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Richard Duckett
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Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK
Worcester is a city without a regular movie theater, but it is going to be home to two movie festivals this year, with directors coming in to discuss their work, starting with the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival April 13-16.
MassIFF will screen short films and feature-length films (80 in all, including about a dozen full-length feature movies and documentaries) from around the world, nationally and locally at three locations: WCUW 91.3 FM Studio, 910 Main St.; Hilton Garden Inn Worcester, 35 Major Taylor Boulevard; and Traina Center for the Arts at Clark University.
MassIFF has shown films annually since 2011 in the Boston area but has now been taken over by the The Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation Inc., which has moved the festival to Worcester.
The Shawna Shea Foundation was founded by Skip Shea — an acclaimed Uxbridge-based filmmaker, writer, director and producer — in memory of his daughter Shawna E. Shea, an Uxbridge High School student and a creative and artistic young woman who died at 16 in a 1999 automobile accident.
The nonprofit organization supports young people, especially women, in filmmaking, performance arts and other artistic and cultural endeavors through financial assistance, collaborative fellowships, mentoring and educational opportunities.
The foundation has also run the Shawna Shea Film Festival for several years. Last year it was held in Sturbridge.
This fall, the Shawna Shea Film Festival will also move to Worcester, Skip Shea said.
Worcester lost its one remaining daily movie theater operation when Showcase Cinemas Worcester North announced last June that it was closing for good after shutting down early in the pandemic. It doesn’t seem that long ago when Shari E. Redstone, then executive vice president of National Amusements Inc., was being interviewed in 1995 for the groundbreaking of the cinema complex (full disclosure: I was the one who interviewed her).
Cinema 320, in its 40th year this year, has kept the movie torch burning with weekly screenings of art house-style films at WCUW 91.3 FM Studio since last September (it previously was at Room 320 of the Jefferson Center at Clark University) in a space specially renovated to screen movies. Additionally, cinemaworcester has shown independent and foreign films on a pop-up basis and quite regularly at the Park View Room, 230 Park Avenue.
The Shawna Shea Foundation is also planning to have monthly screenings of movies at WCUW. Shea said he will work with Steve Sandberg of Cinema 320 and Andy Grigorov of cinemaworcester on the screenings.
“I think the more the merrier,” Shea said of the number of film-showing organizations. “I think people will see there’s a really cool movie scene happening in Worcester.”
Shea is also planning monthly poetry readings along with putting on some music performances in Worcester, and will co-host a podcast.
“We’re expanding our reach in Worcester,” he said. “We want to make Worcester our home.”
At the Shawna Shea Foundation, “We’re Worcester County people and this really brings it home to what it should be. I’m excited, and I can tell you there were years I didn’t think that,” Shea said.
Shea’s movies have included horror shorts and the award-winning 2016 fulllength feature “Trinity,” based on an event that happened in Shea’s life when he ran into the priest who had abused him when he was a child and who was now working in a local bookstore.
MassIFF has shown new independent features, shorts, documentaries and acclaimed foreign films.
Shea had served on the board of MassIFF. “The director of Mass Indie was stepping down. No one seemed to want to take it over,” he said.
When the announcement was made about MassIFF coming to Worcester last year, it said that films would be shown at the BrickBox Theater at the JMAC.
“It just didn’t work out,” Shea said of BrickBox.
The Shawna Shea Film Festival has described itself as “a fringe independent international film festival. We love quirky and experimental films as much as we love straight narratives. All are welcome.”
When it was mentioned to Shea that it looks like he’s going to be busy, he said, “I don’t think we’re busy enough yet. Mass Indie, Shawna Shea Film Festival, we’re a little fringe. It’s not a mainstream cinema.”
Still, “With the two together we can do more work for the foundation,” he said.
Over 400 films were submitted for MassIFF, Shea said. Submissions ranged from world-wide to Worcester County.
A scene from the movie “Magdalena.” MASS INDIE FILM FESTIVAL
A still from “My Friends the Plants” by Christine Celozzi, winner of the Woman in
Film Fellowship. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MASS INDIE FILM FESTIVAL
Festival
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The films to be shown include a special test screening of “Omar Sosa’s 8 Well-Tuned Drums,” a feature-length documentary film by Soren Sorenson on the life and music of Cuba-born pianist and composer Omar Sosa. The screening will include a Q&A with Sorensen, who is an assistant professor of screen studies at Clark University. (7 p.m. April 14, Razzo Hall at the Traina Center for the Arts at Clark University. Tickets $10; free to students, faculty, and staff with valid Clark University ID.)
