The new film “Echo Boomers” has a substantial local circuitry. Not only is it based in Chicago and partly filmed around town in 2019, with iconic shots at Union Station and along Wabash Avenue’s L tracks, it’s also the directorial debut of a Columbia College Chicago grad.
Seth Savoy began writing the script during his undergrad studies. He won an award for the screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival.
The gritty thriller, opening Nov. 13 at the Music Box Theatre, focuses on an underground crime ring intent on stealing from the wealthy and giving to debt-filled and jobless recent college graduates.
With the help of co-writers Kevin Bernhardt and Jason Miller, the “Bling Ring”-style story, based on true events, turns into a modern-day Robin Hood crusade that plays on society’s widening generational wealth gaps — Echo Boomers the term for millennials who are the demographic echo of their Baby Boomer parents.
“This film is certainly capturing a certain bandwidth in the zeitgeist that young people understandably feel, like nobody is really considering their future,” says actor Michael Shannon, who plays shady crime boss Mel Donnelly with his usual precision. “They’re feeling disenfranchised and wanting to have some control over their lives, which is very easy to understand.”
Shannon sees parallels in releasing the film around the time of the presidential election, though he says, “Voting is a much healthier way to take care of your destiny.”
The two-time Oscar nominee — whose manager Byron Wetzel is one of the movie’s producers — says he joined the project to amplify the profile of a film he thinks has something important to say.
Jacob Alexander (“I Don’t Know How She Does It,” “Girls”) co-stars as willing thief Chandler Gaines. He was eager to again work with Shannon. They’d worked together in Chicago’s A Red Orchid Theater production of “Traitor” in 2018.
“I was working the box office at Red Orchid when I started getting comfortable with everyone, and I mustered up the courage to start asking if I could sit in on the rehearsals,” Alexander says. “Michael was working on a rendition of ‘Simpatico,’ and [watching] taught me that there’s no limit to how hard you can work because Mike pushes it pretty far.”
Shannon says theater is where he “gets the most excited.” But he and Alexander say it’s important that Chicago keep its place in filmmaking, too.
“It shouldn’t just be confined to just Los Angeles and New York City,” says Shannon, who is supporting the mission of NewCity president and film producer Brian Hieggelke (“Dreaming Grand Avenue”) to establish the Chicago as a base for independent films. “Chicago has such a rich culture in all other aspects with theater and music and art, film should be on par with that.
“It’s real precarious making these [independent] movies. It’s a miracle any of them get done. Because it’s really about having the people and the infrastructure in place. When I was starting out in Chicago, the Illinois Film Commission was very strong and very functional, and there were a lot of prominent movies coming here.”
As a teenager, for instance, Shannon appeared in “Groundhog Day.”
Without Chicago, Savoy says, “ ’Echo Boomers’ never would have happened.”
He gives credit to his teachers at Columbia and says raising the majority of the money that funded the movie in Chicago was a big step.
“Chicago isn’t used enough in terms of really great indie filmmaking, and it’s an unspoken gem,” Savoy says. “I fought so hard for it to be based here, and luckily the producers trusted me.”
Shannon also continues to pop up with various Chicago bands and to support music venues fighting for their lives amid the pandemic.
He says it’s important that arts programs of all kinds continue to exist to support up-and-comers like Savoy and the film’s young cast.
“I’m telling you I wouldn’t be talking to you right now if we didn’t have arts education,” Shannon says. “I wouldn’t be an actor. Arts is not only about expression, it literally strengthens your mind and ability to concentrate and focus. And that’s important no matter what you do in life.
“We can’t take that away. We have to fight for that. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with kids like those in this movie that just want to sacks someone’s house.”
“Echo Boomers” has its Chicago premiere at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Chi-Town Movies drive-in, 2343 S. Throop St., featuring a Zoom question-and-answer session with Seth Savoy. For tickets, go online to: eventbrite.com.
Selena Fragassi is a freelance writer.
