1. A few words about your latest projects:
I have a screenplay (like everyone) that I'd love to get made, but I'm still in the process of figuring out how to raise the money for something as big as this. My other films were really very verite, guerrilla sort of deals, made really creatively on a shoestring budget, but this one would want to be more of a traditionally produced feature with a sizable budget. It's about reincarnation. The premise is basically that a small town goes completely insane over the course of a night when everyone becomes who they were in a previous life, possessed by those identities. It's called ALL SOULS. But beyond that, I'm doing what I'm really trained to do, which is directing theater. I have my companies back in Rhode Island that I still direct for and I'm just now connecting with some groups here in Boston (which is where I live) that I'll be doing some work for in '11. And I do educational theater too, which right now involves directing a production of MULAN with about six dozen 5th graders. I keep busy.
2. Why did your family decide to memorialize your brother Nicky with a film?
There were actually two film projects that were made in the wake of the
Station Fire. To preface this - one major part of Nicky's legacy is this one-act play he wrote about a year before he passed,
THEY WALK AMONG US. It's essentially the story of three teenagers who have died and become guardian angels, and one of the characters is clearly Nicky writing about himself. The play is filled with messages of reassurance and comfort, and it's very, very much as if Nicky were writing this play to prepare us for what was going to happen to him. After the fire, when we re-read the play, it was just stunning. It was a part of this growing realization that we had that Nicky had somehow, on some level, known what was going to happen; that he was, in my belief, quite literally being transitioned from one life to the next over the course of his last year here. So clearly, I had to direct his play, there was no question about that at all, for anyone. And I did, first as a staged reading with a teen cast of all his friends, just three months after he passed, and then later as a fully staged production, for the one-year anniversary of the fire. To make a long story short, the next obvious step was to turn the play into a film - really a film about people performing Nicky's play. That's THEY WALK AMONG US, my first film. In the process of making that, we connected with Christian de Rezendes, who is a Rhode Island-based filmmaker, and he thought this whole story was incredibly compelling, especially the belief that many of us in Nicky's community of family and friends have that Nicky is still around spiritually. And that he makes his presence known for us in all sorts of ways. And so Christian D. proposed, basically, that we make a short doc about this phenomenon, without really taking a stand on the issue one way or the other, just allowing people to talk about it, and back then lots and lots of people were talking about it. That was the first incarnation of 41. He asked me to co-direct it, and what happened was that over the course of that collaboration it grew and grew to become way more than just 45 minutes of talking heads related their "Nicky stories." It evolved into a very personal sort of epic about Nicky, his life, his final year, his precognitions, and his passing, and then also about all the stuff that came later - the aftermath of the fire, the signs, the evidence, the visits with psychic mediums, the production of the play and the film versions of TWAU, and the long process of trying to deal with this loss.
That's the long answer. The short answer is: because we had too. Because what else can you do? There is a line from a Tony Kushner play, which describes the process of memorializing as "transmuting horror into meaning." Because what's the alternative? To just do nothing and let this massive hole just continue to exist in your life and by doing so actually dishonor the memory of this person who deserves so very much to be remembered? That's not an option. It never was, at least not for me.
3. What had been your experiences in the film industry before creating “41?”
Virtually none. Like I said, we all really came more out of the theater world. But I love movies, and about a year after the fire I started to think seriously about making that transition from stage director to film director, so that was one of the things that led to all this.
4. What more can you tell us about Nicky that we may not learn from the movie?
Hmmmm. There's no end to what I can say about Nicky. Nicky was the central person in my life, for most of my life. In so many ways, he still is. Another long-term project I have is writing a book about all this. Right now I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred pages written of that. The problem is narrowing it down to a publishable memoir. So I guess I don't really know how to answer that. Nicky was brilliant in many, many ways, and I think in many ways too good for this world, and what's funny is how many people never got that, and never got him, or didn't know what to make of him and how he could be so crass and so caring, so reverent and so irreverent at the same time. That kind of soul doesn't make sense to some people. But at the same time everyone wanted to be his friend. Everyone wanted to earn his friendship. I always say that he went around from one place to the next in his life looking for somewhere where he felt at home, where he could fit in, and I think he never found that, except in his own family and with his girlfriend, Gabby. But then well over a thousand people came to his memorial service. So without realizing it, he had affected so many lives, just in the course of his own short life. I think there's a really profound message in that for everyone.
