Pharmboy Makes it Into Film Festival Competition

Trinity resident Lawrence Feeney recently gave us some more good news about his movie Pharmboy.

The film, which was shot in Pasco County, is going to be one of eight movies in the Gasparilla International Film Festival’s Narrative Feature Competition. We learned a while ago that the film got into the festival, but it was just announced recently which festival competition it would participate in. 

The Gasparilla International Film Festival runs March 19-24.

Pharmboy will have its festival premiere at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, March 22, in Tampa and will run again at 2 p.m. on Sunday March 24.  Tickets can be purchased at the Gasparilla International Film Festival website or at its page on Brownpapertickets.com. The cast will be in attendance at both showings.

The film tells a fictional story about the very real problem of prescription pill addiction.  It tells the story of Gunner, a teenager who was born addicted to prescription pills.

Feeney, president of Pasco Films, is an independent filmmaker, and he wrote, cast, produced and directed the film himself and also got some producers to help fund it. He also received a county grant. In addition, he took to “crowdfunding” platform Indiegogo to raise money for the film and raised more than $3,000 for the project.

Pharmboy premiered in Pasco this past December. Feeney pledged to donate funds from the premiere, which was Dec. 3, to Friends of NPR Library, Greater NPR Main Street, Chasco Fiesta and Cotee River Bike Fest. He also said that if there were profits from the film, he would donate a portion to those groups.

He has already donated some funds to those organizations.

Feeney has released a trailer of Pharmboy on Vimeo. Check it out and return to Patch for details on where the film is headed as they become available.