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This production is part of San Diego State University's Jury
Project, produced each Spring as part of a school wide program, with the
students' work judged by professionals in the theatre and film industry.
Director’s Statement
Exorcism is about Ned Malloy a tortured young man at the end of his ropes.
Ned attempts to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. However, his
roommate Jimmy, finds him before it’s too late. Now Ned must come to terms with
his action.
The play is based on O’Neill’s own experience during his early 20‘s. It was
written in 1919 and O'Neill destroyed every copy of Exorcism after its initial
performance — or at least he thought he did. For more than 90 years, Exorcism
was believed to be lost forever.
Adapting any play let alone a Eugene O’Neill play was quite a difficult task.
Going in I knew that not everything written for the stage will translate
cinematically but given the fact that O’Neill’s text is so rich, I still found
myself laboring over which lines I could and couldn’t include.
Rather than trying to include every piece of the dialogue written in the play, I
decided instead, to focus on making the film as true and honest in depicting the
situation and the characters. I also wanted to portray both without sentiment
much like O’Neill dealt with his characters in his plays.
The fact that the play was about O’Neill’s own suicide attempt made it that much
more interesting to make and also helped me tremendously in my approach --
Making the film more about O’Neill as much as the actual play.
I can’t say enough how much of a privilege it was to rework a Eugene O’Neill
play. Throughout this process I kept trying to imagine myself as O’Neill not as
a writer but instead I tried to imagine how O’Neill would be as a director and
how he would approach his own work and more importantly the medium of film.
Hopefully, if anything he would not want to destroy all copies of this too.
Awards and Screenings
2012 Recipient of Fotokem's Student Film Grant
2012 Recipient of The Kathleen Kennedy and Hayes Anderson Grant
Awarded 2012 The Focal Press Excellence in Filmmaking Award
Awarded 2013 Best Student Production by National Academy Television Arts and
Sciences - PSW chapter
Official Selection 2013 Ohio Independent Film Festival |
