"Self-Medicated" could be the poster film for the CineVegas Film Festival.
The homegrown film premiered at CineVegas in 2005, went on to win awards in more than 30 national and international film festivals and is scheduled for widespread release in theaters in August. It's being billed as the most award-winning independent film of 2006.
Its success underscores the growth and increasing significance of CineVegas.
Monty Lapica, who wrote, directed and plays the lead, and Shane Stuart, his childhood friend who plays his best friend, grew up in Las Vegas.
"Self-Medicated" is a fictionalized story of 29-year-old Lapica's troubled youth, one that spun out of control after the death of his father. In high school, he became involved with drugs. Eventually his mother had him "kidnapped" and taken to a rehab center.
Lapica, 29, turned his life around, and he and Stuart moved to Southern California to study filmmaking and acting. They were roommates for a time. Both still live in Los Angeles.
"When we were rooming together he was writing this movie based on his life story," Stuart, who's also 29, says. "His battle with drugs. Losing his father. The only family he had was his friends, and I was his best friend."
Stuart, son of "Legends in Concert" founder John Stuart, also is an associate producer of the film. Shane Stuart used his and his father's contacts to help get the film made.
Most of "Self-Medicated" was shot in Las Vegas. Like most low-budget films, the project took a lot of faith on the part of a lot of people to be completed, Stuart says. Quality people came aboard because they believed in the project, working for scale or sometimes for free.
The talented technical crew working behind the scenes included cinematographer Denis Maloney ("The Zodiac," "The Contender").
Among the veteran performers who joined the cast were Diane Venora ("Heat," "The Insider"), Michael Bowen ("Kill Bill Vol. 1"), Greg Germann ("Ally McBeal") and Kristina Anapau, an up-and-coming actor who starred opposite Christina Ricci in "Cursed."
Anapau, 27, plays Nicole, one of Lapica's best friends, in "Self-Medicated." At first, the part was just another acting assignment, but after she read the script she was drawn into the story.
"It's a very emotional film," Anapau says. "People in the theater are crying. A lot of kids, young adults, that have gone through programs like the one Monty's character went through are really emotionally affected - one girl even got up and left the theater crying."
While he was working on "Self-Medicated," Stuart started another project with Vegas roots. The documentary, "Heart of the King," debuted at the Silver Lake Film Festival in Los Angeles, winning the Audience Favorite Award.
It follows average people who don Elvis costumes and perform as the King.
"Elvis Presley is just the backdrop," Stuart says. "The documentary is about everyone going for their dreams."
Which is what CineVegas is all about.
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