PETE ANDERSON KEEPS LATEST FILM LOCAL >>>

I consider myself only a part-time filmmaker, so I can't say I belong in the same league as someone like Pete Anderson. When he told me Break marks not only his seventh time in the director's chair of a feature film, but also his 17th screenplay, my jaw dropped just a bit. I had to ask him to repeat himself. You have to admire persistence like this.

The 43-year-old Anderson seems to tear into every project like a tornado of talent, a battalion of one oftentimes taking on multiple duties with boundless energy. Anderson also produced, edited, and did some acting in Break, a dramedy about strangers whose only connection is a single gun.

A Tacoma resident for only two years now, Anderson wanted to keep Break a truly local production. That meant using mainly Seattle and T-Town for the script's several dozen locations, and hiring actors close by to fill the whopping thirty-six speaking parts. Local musicians even supplied the soundtrack with sixteen original tunes.

"One of the big things I wanted to do with Break was showcase ... a lot of actors here (in our community)," Anderson says. "Probably the thing I'm proudest of with the film is that ... the performances are really solid."

A Grand Cinema regular, earlier in September Anderson rented space in the theater to publicly screen his work for the first time. The turnout and response surprised him.

"There were so many members of The Grand I didn't even know that came," says Anderson. "So it was really good getting feedback from them, and it was really positive, which was terrific."

Last week Anderson sent Break off to one of the biggies: Sundance Film Festival. He tells me he has to wait until December to find out whether his movie makes the 2012 list, but in the meantime he's already flying headlong into Script #18, called We Have the Weekend. Even if you didn't catch his brief takeover of Cheney Stadium for a recent shoot, odds are you'll hear more about this filmmaker real soon. Find Break-ing news here.