Williamstown native Matt Bosson is coming home Saturday to screen a scene from the short film he hopes to make.

	Mount Greylock Regional High School graduate Matt Bosson is bringing a five-minute scene for a short film he hopes to product this year to Images Cinema in Williamstown on Saturday, March 21. Bosson has assembled a cast that includes fellow Mount Greylock grad Peter Brooke, seen at left, playing the lead role in the film, titled 'Desperate Manny.'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Mount Greylock Regional High School graduate Matt Bosson has the cast, connections and determination to produce his first independent short film.

Now he just needs the money.

Bosson will return to Williamstown on Saturday, March 21, to screen a scene of his short film, "Desperate Manny," at Images Cinema. He also will speak about the process of making a film, the IndieGoGo funding page he has set up to fund this film's production, and where life has taken him since graduating from Mount Greylock in 1984. Doors open at 12:30 p.m. and the screening starts at 1 p.m. Admission is free.

"Desperate Manny" is the story of a man who finds himself wrestling with his demons in the middle of the night, trying to find the answers that will save his young son and himself. Having drawn two others into his plight — an old friend and a stranger — he’s not sure whom he can trust. It’s a story about love, addiction and courage — and unintended consequences.

It is Bosson's first attempt at a making a film, and it has been a long time in the making. After leaving Mount Greylock, he graduated from Hampshire College and then spent some time in New York City before ending up in Los Angeles for the last 20 years. There, he carved a career doing video graphics playback for television shows such as "24" and "Grey's Anatomy," where is is currently the computer graphics supervisor.

While Bosson said he enjoys his work, it's not where he necessarily envisioned himself ending up.

"When you're young, you tend to have a really really clear idea of what you want to do," Bosson said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles two days before flying back into the New England.

While at Mount Greylock, he thought he wanted to be an actor, or a musician. At Hampshire College, he got interested in the behind-the-scenes process of theater. While he did end up doing some acting, and he does play in a country rock band in L.A., he feels that his true passion is directing.

"I am trying to transition into that. This was the thing I originally kind of always wanted to be doing," he said. "The realization was, I wasn't being true to myself."

So he started the "Desperate Manny" project. He spent a couple years writing it, then coordinated some staged readings to see it in action. Over the past year, he has fine-tuned the script, built a production team, secured a studio and set, assembled a cast, shot the one scene as a test and launched the IndieGoGo page in February to raise the $35,000 he needs to complete the project. Halfway through the campaign, he has raised 46 percent of his goal. He mainly has asked people he knows or solicited donations through social media, but he is showing the one scene he has shot in Williamstown and Los Angeles in the hopes that it will spark interest and donations as well.

"It's a little scary," Bosson said about the waiting game to see if the film can be fully funded. He said he has enough to get started and do the actual filming, but post-production efforts might have to wait if he doesn't meet the IndieGoGo goal. And because of his L.A. connections, more costs can be shaved if need be. 

"There are ways we can make it for a little less," he said.

As for his timeline, Bosson said he has secured the cast and a location for the second weekend of May, and after a month or two of post-production work, he hopes to be able to enter the film — which should be between 20 and 30 minutes — in various festival, including perhaps the Williamstown Film Festival, and maybe get it on television at some point as well. It's hard for him to look that far ahead right now, though.

"I'm just so myopic. I just want to see it get made. I just want to see it," he said.

In coming back to the Berkshires to hype the film, he is hoping to find people who remember him and one of film's stars — Peter Brooke, who also graduated from Mount Greylock in 1984 and who will be playing the lead role of Manny. He also hopes to reach fellow Hampshire College alum who might still be in the area for support.

But it's not all about the money. Bosson, who said he grew up watching all sorts of films on the big screen at Images, is excited just about the opportunity to show his work on Spring Street in the town he grew up in.

"Just to see my own work in progress up on that screen is really nice," he said.

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