“It’s a first time screening. That kind of talk (Q&A) is interesting (to a filmmaker) when you’re still in the process,” Shea said.
Boston percussionist, composer and producer Julian Loida will give a performance following the screenings of a block of shorts, including his own, “Gentle Harp.” (8 p.m. April 14, WCUW. Tickets $10.)
“I was hoping he’d say yes, and he did,” Shea said about Loida agreeing to perform. At The Shawna Shea Film Festival in September rock singer and songwriter Robin Lane performed following the screening of her biopic documentary “When Things Go Wrong: The Robin Lane Story.”
“I’d really like to keep that going at both festivals,” Shea said of having music performances.
Other highlights include a special screening of “Execution,” in which a renegade band of females stages an execution of rapists and killers in a classroom, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Stavit Allweis. (2:30 p.m. April 16, WCUW. Tickets $10; students with ID free.)
Shea said that “Magdalena” from Poland is “an amazing film. It’s a beautiful film that I think speaks metaphorically to Europe.” Magdalena is a young woman who dreams of becoming a professional DJ and moving abroad, while at the same time trying to raise her 5-yearold daughter. When she meets the famous DJ Julia, her dreams have a chance of coming true. Shown with the short “Human” Trash” (Spain). (3 p.m. April 14, Hilton Garden Inn; $10.)
The documentary “The Price of Safety” explores national conversations of over-policing and racial bias as they unfold in the quaint community of Vergennes, Vermont — far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. While the Black Lives Matter movement is often seen playing out in more urban spaces, this film watches a mostly white community grapple with a startling fact: their police force has some of the worst racial bias in the state and possibly the country. Shown with short documentaries “On the Island,” by Mariel Folk, “Becoming Black Lawyers,” by Evangeline M. Mitchell, and “Capitol Riots” by Ralph Celestin. (8 p.m. April 14. Hilton Garden Inn. $10.)
“The level of documentaries is really incredible,” Shea said. “A lot of short documentaries deal with Black Lives Matter. I’m encouraged by that and by the number of female filmmakers. We want to showcase films made by people who are different from what people picture a filmmaker looks like.”
Another trend is “the amount of comedies I got this year is staggering. I think people used humor to cope with what’s going on in the world and perhaps still is going on in the world,” Shea said.
MasIFF will screen two shorts that have come out of the Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation’s Women in Film Fellowship program which supports first-time women filmmakers with financial and mentor support.
“My Friends the Plants” by Christine Celozzi and “Shadowed Reflections” by Emma MacKenzie will be shown during a block of shorts at 5 p.m. April 16 at the Hilton Garden Inn. ($10.)
A scene from the movie "Omar Sosa's 88 Well-Tuned Drums."MASS INDIE FILM FESTIVAL
“They’re incredible. They’ve done incredible work,” Shea said.
For the MassIFF schedule, go to shawnafoundation.org/mass-indie-2022schedule
Tickets for most blocks of screenings are $10. Tickets: https://filmfreeway.com/theMassachusettsIndependentFilmFestival/tickets
Acclaimed ‘Execution’ set for MassIFF screening at WCUW
Richard Duckett
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Stavit Allweis’ award-winning experimental 45-minute film “Execution” could be a conversation starter or a movie that stops conversation entirely.
It may be both.
In this radical revenge fantasy, a group of women appear to have taken over an empty classroom and bring in a succession of men already bound and gagged who have committed heinous crimes of rape and murder against women. Arjes (played by Natalie Plaza), who seems to be in charge, reads the charges, although dialogue is sparse and laconic, and then one by one each man is executed, often in bizarre ways.
“Execution” will be screened as part of the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival in Worcester at 2:30 p.m. April 16 at WCUW 91.3 FM Studio, 910 Main St. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Allweis. Allweis, who lives in New York City, also attended a screening of “Execution” at the Shawna Shea Film Festival last September in Sturbridge.
“I’m really hoping there’ll be an opportunity for open conversation with the issues that it brings up,” Allweis said of coming to Worcester. “That’s really exciting to me to come and show the film and see what the responses are.”
Stylistically the mood of “Execution” is almost flippant with the women making lunch orders and sandwiches and each female character embodying an archetype. Visually there is a lot going on including colorful animations and the very top of the screen given over to split screen visuals. When there is violence blood goes “splat!” and guns go “bang!” like in a comic book.
