Who doesn’t love it when a local citizen hits it big? Whether it is a sports legend, a music star, an academic/scientifi c discovery — you name it, it just feels good to to see or hear about that person and be happy for them and know that you have something in common even if it is only the fact that you’ve both fi lled up your car at the same gas station in town at some point in time.

Paul Papadeas is a Fayetteville native on the verge of huge success in the entertainment world. He’s a Terry Sanford graduate and an alumnus of Campbell University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Papadeas spends his time writing and producing films for a living.

His current production, Yeardley, which was a collaborative effort with his former classmates from the School of the Arts, opened at the Santa Fe Film Festival in 2009 and was nominated Best Feature. It went on to win Best Feature 1st Runner Up at the Myrtle Beach 2009 Film Festival, the Platinum Reel Award at the Nevada Film Festival in 2009 and most recently was named Best Feature at the Malibu International Film Festival 2010. Papadeas and the cast and crew of Yeardley have their eyes set on a much bigger prize though.

“We are doing quite well with the film but because of budget cuts Hollywood is not sending many critics to these fi lm festivals,” said Papadeas. “It is difficult to get over the radar. So we decided to do a screening and try to raise money to establish a marketing budget so that we can show the f lm in New York and L.A. and other big markets. Then we can get into art house theaters where we can garner a New York Times or an L.A. Times review.”

Once that happens the hope is that the critics will recognize the value in the movie that the judges at the fi lm festivals saw and Yeardley will get picked up for national (or international) distribution.

Far from light hearted, Yeardley is a dark drama about a married narcissist who becomes unhinged during the economic downturn.

“It is pretty much the embodiment of the 21st century American male who doesn’t want to take responsibility for their actions,” said Papadeas. “We have the environmental damage of BP. We have the financial shenanigans of 2007 leading to the problems we have today. Everybody loves to blame everyone else but there have been no investigations. We have kind of a sociopathic, highly individualized culture but there is no collective responsibility at all.

“This character takes no responsibility at all for the decisions in his life but he fails to accept what he has done,” he continued. “He falls deeper and deeper into a dark hole where the state has to take over and there are tragic circumstances. It is a very dark character drama very much reminiscent of the fi lms from the 70s. It is a hard movie about adult situations. It is an art fi lm so it is not a gratuitous exploitive genre movie.”

There will be a screening of the movie in Fayetteville on Sept. 18. Currently the event is invitation only, however, there is a possibility of a second screening at a later date. To fi nd out more about Yeardley visit http:// yeardleymovie.com/welcome.php, or to fi nd out more about the screening or tax free donation opportunities email papadeas13@yahoo.com.