Embittered old mariner Abner (Christopher Lloyd) is a widower living a solitary life. Withdrawn from his family and the tight-knit community of his small marine town, he is a grumpy and unsociable man who seems to live in the past, only finding comfort in the countless hours spent building a sailboat in his yard. When neglected young orphan Rick (Tekola Cornetet) wanders onto Abner’s property, hiding from the local bullies, the two find common ground and form an unlikely bond which will change their lives in unexpected ways.

Most motion pictures have back stories within them. The Boat Builder has one that goes back decades before the film was even conceptualized, back to when I was writing and directing television commercials and documentaries used in political campaigns. During those years, I learned how to tell a fully developed story that engages and captivates audiences in just thirty- or sixty-second segments. I also learned how to make the most out of smaller budgets. This skillset, along with my experience with long-form narrative as an author, helped lay the foundation for my later transition into independent filmmaking.

Starting my journey as an indie filmmaker later in life is the culmination of lessons learned from my life experiences and a long career in various creative fields.

After my first venture into long-form storytelling directing Freeze! An American Peace Story, a ninety-minute documentary on nuclear disarmament, which featured performances by John Denver, Judy Collins, and Jimmy Buffett, I came across the idea for The Boat Builder.

The genesis of the project began when a story came to me based on the plight of two people I knew in real life. One was an elderly and embittered man, the other a young orphan who was facing consignment to an institution after a series of failed foster home situations. In spite of the years that separated them, the two had more in common than they themselves, or those who knew them, might have realized. It was that commonality that led me to develop a story about two people at opposite ends of life who find a bond in a shared dream. A sailor since childhood, it occurred to me to make the dream of building a boat together a venture that could offer the hope of a metaphorical journey to freedom.

I first wrote the story as a play and, after staged readings, realized that film offered a less limiting and more dimensional form. Thus began the making of a film about the building of a dream, The Boat Builder.

And much in the way a boat is built, from the keel up, in the filming of The Boat Builder, a key element was the unfolding of a character-driven story layer by layer, from the basic premise to the conclusion. The two principal characters, gradually form a bond while working together.

To achieve that end, it was necessary for both leads to evolve into personas that were changed by the events they faced and by each other. That required more than performance alone. Cinematography, sound, effects, music, and color correction were all brought into play. They worked together to ever so gradually create the evolution of change, to transform what was at first cool and dark to warm and bright as hope replaced despair and the story journeyed to completion.