Perhaps reflecting Alweiss’ background as being an artist before becoming a filmmaker, the film doesn’t follow conventional rules of form of exposition. But it is clear that the women in “Execution” are bonded, and as Greta Hagen-Richardson wrote in an appreciation of “Execution” when it was shown at the New Orleans Film Festival, “there is anger and frustration boiling at the center.”
“Execution” has been an award-winner at the Shawna Shea Film Festival, Athens International Film and Video Festival, the Austin Arthouse Film Festival, and Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival.
Skip Shea, executive director of the The Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation Inc., which is putting on MassIFF and also runs the Shawna Shea Film Festival, said, “We put on a panel last year (at the Shawna Shea Film Festival) and the talkback was amazing. It’s important for film students and women in gender studies. She (Allweis) has a lot to say, so I’m happy to screen it again and screen it in Worcester.”
Asked about what reactions she has seen to “Execution,” Allweis said, “I wish I knew all the reactions. I think there are some reactions people don’t convey to me. The people who come up to me to talk to me have a positive reaction or an intrigued reaction.”
They include “women happy and appreciative and giddy about it. They had a good ride with it, which is really what I wanted to give in this genre, the revenge genre. And men get behind me in a really big way. Skip (Shea) is one of them. Other male festival directors and people like that, they give me support.”
The film has become “a conversation-starter piece,” she said. “The fact that it fosters conversation is important to me.”
On the other hand, Allweis also noted that “one casting platform refused to put up my listing. One film festival rejected the film, (saying) ‘it’s just like this killing and there’s no real reason for it.’”
Allweis said, “I would definitely stress that even though it’s strong social content it’s also very much a new cinematic search into telling a story.”
The revenge fantasy in “Execution” begins with a man form Egypt being pulled into the classroom. He raped his 16-year-old sister and then had her murdered in an “honor killing” because she had brought shame on the family.
In the typically unusual style of “Execution,” Arjes reads the charges in a monotonous voice and has difficulties discharging her gun to put a bullet through his head (the heads of all the male murderers are blacked out on the screen).
Natalie Plaza sometimes addresses the camera with lines such as “This is a hostage tape.” There is humor in her performance but she’s also deadly formidable at the same time. “She comes from comedy,” Allweis said of Plaza. “She was just awesome.”
Allweis has said the male cases in “Execution” are based on an amalgam of real-life stories that she researched from around the world. One of the men in the film is from the United States and another from the United Kingdom.
Watching TV news with stories about women being raped and killed, “It just doesn’t stop. I just wanted to do a little mirror to that,” Allweis said.
“Whenever I hear about murders, rapes, torture, imprisonment — every time it just brought the blood to my head. The idea has always been there, like ‘What the … this is just wrong. I’m gonna do something physical.’ That doesn’t happen. The system will pursue the criminals. But it can’t change the discourse,” Allweis said.
Worldwide, women have a deep distrust that the system will bring about justice, she said. “Execution” is a “fantasy idea” where “women step in and do
A scene from the movie, “Execution.” MASS INDIE FILM FESTIVAL
In Case You Go
What: “Execution” with Stavit Allweis
When: 2:30 p.m. April 16 Where: WCUW 91.3 FM Studio, 910 Main St.
How much: Tickets $10; students with ID free. https://filmfreeway.com/theMassachusettsIndependentFilmFestival/tickets
Health
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ers.
Worcesterite Jake Dziejma agreed — he currently travels to a trans health center in Western Massachusetts, over an hour away. “For a city that touts itself as being the second largest in New England, it can be really challenging to simply find competent care as a trans person,” he said, adding that a local option for healthcare would be welcomed by the trans community.
The team currently consists of McMahan and two other main primary care providers, as well as a registered nurse, a community health worker and a medical assistant. As patient numbers continue to rise, the team in turn will keep expanding to absorb the growing caseload. According to McMahan, the support of a dedicated staff has made a night and day difference.
Now, when a patient calls, they can reach the team through a phone line going directly to registered nurse Sarah Caplette and Community Health Worker Claire Powell. While it may seem minor, such a change breaks down yet another barrier to gender affirming healthcare. “Patients don’t have to continuously out themselves,” said Caplette, as they go through various phone transfers before actually reaching their PCP.
