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ENJOY

SLEEPERS SCREENING w/ cuts

B Y S HANNON H ICKS

Thirty minutes into the special screening of the feature film Sleepers Tuesday

at the Rich Forum/Stamford Center for the Arts, a definite rustle went through

the audience.

On the screen was a blue school bus filled with juvenile delinquents, rounding

a bend on a tree-lined road. An ordinary shot to establish scenery for most

film-watchers, but for many in the audience it was an especially memorable

moment: It was the town of Newtown's first appearance on the big screen in

Sleepers , a drama based on the autobiographical account of Lorenzo

Carcaterra's life while growing up in Hell's Kitchen. The road the bus is

being driven on is Mile Hill Road in Newtown, from the Route 25 end heading

toward the center of the Fairfield Hills campus.

Carcaterra and his three best friends were sent to a reform school while in

their early teens for a street prank that nearly killed a man. Sleepers

follows the boys through their reform school days, then picks up when the four

are reunited years later, in their adult lives.

The film, which stars Brad Renfro, Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt,

Robert DeNiro and a host of others, was partially filmed on the campus of

Fairfield Hills Hospital (FHH) in Newtown late last summer. Fairfield Hills

was transformed into the Wilkinson Home For The Boys, where the boys were sent

after their sentencing.

The film crew for the Barry Levinson-directed flick returned to Newtown in

November for some winter scenes. The completed Newtown scenes last

approximately twenty minutes.

A number of area residents were hired to play extras in the film, and Newtown

has been waiting for the film's release since. The national opening of

Sleepers is October 18.

The October 15 screening was attended by a sizable contingent from Newtown,

including community development director Liz Stocker; Jim Shpunt, the former

head of maintenance at FHH, and his wife, Sue; and a number of the teenage

boys who had been hired as extras.

Amy Mangold, the Newtown Teen Center supervisor, was also there with her

family. Her nephew, Tod Willie, was an extra in the film. A number of young

adults, friends and family from Newtown were also at the screening, looking

for familiar faces on the screen.

The screening was open to the public. A reception held prior to the film's

8:30 pm showing drew about 200 people, with nearly 600 attending the screening

itself.

Noticeably absent from the gala was the cast of the movie. None of the stars

attended the screening. Kevin Bacon, who owns a home in Litchfield with his

wife, the actress Kyra Sedgwick, is on location in North Carolina on another

film. Most others simply declined, including Roxbury resident Dustin Hoffman,

according to the event's planners.

Greg Carnrick, 16, was a sophomore at Newtown High School last summer when the

casting call was announced for Sleepers . Casting was looking for clean-cut

teenage boys to fill in as background for the Wilkinson scenes. Greg was

spotted and picked out of line almost immediately. He was one of the extras

fitted on the spot for wardrobe for September's shooting.

"I was in four or five shots, I had to miss four or five days of school," Greg

recalled Tuesday night. He and his father, Glen Carnrick, were attending the

reception and screening.

The first scene Greg participated in was during a basketball game, where Kevin

Bacon's character hits one of the principle characters with his baton. Bacon

plays the sadistic, borderline psychotic, head guard at Wilkinson, where boys

were terribly mistreated by the people who were paid to protect them.

Greg and another extra were told to stand in the background and pretend to

talk to each other, not noticing what was happening on the court. They were

told to pretend to speak, Glen Carnrick explained, because the only people who

can speak when the cameras are running are those who are members of the

actors' union.

Another day was spent "running as fast as I can, with about ten other kids, up

and down a spiral staircase," said Greg.

Unfortunately for Greg, those scenes seem to have been left on the cutting

room floor.

However, he was also involved in a food fight, a pivotal scene in the film

that establishes the brutality on the part of the Wilkinson guards against the

boys at the school.

"It was pretty cool," he admitted, although he approached the project with a

bit of trepidation last year. "I didn't want to miss school at the beginning

because I thought I would fall real far behind, but it wasn't that bad." Two

things helped change his mind. First, he found out the shooting days would not

be consecutive; it would be a day or two at a time in September, and the same

thing in November.

And then he found out he would be getting paid. Extras were paid $50 for each

eight-hour day they put in, and their meals were taken care of.

David Kreminitzer, 14, of Newtown was also selected as a Wilkinson extra. He

was even given a few lines in a classroom scene, which also seem to have ended

up on the cutting room floor. He can be seen, though, in the aforementioned

food fight, as can fellow Newtown resident Tod Willie, also 14.

Tod was pleased with the film as a whole.

"It was real good, pretty much what I'd expected," he said. "I did not know

the ending, though. That was a surprise."

Tod said it was "a real neat feeling" to see his face on the screen. His

younger brother, Tony, was also offered a spot as an extra but turned it down

when told he would have to cut off the tail of hair he has in order to be in

the film.

The special screening was presented as a fundraiser for the Mid-Fairfield

Child Guidance Center. The center is a children's psychiatric outpatient

clinic in Norwalk. It serves more than 1,200 clients from 500 families.

Warner Bros., who is handling domestic distribution of the Propaganda

Films/Baltimore Pictures production, agreed to the Connecticut premiere

provided the Connecticut Film Commission donated revenue from ticket sales to

a charity.

Stuart Greenbaum, executive director of the Mid-Fairfield Child Guidance

Center, addressed those attending the film before its screening.

"You're going to see [in Sleepers ] ... the impact of trauma in childhood and

its lasting effects on adult personality when these kinds of things go

untreated and undiagnosed," he said. "What is the end effect?

"Everybody's concerned about putting the big bucks up now and paying the price

now. But we'll pay the price later on if we don't come to terms with this

terrible social problem."

Sleepers is rated R. With graphic scenes in the reform school, a few moments

of violence, adult language and intense themes throughout, Sleepers is not for

young audiences or the faint at heart. It is a very strong drama that earned

its rating.