Alumnus' First Feature Film at Sundance

Brian Dannelly, visual and performing arts '97, has a hard time characterizing his first feature film, "Saved!", recently selected for the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and scheduled for an April theatrical release. REM frontman Michael Stipe has called the film "sweetly subversive."

"I don't consider it a black comedy," Dannelly says of "Saved!," "It's more of a brown comedy."

"Saved!" is about a group of friends at a Baptist high school in Baltimore. Mary (Jena Malone; "Life as a House," "Donnie Darko"), gets pregnant by her newly gay boyfriend and becomes persecuted by her former friends, particularly her relentlessly devout best friend, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore; "A Walk to Remember," "The Princess Diaries"). Rounding out the cast are Mary-Louise Parker and former child star Macaulay Culkin, returning to the screen in a "dark" role as the wheelchair-bound brother of Hilary Faye.

Although it explores the subject of Christian peer pressure in high schools, "the film is not Christian-bashing," Dannelly insists. "It definitely questions things, but the final message is about love."

A native of Wurtzburg, Germany, Dannelly moved to the suburbs of Baltimore at age 11. He admits that "Saved!" was partially inspired by his experiences attending a Catholic elementary school, a Jewish summer camp and a Baptist high school. Prior to UMBC, Dannelly attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, American University and Morgan State University.

After receiving his bachelor's degree from UMBC, Dannelly went on to become a directing fellow at the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI), the preeminent national organization dedicated to advancing and preserving film, television and other forms of the moving image.

UMBC's highly regarded film program was "life changing" for Dannelly. He enrolled here because Baltimore shock auteur John Waters often spoke with students and "it was known as the kind of place where you could make films," he says.

"It was absolutely amazing for me," Dannelly says from his Los Angeles home. "I never would have gotten into AFI if it weren't for my experience at UMBC."

Dannelly pays it forward by frequently returning to the University to meet with students. "He's a very generous person," says his former faculty advisor, Associate Professor of Photography Hollie Lavenstein. "Over the years, he's come back and given his time to talk to undergraduate film students, really share his knowledge."

The idea for "Saved!" germinated during production of a short feature, "He Bop," done as a master's thesis at AFI. The script, written with partner Michael Urban, was sent to Stipe's Single Cell Pictures, which produced the offbeat 1999 sleeper hit "Being John Malkovitch." "Saved!" was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia with a $4.8-million budget‹the sort of figure appealing to money-minded film studios.

Momentum for "Saved!" began gaining speed when the film was selected for Sundance. Originally slated for limited theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York, distributor United Artists/MGM decided to "open wide" in theaters across the country.

With "Saved!" in the can, Dannelly has moved on to his second project for Single Cell Pictures, a script just finished with Urban. Filming is hoped to begin during 2004.