About two years ago, McMahan began lobbying for greater support for transgender affirming care, rather than handling each on a case by case basis. “We can see that when people don’t get gender affirming care, they have worse health outcomes overall,” said McMahan.
The mission of Kennedy Community Health Center is to specifically help those who are marginalized and would not otherwise receive the care they need. With that in mind, McMahan argued that the clinic had a responsibility to do something. “I was able to go to the leadership team and say ‘look, this is a group of people who have worse health outcomes and we can help with that.'”
Clinic leadership readily agreed, having long been committed to LGBTQ+ healthcare, and work began in earnest to build the new initiative into the budget. In fact, Kennedy Community Health Center has earned a top score as a LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Health Equity Index for the last five years. It is the only healthcare provider in Central Massachusetts to receive this designation.
Fast-forward to the present day, and “it’s going gangbusters,” said McMahan happily. The rise in patient numbers, she said, doesn’t necessarily represent a demographic change so much as a cultural one.
“It’s not that there are more trans people now than there ever were, but a slightly improved comfort level in being able to say that out loud,” she said. “Still a long way to go but better than it has been historically.”
Worcester resident Maeve Perry is not surprised that Kennedy has seen a rise in patients - and agreed with McMahan's analysis that more people are able to live visibly. Perry likened it to the stigma that used to surround lefthanded students in schools, as teachers forced them to use their right hands. “Once the restriction was lifted, the number of left-handed people shot up in the short term” before stabilizing, she said. A similar phenomenon could be happening with gender identity, aided by the pandemic encouraging self reflection and social media helping spread educational information. “Numbers are bound to go up.”
However, Dziejma emphasized that acceptance — while essential — is only half the battle. “Trans people need to know that healthcare centers are, one, not hostile and, two, that they actually have the medical knowledge to back that up,” said Dziejma, who had just changed PCPs because “while providers were good people, they didn't have specific trans knowledge.”
Perry believes that hormone replacement therapy is relatively under-researched, which contributes to a lack of knowledgeable specialists. One HRT clinic she reached out to had only one doctor who could write the necessary prescriptions for adults.
Kennedy Health Center did not lack for knowledgeable staff, and brought them in from other parts of the organization, beginning with Caplette and Powell. While Caplette handles all medical aspects, as a CHW, Powell deals with non-medical issues that could directly affect a patient’s health.
“Everybody who is a CHW is going to have a different definition of what that is,” said Powell, who explained that she works with the social aspects surrounding trans affirming healthcare, such as housing, food as well as “a lot of really specific bureaucratic aspects that affect trans folks,” such as name changes.
Changing one's birth name is a “complicated multi-step process that the state has not designed to be user friendly and part of my job is to help people navigate those,” Powell said. Kennedy Health is no stranger to guiding patients through bureaucratic red tape, as similar services are offered by the health center in helping patients navigate insurance coverage.
Perry agreed that name changes were difficult, requiring repeated travel, a $200 fee, and months of waiting. “And that’s before talking to banks, credit cards, social security and everything else.” She also says she is planning to ask WPI for a new diploma with her correct name.
Despite the headache, Perry says she still has it easier than many. “I’m a white woman with a college degree, with a car and license, so even in the worst case, I’m good. BIPOC trans people, unfortunately, have it the worst in these kinds of situations.” Services like those offered at Kennedy could be a step forward in combating the race and class based access issues that arise in these situations, she said.
This speaks to the larger mission of equity at Kennedy Community Health Center — of which the new transgender health team is a part of — that everyone is entitled to healthcare, regardless of socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation or gender identity. And the team at Kennedy Center will be coordinating with similar teams across Massachusetts, sharing knowledge and practices.
“We want people to come get excellent care,” said McMahan, “regardless of how they identify.”
Execution
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the dirty work.”
Toward the end of the movie (spoiler alert), Arjes observes that the sun is coming up. One of the women writes on a blackboard “Sunshine is free.” Outside the women get in a van and ride over the male bodies.
“I’m a filmmaker not an activist … (‘Execution’ is also) about love between women, bonds between women. It’s also about color comics and graphic novels,” Allweis said.
Allweis is originally from Israel where she said she loved art growing up but was encouraged by her parents to become a graphic artist. She received her BFA in graphic design from Bezalel Academy, Israel, and her MFA in painting from Columbia University in New York.
When she came to the United States she started abstract painting again, she said.
As her paintings became progressively narrative, she began to experiment with sequential art and comics. In 2010, intrigued by the language of cinema, she launched the production of “ISNESS,” an epic photographic novel.
