until the cast was confident they'd done their best improvisation.

"He would make a good poker player," Beal says, "because he would know what you're thinking before you do. That's what makes him so good with actors."

After the Slamdance win, Quinn's domestic drama took home Best Indie Feature at the 2008 Philadelphia Film Festival and was a Gotham Independent Film Award nominee. That's impressive for a film that took four years to shoot and $7,000 to make, all while Quinn multitasked as a student in Temple's M.F.A. program. Despite the praise, The New Year Parade did not acquire studio distribution at any of the festivals. This doesn't concern Quinn; he never expected his film would be seen outside the community it profiles. The independent film economy is worse now than when he started production in 2003, he says, and considering the number of deserving Sundance (and other festival) films that don't get picked up, he's proud he still owns his film.

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Though the festival parade has ended, Quinn is still busy. His job titles include editor of local filmmaker Sarovar Banka's India-shot feature A Decent Arrangement, director of photography for the NYC-based Babelgum's Radar Web series and teacher in UArts' high school program. Next year will kick off with a two-month mentorship that pairs him with Brooklyn-based filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, whose films Half Nelson and Sugar match The New Year Parade's character-driven, mumblecore nuances.

Quinn is currently penning a script about an affable Catholic priest who returns to his childhood parish to reinvigorate it, but then has a near-death experience. Quinn would like to shoot it at the Catholic elementary school he attended in Southampton, Pa. 

Eyeing Mount Airy and Roxborough for future shoots, he sees the Philly film scene as a bag of popcorn ready to burst. He points to the budding artist communities in Fishtown and Northern Liberties, support from the Greater Philadelphia Film Office and DIVE post-production facility, and the city's recent film school grads who've "bought houses and are staying here." Such auspicious ingredients can help for digging up stories about the city that haven't yet received silver-screen treatment. The Mummers, relatively uncharted cinematic territory in fiction form, fit that niche. 

Despite making Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film list and earning a MovieMaker magazine's 10 Young Writer/Directors to Watch nod, Quinn is still satisfied making ultra-low-budget features and picking up spare moonlighting checks. He's driven by an attention to narrative detail and bare-bones honesty onscreen.

"When you don't have money to get whatever name actor that's gonna bring people in, I think that texture is really important," Quinn says. "It's what's gonna make the film unique, memorable and surprising."

Scott Macaulay, editor-in-chief of Filmmaker Magazine and an independent film producer, worked with Quinn in a 2007 narrative rough-cut workshop and offered editing guidance on The New Year Parade. "He's a strong storyteller in that he's not making generic Hollywood stories but instead taking a subject matter about people living in Philadelphia," Macaulay says. "It's a near-universal story, and he captured it very sensitively."

Despite the storyline's common touch, The New Year's Parade's specificity is in line with Quinn's business plan. To escalate the level of buzz attached to his film, he's been rallying for an extended regional run or screenings in other cities to complement the release of Parade on DVD.

Quinn believes in a community-based release model, which entails Econ 101-style DIY marketing.

"If you work with the community from the very beginning — from the writing-the-script stage — and if you carry it all the way through, you can make a movie for very little money that's supported by the community in the end," Quinn says. "I'm not going to make a living this way, but I could make another film this way."

The New Year Parade, Oct. 30-Nov. 5, Ritz at the Bourse, 400 Ranstead St., 215-925-7900, landmarktheatres.com. DVD available Nov. 24 on Amazon and Netflix.