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December 2, 2008

Film to be done by March, maker says

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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SCRANTON – The maker of a documentary film about Scranton playwright/actor Jason Miller said the film will be finished before the spring.

“It will absolutely be finished by March. … We’ll do film festivals throughout the spring and summer,” Rebecca Marshall Ferris said after Miller’s bust was unveiled Monday on Courthouse Square.

Ferris said making the film was “a long journey; it’s been five years. I’m very relieved that the bust is unveiled so I can finish it.”

Ferris, a city native who split her time between New York City and Scranton for many years before moving to New Orleans two weeks ago, said her memories of Miller “really now are grounded in this journey that I’ve been on to sort of understand his life.”

Ferris said she began working on the film "Miller's tale" after the announcement that “they were making the bust and then the ensuing saga of where to place it and if he deserved the bust at all.”

Speaking before the unveiling, actor and close Miller friend Paul Sorvino, who created the sculpture, said Miller had his faults.

“Everybody standing here knew them. But that doesn’t matter because his genius is going to resound forever in his great play and some of the other great things that he did and his artistic spirit,” Sorvino said.

Ferris said the unveiling of the bust on Monday was “kind of the resolution of that storyline, but the film isn’t just about the bust. … When I started this film, it was really kind of following this saga, but then I started calling people, telling them that I was making a film about Jason, and everybody wanted to be a part of it. So Martin Sheen is in it, William Friedkin, the whole surviving cast of “That Championship Season” – Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, Paul (Sorvino), Stacey Keach,” Ferris said.

“It was just amazing to see how these guys are still working in Hollywood, still have thriving acting careers – Jason left there in the mid ’80s and came back here – and they still very much loved and respected him. And I’ve really learned more about Jason through this journey, making this film and hearing what all these incredible people had to say about him,” Ferris said.

The film will be broadcast nationally on PBS at a yet-to-be-announced date.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.

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