“I never felt I had the right to reach up to filmmaking,” she said. Then, “One day I said I want to make a film.”
She took took courses in directing and acting, and joined the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective. Her first film was the short “Cooking with Connie.”
“Then there was no going back for me,” she said.
“Execution” is her second film.
She said what she did in the film is “outside the norms of how an industry film is made. I’m looking to shake up and refresh the look of filmmaking.”
With “Execution,” “In the end I think you’re sharing a day dream with somebody,” she said.
“She’s a visual artist, a painter by trade, she didn’t know the rules of how to make a movie,” Skip Shea said. “It’s almost like watching a symphony and a painting alive. It isn’t like a message type movie, it’s just incredible,” he said.
Allweis said her artistic journey has been “very round about and very long. The (Brooklyn Filmakers) Collective has been so supportive.”
She is writing her next film and hopes to start shooting in a year.
“In a way it’s better that I started so late. I would have become indoctrinated, but after having a family and raising my kids, I felt just detached from institutions,” she said.
Runaways singer Cherie Currie to headline MusicCons in Boxborough
Craig S. Semon
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Once described as “the lost daughter of Iggy Popp and Brigitte Bardot” by Bomp! magazine, “Cherry Bomb” chanteuse Cherie Currie will be rocking this weekend’s MusicCons Collectibles Extravaganza in Boxborough.
Best known as the lead vocalist for the influential, all-female rock band the Runaways (which also included legendary rockers Joan Jett, Lita Ford and the late Sandy West), Currie is one of the coolest and nicest people on the planet. And she doesn’t pull any punches when asked about the Runaways, her rich musical legacy, her famous bandmates and the chances of a reunion ever happening with the surviving band members.
The 62-year-old “Neon Angel” confessed last week on the phone from her San Fernando Valley home that she initially felt the Runaways was just another forgotten ‘70s relic.
“I’ve thought that the Runaways were all but been forgotten about 25 years ago. I really thought that people didn’t really realize that we had really happened,” Currie said. “Even Madonna, putting on a corset and then claiming that she was the first one to do it (when it was Currie’s signature get-up for “Cherry Bomb” performed live), that’s when I really thought that we just soared under the radar.”
To her surprise, Currie learned that there was a small but always growing group of diehard fans and even fellow musicians who appreciated and loved the Runaways.
“There were some people out there that saw what the band represented and our age and we were doing something that really hadn’t been done before,” she said. “And, we were pretty damn good at it.”
Currie said she has nothing but fond memories of Cheap Trick and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, two bands that opened for the Runaways.
“I stayed very close friends with all the guys from Cheap Trick,” she said. “Tom Petty was an absolute, wonderful doll of a man. They were people who looked at us and said, ‘Wow, these chicks are pretty good.’ They embraced us, very compassionate guys, because they were starting out too.”
When asked if she’s angry about the Runaways not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Currie is clearly more upset that one of the Runaways’ biggest influences isn’t in there already.
“You know what I think is a tragedy? It’s that Suzi Quatro isn’t in the Hall of Fame, because if it wasn’t for Suzi Quatro, Joan Jett (who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) wouldn’t have existed,” Currie insisted. “Joan was an over-
Cherie Currie, lead vocalist for the influential, all-female rock band the Runaways, is headlining the MusicCons Collectibles Extravaganza this weekend in Boxborough. SUBMITTED The Runaways in a 1977 photo, from left, Joan Jett, Sandy West, Cherie Currie, Vicki Blue and Lita Ford. TOM GOLD/AP
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Forest Quaglia’s ‘ The Investigators’ set for MassIFF
Liz Fay
Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Forest Quaglia never knew he’d become a professional actor. But at the age of 28, his self-written short film, “The Investigators,” has been nominated for “best Massachusetts short film” at the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival April 13-16.
According to Quaglia, a Leicester native who also stars in “The Investigators” as Detective Norfolk, “I like to get really crazy, emotionally demanding, I like doing something that challenges me. I think that’s real fun because you can’t always do that in real life, so, anything I can’t do in real life is my favorite role to play.
“Action and adventure, for me as an actor, is what gives me the passion to pursue this. It’s being able to experience the parts of life that you can’t always pursue everyday”.
“The Investigators” is a screwballdetective-comedy, which unpacks the many mishaps caused by the intense Detective Norfolk and his eccentric partner, Detective Chance, played by Will O’Connor.
