La Mesa Patch Article on The Great Intervention!

TOWN PULSE

By Genevieve Suzuki | Email the author | January 21, 2011

THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES

Next Great Filmmaker? Mockumentary Helps Helix Grad Kick Depression

Stephen Moramarco found himself—and inspiration—after hitting a lower point in his life. "Intervention" Movie being shopped around the festivals.

You heard it here first: The Great Intervention. 

OK, you didn’t really hear it here first. La Mesa-based writer David Moye dropped it on AOL News before us, but thanks to Moye’s savvy find, the name “Stephen Moramarco” no longer belongs to a stranger.

Moramarco is a filmmaker—a 1985 Helix High School graduate—who grew up in La Mesa before moving to Los Angeles to attend UCLA film school, where he made a lot of friends, such as classmate Jack Black. Those kinds of connections led him to work with Black on School of Rock as well as becoming an associate producer on Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny.

Since then, however, Moramarco's work and personal life took a downturn. Two years ago, auditions dried up, his mortgage was sinking him, and his girlfriend dug out. After struggling with depression, Moramarco decided to use the darkness for inspiration. His film,The Great Intervention, is a mockumentary that revolves around the unfortunate Steve Moramarco—yup, the film is a mockup of his life—and the intervention staged by friends and family who purportedly care.

In the film, even though Moramarco’s parents—his father is played by his real-life dad, Fred Moramarco—believe him to be the perfect candidate for a reality show-based intervention, they're told he isn't in bad enough shape for prime time. In an effort to show those producers the error of their rejection, his parents hire a film crew through Craigslist to follow and record their screw-up son.

In real life, Moramarco said it was even simpler than that when it came to filming; it came down to whoever was available to help him. “It was like, ‘Who’s free this afternoon? Will you just hold this camera and point it at me?’ ”

Moramarco used friends to help him stay within his very limited budget of $5,000. He jokes about how certain raw qualities of the footage play into the film. “It purposely looks bad,” he said. “I just went with the bad.”

The film's main character is best described as a man-child. “He still hasn’t grasped the reality that he’s not going to make it as a rock musician or actor,” Moramarco said. “It’s universal—he's someone we all know and love who still hasn’t grown up.”

The good news is the real Moramarco is a little more Zen than the rather clueless Steve in The Great Intervention. Reading Buddhist text The Truth of Suffering helped him realize most of his misery was internal. “It’s how you perceive it and how you let it affect you,” he said.

Although Moramarco is only beginning to shop the film around to festivals, Town Pulse can tell you the film is nothing short of hilarious. And his alma mater, Helix High, gets more than a little mention in it.

“The vibe from people who have seen it has been quite good—very supportive,” Moramarco said.

Stay tuned, La Mesa. We get the feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of a rather Great filmmaker.