Ed McIntosh, left, writer and director of “Kinder Soul, poses with actors, from left, Ashley Mortimore, Brooklyn Dikis, John Perchinski, Daniel Banks, Allen Free and Justin Morrison.
The workshop at Kaleidoscope Inc. in Masury has plenty of things for its clients – developmentally delayed individuals with dual diagnoses – to do. They can feed the goats and chickens that are in the back yard, play baseball or basketball, create artworks, watch movies, perform in plays, get a hair cut, see a nurse or a therapist or go on a field trip to a sporting event or an amusement park.
“We like to keep them busy,” said Kaleidoscope CEO Michelle Carbo.
Even with all that activity, Ed McIntosh found something they had not done before: make a movie.
McIntosh, a staff member at Kaleidoscope, has been production manager and film extra for many of John Reign’s Polestar Pictures movies over the years, including “Finding Purpose: Road to Redemption,” which was filmed in Brookfield in 2019. So, after getting the OK from Carbo to shoot the movie at Kaleidoscope using its clients, he recruited Reign to star in it.
“Kinder Soul” is 13 minutes long and can be seen on YouTube.
“John is playing a mean staff person,” said McIntosh, who wrote and directed – his first time for both – the film. “They decide that they don’t want him to be mean anymore, so they kidnap him.”
“They” are six Kaleidoscope clients who star in “Kinder Soul” with him.
“It was a great story, especially us tying up a staff member – Oh, it was great,” said John Perchinski, one of the six.
Perchinski, who plays the mastermind behind the intervention and threatens Reign with his artificial leg, said he enjoyed doing something he had never done before, and seeing himself on the screen.
“I hope it does good,” he said. “I hope a lot of people watch it.”
Another actor, Ashley Mortimore, said the lead up to filming was nerve-wracking.
“I had all those lines and I couldn’t use the paper and script anymore,” she said. “I actually remembered a lot. The staff always helped me (run lines).”
Mortimore found the story funny and McIntosh and his cohorts, including cameraman Torrey Derda, “awesome.” She said she’d like to do something like this again.
“Oh, hell yeah,” she said.
McIntosh said he enjoyed working with Kaleidoscope clients in a different way.
“They’re great,” he said. “They took the scripts home every night and told me how they were studying it. They were excited.”
Also starring in the film are Brooklyn Dikis, Daniel Banks, Allen Free and Justin Morrison. Carbo and art teacher Shannon Fox also have speaking roles.
Kaleidoscope’s workshop is in the former Curtis School on North Stateline Road.
