After a decade of ups and downs but never discouraged, a local filmmaker is screening “Prosperity Creek” at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema One Loudoun on Sept. 2 for the Film Club Screening Series.
Much of the film was shot in Reston, and locals will recognize Lake Anne, the Dulles Toll Road, Baron Cameron Park and a green Reston sign reconfigured to say “Prosperity Creek.”
Zach Walsh says he first got the idea for the film back in 2015 when he was watching the Rachel Maddow Show with his dad. “It was about public policy polling and where the nation sat on incredibly ludicrous questions. It was so outlandish that people were open to believing a particular wild conspiracy theory. I thought it would make a great movie.”
Walsh says along the way he got involved with Robert Rodriguez as one of the possible contestants on his upcoming reality show, “Rebel without a Crew.’
“They helped me draft the film and taught me preproduction stuff on how to develop a movie.” Ultimately Walsh’s film wasn’t chosen for the show, “but without that help it wouldn’t exist today.”
Most of the filming took place in 2018 but then the bumps began with Walsh’s medical issues and then in 2020 “the world had other plans as Covid took hold.” Later he got in touch with the cast but some had moved to California so he had to rework the ending.
“But I never gave up. I was fortunate to have Stephen, my best friend since middle school who is a genius with a camera and my brother John who is the producer. Everybody stayed on board.”
The main character in the film is a young Black woman who is hired as a house sitter in a wealthy local suburb. “But the area is all white people, and she gets a lot of hostile stares. She is an outcast in the community but she realizes it is not because of who she is but because she is an outsider and they have plans to take over the world.” And she is the only one who can stop it. Ultimately she pairs up with the gardener and they discover crazy surprises about the neighborhood around them.
Walsh went to school in Centreville and experienced a similar alienation due his autism. “In a time of No Child Left Behind where everything was standardized and didn’t recognize differences like mine. I was very alienated, surrounded by the wealth gap and the proximity to power. It was like I wasn’t a human being.” He wanted to make something from that outsider point of view, and his own situation combined with the experience of the film’s main character.
Walsh explains the film as a tribute to the other in society within the power dynamics of the DMV with sci-fi twists. And Walsh says he hopes it reflects the quirky nature of an autistic person. “I want my movie to be like that.”
Walsh says the biggest challenge over the past decade of working on the film was his serious health issues. “And of course, raising the money.” It cost about $10,000 to produce the film. “But we did everything ourselves. The person who did the makeup is also in the cast. Someone plays a solo on a flute, and the only person associated with the film who got paid had written the music.”
Walsh says he has had a camcorder in his hands since he was five and has been making videos with his best friend since he was 13. “I’m deep into it.”
Currently Walsh is seeking distribution for the film that has previewed at the ARTfactory in Manassas and has been seen in Canada as well as the DC Film Fest. He is now pursuing a couple of scripts. “This is what I want to do with my life.”
See “Prosperity Creek”
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema One Loudoun,
Sept. 2 Film Club Screening Series
20575 Easthampton Plaza, Ashburn, VA 20147 (One Loudoun Center)
Sci-fi social satire, created by Zack Walsh and Stephen Cox with live Q&A. Shot in Reston. https://drafthouse.com/northern-virginia/event/film-club-prosperity-creek-with-live-q-a