“The There There” is the feature length film debut from Seattle based filmmaker Jason Ryan (“Ugly (Is A Movie)”, “There’s Going To Be A Beating Tonight”).
In the lead role is Malaki Stahl, playing the owner of a small repertory film house who is trying to support his family. He was once a promising up and coming filmmaker in his youth but set aside his artistic goals once his girlfriend, Olivia became pregnant with their child. Playing Malaki’s wife in the film is his real life spouse, Olivia Mendez.
The counter balance to Malaki and Olivia’s “married-with-children” couple is Brittany Lee and Eric Sanders as a young couple, fresh out of college. Brittany is hired on at Malaki’s theater (after much insistence from Olivia that Malaki “stops working so much”) and a large portion of the film will focus on the relationship between her, her supportive but sometimes hard to read boyfriend Eric and Malaki, who leeches onto the couple in an attempt to recapture some of his lost youth, reliving the glory days, before changing diapers and carpools to school was the norm for him and Olivia. He perhaps even sees echoes of his former self in Eric, a young man with an artistic spirit who endears himself to Malaki by professing a deep admiration for his old films.