Iowans' film opens Saturday

By Anne Kapler / CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE / June 24, 2004

Iowa film company Bluebox Limited will premiere its latest film, "University Heights," on Saturday at the Adler Theatre in Davenport.

"University Heights" tells the story of four people on a college campus: a philosophy teacher who owes money to a drug cartel, a student consumed by racism and disgust, a teenager who hopes to fall in love but is troubled by drugs and an English teacher fighting his sexuality.

"What I've done is create characters with interesting backgrounds that are in tough situations," says Scott Beck, 19, a University of Iowa student who wrote, directed and produced the film with business partner Bryan Woods. "It's interesting to see how these characters try to get out of these situations.

Woods, 19, is a student at Scott Community College in the Quad Cities.

They have been making films together for seven years. In 2004, they placed in the Project Greenlight Top 50 Directors competition with a three-minute short. Project Greenlight is a screenwriting and directing contest created by actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and is sponsored by Miramax Film and Television.

"University Heights" was shot in the Quad Cities and Iowa City. The name was locally inspired, too.

"I was driving through the city one day and saw the sign for University Heights," Beck says, "and it struck me that University Heights goes with the film because it's about four lives on a college campus, and it's universal because there are University Heightses everywhere."

The film has been selected for film festivals in Rapid City, S.D., and Minneapolis.