Personal struggles, Charles City roots help to inspire filmmaker

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City native Sean Bode is an award-winning independent filmmaker.

He has produced several movies, written scripts and was the president of the Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum for five years. His screenplay “Whitetails” is available on Amazon.

A 1985 graduate of Charles City High School, Bode lives in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, about a half-hour west of Madison, in the Wisconsin River Valley. He specializes in short films.

He’s shooting his latest movie right now, and this one’s personal.

Entitled “No Roles Written,” the short drama tackles the subject of people with disabilities and their roles in both film and theater. Bode calls the movie a challenge to both the theater and film community to recognize actors with disabilities.

The main character is played by Bode’s 17-year-old daughter, Marissa.

“For lack of a better word, she’s the star of the show,” Bode said.

Marissa has been in a wheelchair since 2011, following a car accident.

Marissa was just 11 years old when she, and her mother, Pat, were on their way to a play rehearsal in Madison and their car was rear-ended. Pat had minor injuries, but Marissa was ejected from the vehicle and paralyzed from the waist down, spending 48 days in the hospital.

The road to her recovery was lengthy. The Bodes’ lives changed in ways they’d never imagined, but through it all, Marissa never wavered from her love of the performing arts.

Now a recent high school graduate, Marissa wants to lead by example, and prove that people with disabilities can also make an impact on stage and film.

“I want give people with disabilities more platform, because I feel they are under-represented in film, stage and performing arts,” she said.

Bode said he and his daughter were in a stage production of the musical “Annie” shortly after Marissa’s recovery, and that’s part of what gave him the idea for his latest film.

“She tried out for the main role of Annie,” Bode said. Marissa didn’t get the coveted title role, but did earn a smaller part.

“I wasn’t upset about that, but it got me starting to think about how there are so few roles for people with disabilities, not just on stage, but in Hollywood,” he said. “There are characters who have disabilities, but so many of them are filled by ‘able-bodied’ actors.”

Bode cited examples of network television shows currently running which are casting able-bodied actors to play the roles of people in wheelchairs, which Bode finds somewhat offensive when he considers there are many good actors with disabilities available.

“To me, it’s like, how can you be doing this? It’s like putting a white actor in black face makeup to play a black character, when there are plenty of black actors available,” he said.

Bode said the situation is starting to get better in Hollywood, and mentioned a film in theaters now, “A Quiet Place,” where the character of the young girl in the movie is played by an actor who is hard of hearing. He also mentioned the television show “American Horror Story,” which has cast an actor with Down Syndrome.

Bode hopes the issues raised in “No Roles Written” will help raise awareness and continue that trend, not just in Hollywood, but on stages throughout the country.

In the script, the character Kaliope rehearses with her friend Shelle as she hopes to land her first major role in a play. However, the director has a different perspective, and that’s where the conflict comes in. The various issues are discussed, from several points of view.

Bode wants to have the shooting and the production done in about two months.

“I am hoping we can wrap it up quickly, for a couple of reasons,” he said.

Bode wants to get the film finished in time to get it submitted to and screened at some upcoming film festivals. Also, Marissa has been accepted to study acting at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in Los Angeles, and will begin her studies this fall. Bode wants the movie done before she heads west.

Bode said that in his youth, he was involved with a few plays directed by Linda Brant, a long-time high school and community theater director in Charles City.

“I started out more as a writer, though,” he said. “I wrote short stories and poems, but I also occasionally wrote dialogue.”

Bode, who attended college at the University of Iowa, became involved with the Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum about 18 years ago, and that’s when he started converting his vision from the page to the screen.

“I started experimenting with film, and started learning how to write for film,” he said. “Then I learned how to shoot film, how to edit, how to take different camera shots. I learned the craft, and started creating and producing short films.”

Anyone interested in Bode’s films can find past movies Bode has produced on the Facebook Page for one of his movies, entitled “Carsleepers.” A short film about a mother, her two children and surviving in a car, Carsleepers premiered in Madison in December of 2013 and was featured at the 2016 Edgerton Film and Book Festival, among other venues. The film is also available to view on YouTube.

Carsleepers starred actress Trena Penson, along with Bode’s children, Tristan, then age 11, and Marissa, then age 9.

Bode attributes his love of movies to his parents. His dad, Alan Bode, was a Spanish teacher in Charles City for nearly 40 years, and later served on the school board. His mother, Pat, also worked at the school, and both were active in the community and with Charles City’s community theatre group, the Stony Point Players. Pat passed away in 2011 and Alan passed away in 2013.

“They were big movie people, they loved movies,” Bode said. “I grew up learning about movies from them. When I was 7 or 8 I was fascinated with classic movies.”

Some friends he grew up with further entrenched that film fascination.

“I gotta give a shout out to Jay Frein,” Bode said. “He was my other movie buddy, besides my parents. He and I were big ‘Star Wars’ fans.”

Bode also mentioned Dave and Jodi Holschlag, who own Dave’s Restaurant in Charles City, as lifetime friends from his home town.

Bode’s message to them, and to all his old friends back in Charles City? “Go Comets!”

“I still love Charles City,” he said. “I don’t get back as often as I used too, since my parents passed away, but I still like to look up old friends and reminisce.”