Young director Jonathan DeMelkon is excited to be screening his new film at the Kimball Theatre in Merchant’s Square next week – especially since he just graduated high school and expected to be screening his first movie in his room at home, not at a public venue.
The budding filmmaker got the phone number of the Kimball’s owner from a friend, made a few calls, he said, and voila! He got one of the screening rooms at the Kimball for a day to show his film “The Strategist,” which is actually a trilogy of shorter films.
“I am very excited,” DeMelkon says. “A lot of work has gone into making this happen.”
That work started when DeMelkon was in yearbook class during his junior year at Williamsburg Christian Academy. The class was assigned a film project, and he wrote and directed a 17-minute film that became the first of the three parts of “The Strategist.”
He finished the second and third parts during his senior year, and now they’re ready for their debut.
The movies follow two heroes trying to stop an evil madman who controls time (see video trailer below). Isaac Rosenberg (Isaac F. Davis) is used as test subject for time travel, and he befriends Andy Hughes (Ethan Martin); together they try to stop the man behind the curtain, called the Strategist (Zach Alexander).
https://vimeo.com/70904147
“I’ve been interested (in filmmaking) since I was in middle school,” DeMelkon says. “I had a digital camera and I used to film my Legos and my other toys.”
During his freshman year of high school, he got to do his first film project, which he really enjoyed, and he’s been hooked ever since.
DeMelkon received a scholarship at the end of his senior year for a film he made for a VFW Post #8046 scholarship contest – his film had to capture his thoughts on the theme “Voices of Democracy.”
He’s headed to Regent University in Virginia Beach to study film in the fall; the young director is interested in learning to make action and drama films, though he also enjoys science fiction, he says.
Read more about “The Strategist” on its Facebook page. The film is playing for free at 1, 4 and 7 p.m. at the Kimball – the 7 p.m. show is sold out, but tickets are available online for the afternoon showings.
