New Film Features Summit of Uptown Among Park Ridge Locations

“Jim Shoe” by Producer David Hoelscher of Park Ridge was shot partially at retirement and assisted living community

Long a hub of community life in the town it has called home for more than 30 years, Summit of Uptown will hit the silver screen when Jim Shoe premieres at the iconic Pickwick Theatre just one block from Summit in Uptown in Park Ridge, IL. Not since Blues Brothers Jake and Elwood spun out in the intersection of Talcott, Devon and Courtland after speeding past the Shell Gas Station and Nelson Funeral Home have the familiar sights of Park Ridge been showcased like this on the big screen. Other Park Ridge locations include Mac’s Restaurant on Higgins and Ryan-Parke Funeral Home on Northwest Highway. Spreading the Summit’s fame via the magic of the movies, this independent film produced by local resident David Hoelscher, premieres in his hometown at the Pickwick, a world renowned art deco movie palace, on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m.

A 1979 graduate of Maine South High School, Hoelscher whose interest in the cinematic arts was triggered when he produced a three-minute film as a final exam for a film class he took in high school, produced the movie with his friend Pete Sutton, a colleague from their days at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Already enjoying their mutual interest in film making, when Sutton moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in screenplay writing in the early 1990s, the two friends stayed in touch and Hoelscher would read an occasional script for his buddy. The idea to actually produce Jim Shoe bounced around between the two friends for almost six years as they considered various options for production that had at one time included investors and a much bigger budget. Then in 2014 the two decided that it was time to either get on with the project or drop it. Sutton would serve as director and Hoelscher would serve as producer even though he had never before produced a film.

“I know now why four or five minutes of credits roll when a movie is over,” said Hoelscher. “All those names are critical to a production. It’s not just the actors who are up on the screen who make the movie.” He added that every day must be planned out precisely and that if the work isn’t done in the allotted time, that means overtime.
The plot of Jim Shoe revolves around the lives of four young associates at a prestigious Chicago law firm who are charged with performing pro bono work to win a partnership vacated by a partner who has died. One opens a soup kitchen, another works as a legal advocate, a third works as a care giver for a patient with Alzheimer’s, and the fourth mentors a gang member.

Drawing on his knowledge of the place where he grew up and where he now lives with his own family, Hoelscher set about to find filming locations. Knowing Park Ridge as well as he did, he knew that a lot of the locations that were eventually chosen would fit very well into the script. When he knocked on the door of Summit of Uptown, Marc Dennison, then Executive Director, seized the opportunity to find yet another way to enrich the lives of the people who call Summit home. The Summit served as the location for filming last summer for about five of the 19-day shooting schedule. “It wasn’t disruptive, but it certainly created a buzz that kept people especially our residents talking,” said Dennison.

CAPTION
It was “Lights, camera, action” at the Summit of Uptown, a newly acquired Arbor community in Park Ridge, IL, when the film crew used this hub of community life for more than 30 years as one of the locations for the independent movie Jim Shoe which premieres at The Pickwick Theatre just a block from the Summit on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 7:30.