Chris Fetchko and Marina Donahue's charming All In Time will have it's New Jersey Premiere at the New Jersey Film Festival!

Chris Fetchko and Marina Donahue’s charming All In Time will have it’s New Jersey Premiere at the New Jersey Film Festival on September 20, 2015!

Here is the 1st of a two part interview I did with All In Time Co-Producers, Co-Directors, Co-Writers Chris Fetchko and Marina Donahue:

Nigrin: All In Time is a dramatic comedy about life, love, and passion. It tells the story of young man named Charlie who decides to move back home to Pennsylvania in order to manage his favorite hometown rock band. His supportive girlfriend shares his love for the band, until struggles within the ensemble force the couple to make choices that will impact their lives forever. Where did the idea for All In Time come from?

Fetchko: This film would not have been written if in 1996, I never heard a song on the radio called “Fear of Falling” by the rock group The Badlees. I was a senior at Syracuse University and at that moment, the band became “my favorite band.” The band hailed from Northeastern Pennsylvania where I am from. After college, I moved to NYC where I worked as an accountant before I left the corporate world to write and produce the feature film Everything’s Jake. Although I lived in NYC, I spent most of my weekends traveling back to Pennsylvania to catch Badlees shows. Every trip back to NYC was filled with frustration as I always felt the band deserved a bigger audience. In 2002, I decided to leave NYC and move back to PA to manage The Badlees. Although I lived in NYC, Los Angeles, and wrote and produced a feature film, my true dream was to move back into my old bedroom in my parent’s attic and manage The Badlees. As it turns out, sometimes following your dream isn’t what’s cracked up to be. So in 2004 with the band falling apart and the stress of the situation getting the best of me, I actually told my girlfriend at the time that I was “in love with the band more than her.” Not a good decision especially considering I was actually in love with the girl. I immediately quit the band and unsuccessfully tried to repair the relationship. Apparently, Hallmark doesn’t make a greeting card that caters to that one time when you “just told your girlfriend you are in love with a band more than her.” So I had no choice but to dive back into my career and I signed another artist to manage named Jared Campbell. Things with Jared went extremely well and at one of his biggest sold out shows, I was on top of the world but yet at the same time, I was miserable because I was “alone.” I spent the whole concert with my back to the stage waiting for my ex-girlfriend to show up. Yes, I spent a year trying to get her back and figured front row seats to a sold out rock concert would do the trick. She never showed. That night was when the journey of “All In Time” started. “How can I feel so high and low at that the same time? I need to make a movie about how am I feeling right now?” I told my assistant. However, “what is so special about a breakup movie?” so the idea was shelved until one day in 2008, I read a newspaper article on Time Travel and realized that was the missing element needed to elevate this story to a place worth telling. Five months later, I finished the first draft of the script.

Nigrin: The film starts out pretty predictably following a disgruntled banker as he decides to change his life but the film turns on a dime quite a few times with developments that weren’t predictable. Without giving too much away tell us about the narrative development of All In Time.

Donohue: Our movie starts off in New York in 1996, and drops in on the life of Charlie, a 30-year-old banker who is bored to death with his job and decides to scrap it all to follow his dream of managing his favorite hometown rock band. So he moves back to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, a small blue collar town where his beautiful girlfriend also lives, and he starts managing a band called The Damnsels. The Damnsels had some success about 10 years prior, but are now kind of floundering. Charlie believes he can revive their career and dedicates his life and his life savings to promoting them. Everything goes smoothly for a while until the lead singer and song writer in the band decides to quit, pulling the rug out from under Charlie and leaving him penniless and hopeless. Unfortunately, Charlie takes a lot of his frustration out on his girlfriend who ends up breaking up with him, so now Charlie is penniless, hopeless, and heart broken. Enter his elderly next door neighbor, Mrs Joshman, beautifully played by Lynn Cohen, who intervenes and motivates Charlie to get back on his path. Charlie sets off to win back his girlfriend and to revive his career, but is it too late? And if he can only have one or the other, what will he choose, love or career? The movie is essentially about the price of following a dream, and finding out what is most important to us, and how sometimes we realize what is most important to us when it’s too late.

We do lighten the story up with a lot of comedy, and about three-quarters of the way through, the film takes a hilarious and surprising turn, and leads the audience on a wild ride. It’s really fun to sit in the back of the theater and watch everyone watch this movie. It’s very unpredictable so there are a lot of gasps, laughter, wonder and a few tears. Then everyone leaves the theater downloading the music because it’s that good!

Nigrin: I found your film to be quite touching and inspirational. It really stresses the need to follow your dreams and not let obstacles get in the way. Tell us more about this.

Donohue: Well, the movie is partly based on a true story that Chris actually lived. He really did quit his job in New York to follow his dream of managing a rock band. We both believe very much in following your dreams and we both live our lives that way. Making this movie is a perfect example of that. We would rather fail at the unknown than succeed at the known. The important thing is to pursue your dreams, and not stay in a place where you are miserable. And no matter what the outcome, you’ll always end up better for having taken the road. As a wise character says in our film, “Life is about the detours.”

Here is the trailer for All In Time: https://vimeo.com/123513333

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All In Time will be screened with the touching short film Foster Dog on Sunday, September 20. Here is more info on this program:

Foster Dog - Lisa Alonso Vear (Brooklyn, New York) A wonderful short film about a young, disabled dog who gets a new leash on life, with the help of an older, wiser friend. 2015; 14 min. With an introduction and Q+A session with Director Lisa Alonso Vear!

All in Time - Chris Fetchko and Marina Donahue (Summit, New Jersey)  A dramatic comedy about life, love, and passion. All in Time tells the story of young man named Charlie who decides to move back home to Pennsylvania in order to manage his favorite hometown rock band. His supportive girlfriend shares his love for the band, until struggles within the ensemble force the couple to make choices that will impact their lives forever. 2015; 98 min. With an introduction and Q+A session with Directors Chris Fetchko and Marina Donahue!

Sunday, September 20, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.

Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University

71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey

$10=General; $9=Students+Seniors; $8=Rutgers Film Co-op Friends

Information: (848) 932-8482; www.njfilmfest.com

Free Food courtesy of Jimmy Johns of New Brunswick will be given out prior to this screening of the New Jersey Film Festival!