Though filmmaker Ben Hickernell ’00 only just released Lebanon, Pa. a couple of months ago, he is already hard at work on another movie project. Backwards, a film co-starring, written and produced by Main Line local Sarah Megan Thomas, is his latest directorial effort, and one that he has been working on all summer. Some of that work has included filming here on campus at the Haverford College Apartments (HCA) as well as across locations in Philadelphia and the suburbs.
Backwards, which also co-stars Dawson’s Creek teen idol James Van Der Beek, is a “sports romance” that chronicles an Olympic hopeful rower grappling with what happens to a dream deferred and picking up a romance with her ex-boyfriend and current boss.
Though shooting is almost ready to wrap, Hickernell still has a lot of post-production work ahead of him that will keep him busy for most of the rest of the year. Then, hopefully, the film will play at festivals next year and premiere in time for the 2012 Olympics in London. (You can read more about the upcoming indie in this recent Philadelphia Inquirer profile.)
But while you wait to peep the HCA’s film debut sometime in 2012, you can catch up on Hickernell’s last movie; Lebanon, Pa. was released on DVD and via iTunes in June.