5. How did Nehst Studios initially get involved with “41?”
Christian D. contacted
nehst because he heard something about them. That they were starting up New York, which was where we both happened to be living at the time, in different parts of Brooklyn actually, and they were looking for films to acquire. I don't recall the details, but it was really that simple.
6. What kind of reactions have you personally received from people who have seen your film?
They've been overwhelmingly positive. We live in a cynical time, and that's true in the arts and in arts criticism as much as anywhere, and so there are a lot of people who see something like 41 and they're grateful that someone made a film that isn't afraid to suggest that there may in fact be more to life than just what our limited senses can tell us, and that we can have hopeful ideas about the universe and spirituality that can be informed by things like science and organized religion but not necessarily be dictated by the strict terms of those paradigms. And so, so many people have had experiences like we've had, where they've lost someone and have continued to feel like they're somehow in contact with whatever that person is now, whatever that consciousness has become, but they feel like they can't talk about these things for fear that they'll be labeled as crazy, or naive, or gullible, or schizo, or whatever. So I want to start that conversation for people. Reactions to the film range from "it's compelling, but probably a lot of coincidences," all the way to "this film changed me, it changed my life, it helped me accept things I had never been able to accept." We got a
five-star review from Film Threat that basically described the film as a meditation on human connection. And we also got a somewhat less glowing review from some local RI reviewer who had no interest in the parts of the film that involved "watching other people's home videos" as he put it, and seemed to think the rest of film was a modestly successful attempt at making a spooky Halloween ghost story. That one really baffled me. And then there have been a few people who can't be bothered to pay attention to anything over 90 minutes (our film is 112, which to me seems really short, but what do I know...) But for the most part, responses have been overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly positive, and usually quite emotional.
7. Nehst Studios started distributing “41” 2 ½ years ago. Are you satisfied that this story reached the audience you had intended?
It does seem that nehst has had some growing pains and they've had difficulty getting traction with this, but I think the struggle has been in figuring out how to market it and who to market it to. It's a paranormal film, but it's more uplifting and personal than most of those films. We went on a radio show with the guys from
GHOST HUNTERS, Jay and Grant, and they loved the film and tried to help us promote it, but it's hard to push a paranormal film that isn't, in fact, a spooky Halloween movie. I know there's an audience out there for the film, but finding them is proving tricky. Some people, I think, are afraid it will be a downer, but it isn't. It really isn't about the tragedy, it's about the hope.
Anyway, Nehst has done a great job just in the last few months of getting the film up on some major sites like Netflix and Amazon, so I think we're in a really good place now, and it seems that their company is in a good place now too.
8. How can our readers get to see your film?
http://www.41themovie.com/. And
http://www.nehst.com/. Also, like I said, Amazon and
Netflix. Hopefully, very soon, also iTunes. You can download it, you can rent it, you can buy it.
9. How have the other families affected by the Station Nightclub tragedy reacted to “41?”
That reaction has been really positive too. I think in the next few years, as we approach the ten year anniversary of the fire, there will be a lot more connections forged between us and the other victims and families.
10. Are you hopeful that more people will have the opportunity to be touched by the memory of your brother?
I want the world to know who Nicky was and is. That's my goal. I think that's what he wants too. He is kind of a ham.
1. A few words about your latest project: 
Reid directed and produced his first feature film STRIKE starring Tara Reid, Vinnie Jones, Ray Wise, Robert Carradine, Rachel Hunter and Ross Patterson. Tommy took on a key role during pre-production thru postproduction on the film, making critical decisions while maintaining an on-schedule and on-budget production. STRIKE (June 2009) is currently released domestically by Anchor Bay on DVD.
Van Bebber had a passion for films from a very early age, making films throughout high school with a Super 8 camera. One of the films he made, Into the Black, would garner him a scholarship to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. After attending one year, Van Bebber applied for a student loan to continue his education, but unbeknownst to the financial establishment that loaned him the money, Van Bebber dropped out of school and began to devote his time to making his first feature film that would become Deadbeat at Dawn.
