WORCESTER—John Keough watched the Massachusetts premiere of the romance movie, “A Soldier for Christmas,” Friday night at Blackstone Valley 14: Cinema de Lux in Millbury.
Afterward, he thanked every single customer from the half-filled cinema for coming.
If you’re wondering why, the answer is simple: Keough and Leanne Silvia, his partner at HollyWoot Film Group in Worcester, served as executive producers of the independent film.
“It was awesome,” the 42-year-old Worcester resident said, “because you get to see people’s reactions to something that you’ve been a part of for months and months and months, and you’ve only watched it on a small screen. People laughed at some of the laugh scenes and they were emotional during some of the emotional scenes. That’s the whole point, right? So it’s really cool to see people react how you thought they might react.”
Prior to the film airing at Blackstone, Keough appeared in a promotional spot for the HollyWoot Film Group on the big screen. After the film ended, he stood by the exit so he could speak to each customer.
“I’m just super grateful,” he said. “Obviously, independent cinema is not something that has had a big track record in the city of Worcester, getting into theaters. So to have people come out and buy popcorn and buy a ticket, that made me really feel great.”
Keough and Silvia sat in the theater with Manny Alvarado, owner of Manny Jae Media where Keough serves as executive producer and political editor in chief.
“We’re talking about hundreds of people that were involved in the making of this film,” Keough said. “So to have it happen where people who know me and have grown up with me can go see it, it’s a dream come true.”
Keough, who is single, overcame a troubled childhood. From age seven through high school, he lived in foster care. Before he turned 10, he moved about 40 times. He was arrested for hitting mailboxes with a baseball bat. He was constantly fighting and stealing.
“I was in and out of DYS (Department of Youth Services) because I was angry with being in the foster system and not being with my family,” he said. “So I got into all kinds of trouble.”
Then he moved in with Matt and Sharon Bolduc while he attended North Brookfield High School his junior and senior years.
“They were probably the most influential people in my life as far as stabilizing me as a kid,” he said. “A lot of foster kids get in a lot of trouble and I was no different, but they really helped turn my life around.”
Keough has reconnected with his father who lives in Marshfield and his mother who has remarried and lives in Minnesota.
Keough went on to study communications at Clark University and for the past seven years he’s worked in the film industry.
When Keough read a post on a film funding group site that writer-director Aaron Greer needed financial help to finish “A Soldier for Christmas,” he asked around about Greer, who owns Next Horizon Studios in Hudsonville, Mich., and then reached out to him. The two had never met, but they hit it off.
Keough and Silvia invested the final $3,000 to finance the film. That may not sound like a lot of money, but the independent hour-and-31-minute film cost only a little more than $26,000 to make.
“We made a full movie for less than $30,000, imagine that,” Keough said.
Keough and Silvia hope to make their money back and more if the film becomes profitable in theaters and on streaming services. Independent films cost only a fraction of the nearly $1 million or more that smaller studio films average.
Keough pointed out that one of the ways that “A Soldier for Christmas” saved money was to promote the name of the workout gym filmed in the movie rather than pay rental fees.
Keough has worked with Greer since February and the film was completed in September.
“Working with John has been great,” Greer said. “We very quickly realized we have the same goals and approach to films and immediately got to work. It’s been a great partnership.
“In terms of completing the film, John was essential. He and HollyWoot brought in the funds we needed to complete post (production), including sound mixing, music, and color correction. Without their partnership it would have been a much more difficult post process.”
Keough has served as executive producer on a number of smaller projects, including a 50-minute documentary, “The Dirty Gerund Poetry Show” that premiered in October. He served as executive producer, producer and camera operator for the documentary about poems, songs, stories and more performed each Monday at Ralph’s. Silvia worked on the project as an editor and videographer.
“A Soldier for Christmas” is about Hannah, a military widow played by Renay Rayes, and her young daughter rediscovering the joy of Christmas in a world forever changed as they fight for healing and love. Joe Barra and Cameron Arnett also star in the film.
“This movie is not dark,” Keough said. “It’s an upbeat movie with the goal of telling a nice story and that’s what I want to do. I want to uplift people. Aaron and I have the same idea and that’s why I wanted to work with him.”
Keough likes Christmas movies because of people caring about other people.
“I always feel like they’re the nicer movies in the world,” he said, “and I’ve always wanted to make one or be connected with one. So I’m really proud to be associated with ‘A Soldier for Christmas.’”
“It was cool to see it on the big screen,” said Silvia, a 34-year-old resident of Worcester, “and it’s good to put out things you believe in. It’s a good, clean movie.”
Keough also markets the movie with online trailers and he distributes it to theaters. “A Soldier for Christmas” was filmed in Michigan and premiered there just before Thanksgiving.
Keough arranged for the film to make its Massachusetts premiere on Friday at Blackstone. The film was originally scheduled to be shown for only three days, but the response was positive enough for the premiere to be extended through Thursday. It will be shown twice each night.
Keough called it a “Christmas miracle” that he was able to convince Blackstone Valley to show the movie.
“It’s really hard to get it into one of these bigger theaters,” he said. “It’s a lot of work that goes into it and I’ll be honest with you, I really didn’t completely expect it to work and it did and I’m super grateful to all the people involved.”
“A Soldier for Christmas” is scheduled to be shown in Poughkeepsie, N.Y, and in North Carolina beginning Dec. 15. Keough is working on booking more theaters.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
