It was ten years ago that local filmmaker Danny Peterson brought to light the health effects of pelmenis \u2014 the Russian dumplings beloved by Juneau \u2014 by eating nothing else for a month in \u201cPel Meni: A 30 Day Addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Peterson, a recovering pelmeni addict, returns in the new film \u201cPels, Inc.\u201d which seeks to uncover the seedy world of pelmeni dealers, addicts and the law enforcement officers fighting the war on this Schedule 1 drug.<\/p>\n
Or, at least that\u2019s the premise of his new parody, due to debut 9 p.m. on Aug. 19 and 20 at the Goldtown Nickelodeon.<\/p>\n
Peterson made the original \u201cSuper Size Me\u201d parody \u2014 he didn\u2019t actually eat pelmenis for 30 days \u2014 with his friends for a high school journalism class and says it has brought him much more renown than its 3,000 views on YouTube would suggest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would get recognized from it,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople would come up to me years later and they would say \u2018I really liked that movie that you made.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
One Hawaiian coming to the University of Alaska Southeast for college saw the movie when they typed \u201cJuneau, Alaska\u201d into the YouTube search \u2014 only to recognize Peterson and another actor in the dorms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just loved stuff like that happening. And my friends always told me how much they liked it. So I really just wanted to chase that feeling,\u201d Peterson said on why he decided to make a sequel ten years later.<\/p>\n
He got the idea for the new parody format when a friend showed him the National Geographic show \u201cDrugs, Inc.\u201d about the war on drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized this is the perfect thing to parody,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cIt goes undercover to the drug dealers and they\u2019re telling how they make it and then they show police busts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peterson started contacting friends who had been in the first movie and asking if they would like to revive their character in the sequel. April Henderson returns as the doctor. Glenn Ojard, who played an addict in the first movie, is now pelmeni-sober and Peterson\u2019s sponsor. (Ojard is also a stencil artist who designed the poster for the film). Jeremiah Crockroft plays the unlikely pairing of FBI agent and drug dealer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did that because he played two roles in the first movie too and so I just wanted to echo that same spirit,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n
There are some new faces too. Andy Khmelev premieres as the story\u2019s Russian antagonist.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just came up to me one day and he was like \u2026 \u2018you got to put me in the pelmeni movie, you\u2019ve got to put me in there.\u2019 And he said, \u2018\u2026 I\u2019m going to be what the stereotype for Russian people is for Americans. I want to be like homophobic and constantly drinking vodka and really rude.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To which Peterson thought, \u201che\u2019s so dang enthusiastic about it and he already has this fully developed character. I\u2019ve got to put him in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peterson describes Khmelev as \u201cperfect\u201d in the film, praise he\u2019s careful to stray away from when describing his own role as filmmaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s mind is going to get blown by this movie,\u201d he said, saying it \u201clooks very homemade\u201d with \u201ceverything taped together\u201d and a \u201cshaky cam\u201d \u201cYouTube aesthetic.\u201d Peterson made the props and costumes himself and filmed everything locally with a handycam.<\/p>\n
In a first for him, one scene uses a greenscreen \u2014 he was able to rent out part of fellow local filmmaker Anton Doiron\u2019s studio where Doiron was making his movie, \u201cHidden Spaceship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s like the most high-tech professional looking cut in the whole movie,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think it\u2019s objectively a quality movie, per se, but I think people will be entertained,\u201d he adds. \u201cI kind of made this movie because I\u2019m interested in making movies but I don\u2019t really know how to do it yet and I knew that (in) a movie like this is I can make mistakes and mistakes will only make the overall product funnier.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wrote an outline for the film too, but said when it came to actual dialogue, he would use costumes and props to endow his friends with their character and then say, \u201cNow you have to get from point A to point B and how you guys do that is totally up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
This follows Peterson\u2019s description of \u201cPels, Inc.\u201d as \u201ca gift to my friends\u201d where he lets them shine. It was their encouragement that started him on the path to filmmaking and them who kept him on it. They will also take their place in the spotlight with Peterson at a cast and crew Q & A at the end of the Aug. 20 screening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to let them down,\u201d said Peterson.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Additional credits: Theo Kennedy, Kyle Messing, Michael Christenson, Izzy Christenson,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Advisory: Film contains foul language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"