Quaglia and O’Connor met in 2020 while filming “The Bootlegger,” a documentary-style drama created by Newport-based Black Duck Productions LLC. Quaglia stars as main character Charles Travers, captain of The Black Duck rum-runner, alongside O’Connor, who plays supporting role, John Goulart.
“We clicked on and off screen. While on set we had a lot of time to talk about wanting to be more than we are right now, and if we have to make our own stuff, then so be it,” said O’Connor.
A year after Black Duck producers called it a wrap on the Rhode Island set, Quaglia finished writing the script for “The Investigators.” When it came time for casting his co-star, Qualigua reached out to O’Connor, who, after reading the script, accepted the role without hesitation.
O’Connor, an acting student at The Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, says Quaglia’s “work first, play second” attitude was the most memorable aspect of working together.
“He’s one of the most driven people in the industry that I’ve come across. (Quaglia) said ‘if we’re gonna do this, we’re really gonna do it’. I don’t see him not succeeding at what he wants to do. He obsesses about it all the time, he’s watching film on film almost like a professional athlete, and watches how people react to certain things. He definitely carries himself way differently when playing characters. As soon as our AD (assistant director) says ‘rolling,’ he totally flips his facial expressions and everything,” O’Connor said.
Growing up, Quaglia says he never identified as an academic or took well to a classroom.
“Even in high school, I was never cut out for a conventional lifestyle. I didn’t do well in school, I didn’t like structure or being told what to do. I dropped out of high school and got my GED, shortly after. I went to college for criminal justice thinking I wanted to get into law enforcement, but that didn’t last long. I knew I didn’t like the 9 to 5 stuff, so I would switch jobs probably every year,” Quaglia said.
After withdrawing from Wachusett Community College, Quaglia spent his twenties bouncing between industries like construction, auto mechanics, armed security, gunsmithing, retail, sales, and e-commerce before finding his current position working in solar energy as sales manager at Sunrun.
In 2020, Quaglia honed his business experience to begin developing his Worcester-based production company, Forest Quaglia Studios, which has three short studio films to date. “The Investigators” was Quaglia’s first studio film to wrap production by late 2020, followed by the December 2021 wrap of dark comedy short “Body of Ashes” and action-thriller short “Agent Stone” in February 2022.
Since expanding his film experience beyond acting, Quaglia claims filming is still his favorite step in his creative process, but has learned to prioritize writing and producing before anything else. “Everything I put into producing is so I can act more. I basically became a producer to make movies for myself to star in,” Quaglia said.
Quaglia credits his athletic background in mixed martial arts, basketball, football and baseball for his ability to fulfill the high-energy and stunt-filled action roles like Captain Charlie Travers and Detective Norfolk that he so desires.
According to Quaglia, playing the role of a 1920’s prohibition-era Coast Guard captain-turned-bootlegger Charlie Travers has been his favorite role to portray thus far — mostly because of the stunts.
“Filming ‘The Bootlegger’ was kickass,” Quaglia said. “I learned how to drive a Model T vintage truck, pilot a small speedboat, ride horseback, and was shot at by a Coast Guard machine gun”.
Still in the developmental stages of his film career, the self-taught actor and producer has been cast in six lead roles and two supporting roles. Apart from his own short films, Quaglia stars as Zach in “Damon’s Revenge” alongside “Saving Private Ryan” actor Tom Sizemore, and plays supporting role Brayden in “Secrets by the Shore,” which premiered on Lifetime Movie Network March 18.
Quaglia also plays the voice of Jackpot in “Junkyard Dogs,” a supporting role as Ryan in “A Criminal Affair” and a lead role Pick in “Body of Ashes.” Release dates for these films have yet to be announced.
Quaglia credits his acting career for growing him into a “go-getter” as an adult. “I’ve realized we as humans have a lot of power to create. We really do create the lives we want, and I just decided if I want this life, I really have to put in the work. With the amount of competition that’s out there, if I’m not willing to grind like the 1%, then I can’t have what they have,” Quaglia said.
“Investigators” screens at the 8 p.m. block located at the Hilton Garden Inn April 13-16. Follow Forest Quaglia on social media @forestQuagla and @fqstudios or visit his website www.forestquagliastudios.com.
