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Two young boys come to blows over religious stereotypes in comedy-drama ‘The Bus Stop

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The Bus Stop 03The Fort Myers Film Festival will screen a block of “Thinkers Shorts” in the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 9. Among the four films included in this block is The Bus Stop, a 14-minute comedy/drama set in a posh apartment building in New York City, where two young boys come to blues due to humorous religious stereotypes they learn from their parents.

The film was directed and edited by Justin Malone, who is also known for Blue (2014), Hurry Up and Wait (2011), and his first feature-length film, Undocumented.

Undocumented is a documentary about immigration in America. When he began filming Undocumented, Malone The Bus Stop 05was 25 and broke. But as he watched kids walk out of Dallas high schools, marches taking place in downtown Dallas, Mexican restaurants popping up all over the place and the city of Farmers Branch passing laws that made English the official language of the city and fined owners who rented housing to illegal immigrants, he knew he had to make a documentary about the cultural influences that were changing the face of his hometown.

“Justin Malone began calling be two years ago and bugged me for six months to help him with this documentary about immigration,” recounts the film’s executive producer Robert Curlin. The two finally met over lunch and Curlin agreed to take on the film provided Malone narrate the documentary The Bus Stop 04in order to make it more personal.

Curlin and Malone originally intended to complete the film in time for the 2008 presidential election, but as money for the project began pouring in, Malone and his film crew decided to travel to 24 other major U.S. cities in order to see what The Bus Stop 02immigration battles and stories they could find outside of Texas.

And it’s that kind of sensibility and commitment to doing things right that comes through in later projects like Hurry Up and Wait, Blue and now The Bus Stop. You can see for yourself during the Thinkers Shorts block, which also includes The Bus Stop 01Aftermath, Daewit and Timeless Charms.

 

March 6, 2017.

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