OC native debuts movie Saturday evening at Newport Beach fest

By Paul Anderson

Newport Beach native Colin Best’s first feature film will premiere Saturday evening as part of the 24th annual Newport Beach Film Festival.

The screening of “The Man with the Silver Case” will, quite literally, be a homecoming for Best.

“I grew up in Newport Beach,” Best told City News Service. “And 10 years ago I moved with my wife and two daughters to Laguna Beach.”

But he made his debut movie during the coldest winter in Switzerland in 30 years.

He chose Switzerland in part because “It’s beautiful. It’s an unbelievably gorgeous landscape,” Best said, adding he liked how the picturesque backdrop contrasted with the violence in this “surrealist, noir thriller filmed in black and white.”

Actor Stuart Reid plays the Man in Gray who accepts a job delivering a mysterious suitcase for a secretive organization.

“A lot of thanks to our lead actor who spent the film in a business suit with a case chained to his wrist” in zero degree temperatures, Best said. “I offered the case to him after the filming and he said, ‘No, I’m good.'”

Best said he shot the film on one camera, “which is very rare for an action film.”

The film was shot using a Red digital camera, but he experimented with various lenses to give it a “filmic quality,” Best said.

The Man in Gray is “the universal unquestioning soldier,” who is battling drug addiction and alcoholism, Best said.

The filmmaker partnered with the Action Alliance Foundation to raise awareness about the nonprofit’s service to the county’s homeless as part of the festival, Best said.

“I think second chances are a big deal and I’m a big believer in them,” Best said.

“In my other business we have a hotel in Ireland with a guy with 17 offenses and he came in and worked for us and has been an absolute champion,” Best said.

When a judge questioned the letter of support they wrote for the employee, “We said we don’t know what he did in the past. He started out as a night watchman and now he’s our beverage manager and we support him. … He’s one of the best employees we’ve ever had. I think everybody deserves a second chance and if they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, well, then why not?”

Best also produced “The Black Jacket,” a 2016 documentary about a former Black Panther who teaches a class that brings rival gang members together to keep the peace.

“Some of these people brokering a peace agreement in ‘The Black Jacket’ were staring down murder charges,” but they were working toward peace, Best said.

“And in ‘Silver Case,’ yes, he’s a mercenary and obviously not doing good things, but he has moments of mercy,” Best said.

“The protagonist has this disease he’s trying to overcome,” Best said. “I’ve had several collaborators who have fallen prey to a lot of these addictions and I support them as well.”

Action Alliance Vice President Joe Melican will address the audience of Best’s film about his organization’s new program Project Hope, which offers shelter for the area’s homeless striving for sobriety.

The 7:30 p.m. screening will be at Big Newport 4, 300 Newport Center Drive. The film will be shown again at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Triangle 5, located at 1870 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa.

An estimated 300 films from 50 will be screened during the Newport Beach Film Festival, which began Thursday and continues through Oct. 19.

Screenings take place in theaters around Newport Beach, including Fashion Island’s THE LOT, Regal’s Big Edwards Newport and Starlight Cinemas.

More information is available at newportbeachfilmfest.com.