Forest Quaglia stars in “The Investigators.” SUBMITTED PHOTO
Pandemic, cancer battle spur JATK to music on new album
Veer Mudambi
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
When Matt Jatkola received a cancer diagnosis at the start of the pandemic and was undergoing numerous treatments, he knew for sure that he wanted to make more music. Some of the songs on his new album, “Shut up and be the Light,” reflect that journey.
Jatkola — who records under the name JATK — is clear that, “the sentiment in the title is something that I would love to see more people actually doing.” His mantra for life these days — sometimes it’s nice to not take part in the chatter, noise and negativity out there and quietly do good on your own.
With a digital release on April 15, it is the most collaborative of his work. Every song is recorded with a different band with more than 20 collaborators on the album, but at the same time, they are his songs and he produced them. A power-pop’ artist, Jatkola has been making music since high school in Ashburnham and at Fitchburg State. While his main instrument is the guitar, he dabbled in all sorts of stuff for the album — keyboard, bass and synth. “I’ve been saying that I am multi-instrumental for a lot of stuff but my guitar is best and I would never call myself a keyboard player, for example.”
Though he was used to the old school way of having a band as a core group of people to work with all the time, the pandemic made it possible to do so much more remotely and collaboratively.
“I could ask people for their input and to record it. The album is all over the place stylistically but it really holds together at the same time. My recovery kind of brought all of that into place.”
He described it as just a lightbulb turning on. Some of the songs were fairly new, in that he wrote them during his recovery, but a few were older ones that he had been holding on to for a few years. “An eclectic blueprint, if you will, for anything I wanted to do in the future.”
Recovering from cancer, according to Jatkola, kind of makes you feel like you can do anything. “Nothing fazes me anymore and I had a very ‘why not’ feeling about putting this album out. It puts everything into perspective and I’ll do what I need to do.”
He has been releasing singles from the album for about a year but when he began releasing singles, the album wasn’t quite done. “Japanese Butterfly” is a song about his post-recovery life. “It’s very joyful but it’s still a rock song.”
“When Tomorrow Comes,” which is the eighth song on the album (and the first single), is about similar themes but was written during his treatment so has a different energy.
“It’s a bit darker, but those are kind of sister songs in my head. I was liter-
Matt Jatkola ANELEISE RUGGLES
Sutton author’s name hijacked on Amazon by erotica writer
Victor D. Infante
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Lisa Shea of Sutton is a pretty versatile author. In addition to being the president of the Blackstone Valley Art Association and running a free writing group at the Sutton Library, she has more than 500 books available on Amazon, mostly ebooks, on subjects as wide-ranging as mysteries and romances to books about cooking and meditation.
The one thing she has not done, however, is publish a work of BDSM erotica, a point she emphasized with her most recent ebook, “AMAZON MADE A MISTAKE – I DID NOT WRITE A PORN EROTIC BOOK!”
The book — which is mostly a compilation of the first chapters of some of the books she did write — came in reaction to the appearance of “The Sanders Collection: Collection of Short Stories,” by someone else writing under the name, “Lisa Shea.” “The Sanders Collection” is described as, “A collection of short stories, chronicling the birth of a natural born sub. Awoken by reading similar stories, this sub’s inner desires have brought to light her journey of finding the perfect Dom.”
Shea of Sutton — whom we’ll just refer to as “Shea” from here on out — found out about “The Sanders Collection” the hard way: In an email to people who follow her Amazon Author’s Profile.
“I got an alert from Amazon that I had written a porn book,” says Shea, in a recent phone conversation. “I got the same email all my other fans did. I got messages from other people saying, ‘What in the world are you doing!?!?’”
Amazon has, after some discussion, taken the book off Shea’s profile, although it still came up first in a search for her name on Amazon.com as recently as Friday. The book was removed some time late Friday night or early Saturday morning, after inquiries to Amazon from Worcester Magazine. Still, the alarm was understandable, as Shea writes books that are intended to be safe for teens.
“Unfortunately,” says Shea, “Amazon doesn’t have any control over who can use what name.” As an example, she points to the case of someone writing under the pen name “Steven King,” who was forced in a lawsuit to add a middle initial to his pen name, to differentiate him from the more famous King. That was an exceptional case, though, because it was ruled the author was actively engaged in deceptive practices. Is that the case here?
“Shea” is not a particularly uncommon name, and indeed, Shea notes she’s had this happen before: once with a minister who wrote a children’s book, which she didn’t mind, and in 2018, two collections of hard-core bisexual por-
Author Lisa Shea SUBMITTED
