TV MOVIE 'The Movement' to feature local actor

Youngstown's D.C. Colvin appears in a flashback sequence in the movie.
By GARRY L. CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Could a butterfly's sneeze in Youngstown begin a chain of events leading to the birth of a hurricane off the coast of Africa? The Chaos Theory purports just such a possibility.
Far easier to accept, however, is the idea that the choices each of us make can have a profound effect on us and those around us, either to our detriment or benefit.
Procter & amp; Gamble's Dreambuilder Celebration made-for-television movie for 2002, "The Movement," explores that thought. Dreambuilder Celebration was created to build on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream and is "a broadcasting/arts organization in which different races and cultures join together in brotherhood, education and opportunity," according to its press release.
How it works: Aspiring playwrights compete to have their piece produced as an hour-long movie, thus giving opportunity to would-be actors, production crews etc. who audition and participate in the film.
This year's winning story was written by Sandra French, a legal secretary who lives in Louisville, Ky. Her setting is on a public transportation bus heading from a crumbling downtown area to a mall in the suburbs. The riders' lives, cultures and belief systems collide when one of them suddenly takes the others hostage.
Forming a microcosm of society, the bus is populated by three teen-agers, a lawyer, a television news reporter, a minister, a retired teacher, a volunteer, a blue-collar worker and the driver. As the riders discuss the day's events, especially a recent drive-by shooting and bank robbery, they spar with each other about their daily lives and the sad decline of the "Crescent Heights" neighborhood that some of them have left and the others remain in.
Before the ride is over, several of them must face their own demons as they try to calm their captor down, even while he forces them to examine and defend the choices they have made in life.
French's writing, while displaying some of the expected awkwardness of a newer playwright, nevertheless plows to the heart of the matter. Her message is a ringing indictment of all of us -- black or white, rich or poor, young or old, religious or nonreligious -- to account for our attitudes and our actions, or lack thereof. She has woven a story that reaches beyond those classifications, deftly adding a surprising double twist to the plot. She also makes a brief appearance in the movie as a member of a church congregation.
Local connection: The first-rate cast is headlined by William Stanford Davis, who has appeared in several network television dramas.
D.C. Colvin of Youngstown also appears in the movie and was on hand at a preview showing of it Feb. 6 at WKBN Channel 27. The message of the movie, he said, is that "in the midst of frustration, there is hope."
This is Colvin's second movie with Dreambuilders, having appeared two years ago as an abusive father in "Brotherly Love." In this production, he appears as Billy, a man who has barricaded himself in a building and is visited in a flashback scene by the young lawyer from the bus as she contemplates her choices.
Colvin was among 81 actors who read for parts in the movie which was filmed last year in the Cincinnati area. Colvin also noted that, as a bit of trivia, the bus used for the production was the same one that was used in the movie "Speed" and in Spike Lee's "Get On the Bus."
Colvin also has appeared in several local theater productions and says that he loves working in both areas. "With the theater, you have to do everything a bit bigger to reach those in the back," he said, "but one of the nice things about a movie is that the closeness of the camera catches everything."
X"The Movement" will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 on WKBN and at 7 p.m. Feb. 23 on Fox Channels 17/62. For more information about Dreambuilders, including how to participate and be a part of the next production, visit www.dreambuildercelebration.org.