You may not have known Peter Pastorelli, but he was integral to a number of projects that filmed or scouted in the Hudson Valley area, including the new Netflix film THINGS HEARD & SEEN.
In August of 2019, the Hudson Valley Film Commission had the pleasure of making referrals to producers Peter Pastorelli and Stephen Lipross.
As the executive director of the Film Commission, Laurent Rejto had worked with Peter on several several productions that were planning to shoot in the region including Cary Joji Fukunaga’s IT, in 2016. With location manager Kurt Enger and Pastorelli, locations were scouted and the Film Commission followed up with countless referrals for crew, vendors, soundstages, and more. “This was going to be one of those breakthrough big budget union films that the region needed,” recalls Rejto. “We were already preparing for a parade scene in Poughkeepsie that would need a thousand extras.”
Pre production for IT came on the heels of Fukunaga’s war drama BEASTS OF NO NATION with Pastorelli as one of the executive producers and Enger as Chief Office of Logistics. While driving through snow during the winter of 2016, they shared many interesting stories about the production, which had taken place in Ghana. Rejto was a huge fan of the opus they had made about a young boy who becomes a child soldier as his country experiences a horrific civil war.
“I had followed Fukunaga’s development closely since programming his award-winning NYU MFA short film, VICTORIA PARA CHINO, in 2004,” remembers Rejto. “It was a powerful, topical, timeless film that made me stand up from my seat in awe. I was hooked as he forayed into features and TV with SIN NOMBRE, JANE EYRE, and the breakthrough HBO series, TRUE DETECTIVE. In the film business, it’s not every day that you get to work with extremely talented people who are also kind, friendly souls like Enger, Fukunaga and Pastorelli.”
Unfortunately, around Memorial Day of 2017, Fukunaga walked away from IT due to creative differences with the movie studio. As a result, the film was never produced in the region, but several of the locations (including Minnewaska State Park) were later used by Fukunaga for his Netflix series, MANIAC.
Kurt Enger would return to the region in 2019 with a movie that was ironically called THE HALF OF IT. Again, the Film Commission referred local crew members, vendors, actors and locations. Sadly, after a political snafu regarding use of historic trains in the region, the filmmakers moved the production to the Adirondacks, and the potential economic development benefits went with it.
Rejto later joked with Enger that he would one day return to the region with a film called NONE OF IT. Instead he came back with Pastorelli and THINGS HEARD & SEEN.
The film, which was directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, opens on Netflix on April 29. The film features Amanda Seyfried, James Norton, Karen Allen, F. Murray Abraham, Michael O'Keefe, among others.
Filming took place over a 34 day period during the fall of 2019. Forty local crew members were hired and over 500 background extras were booked through Hudson Valley Casting. Tech City in the Town of Ulster was rented for months as the qualified production facility and for administrative office space. Over 4400 rooms were booked at regional hotels and the local spend was north of $13-million.
Locations were used throughout the region thanks to the talent of Kurt Enger and his crew, including Myna Joseph. Featured locations in the film were found in Millerton, Red Hook, Tivoli, Kingston, Palenville and the Town of Ulster.
In the end, the production was a success and the film is highly anticipated. The trailer is haunting in more ways than one.
"My experience working on THINGS HEARD & SEEN was bittersweet," said Rejto, "because tragically, producer Peter Pasotrelli passed away unexpectedly during the production. It was such a painful loss, but Peter left a lasting impression."
After his passing, a fund was set up to support his family.
“If nothing else, the past year of 2020 has given us all an opportunity to reflect how fragile life is,” Rejto added, “and how important it is to live every day to the fullest with kindness and the exemplary humanity that I heard and saw from Peter… Rest in peace, Peter.”
