As the Sundance Film Festival gets underway this week, there is pre-festival buzz about First Date, a short film produced in Kansas City, KS. Its depiction of a sexual predator who sets up a date with a teenage boy online is bringing attention to a breakthrough acting performance, as well as kudos for shining a light on the growing problem of online child predation.
The story follows the predator, whose online name is “KC Muscle,” played by Santiago Vasquz, as he undertakes extreme measures to make his first date happen with an underage boy played by Tian Wei.
“First Date” was written and directed by Gary Huggins, a Kansas City-based film historian. It is among 20 short films selected out of 4,311 submissions for Sundance 2006, which opens January 20. It will also show this month in France at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, which is the short film industry’s top international venue.
Huggins says he wrote the part of KC Muscle specifically for Vasquez. He had confidence that Vasquez could handle the role because he had worked for many years as an undercover narcotics cop. He literally knew how to play a role as if his life depended on it.
Beyond street-level acting experience, Vasquez apparently had something else that was crucial: Talent. Hollywood loves the “plucked from obscurity storyline” and there is buzz out there that Vasquez’ performance in “Last Dance” could lead to bigger things. It wouldn’t be the first time he has beaten the odds:
“I grew up very poor, suffering from malnutrition, intestinal parasites and lice,” he said. “I remember when we lived on bread and butter and coffee as children in Venezuela.”
His stepfather, an immigrant from Italy, brought the family here, to face a different kind of struggle in a country where Vasquez did not speak the language…
[Vasquez:] “I was 18 years old when I came here and I could not speak English. I got a GED, and a college degree and I graduated from the police academy. I want the world to know that the majority of immigrants here are good people. Whether people like it or not, this is a land of E Pluribus Unum; it is a country of immigrants created by immigrants.”
Vasquez’ description of his approach to his first acting role shows that he has the instincts of a pro:
“I based this character, from my experiences in undercover work and by what I have seen as a regular uniformed officer,” Vasquez said. “It’s what I’ve seen in child abuse cases. I also did some research on my own on this type of crime in which predators use the Internet to lure minors. I read Gary’s complete script and I saw a tormented soul. I know that every tormented soul, no matter how much of a scavenger and low life class of criminal or predator that individual may be, there is always a human side, which I tried to show.
“I asked, ‘what is the turning point that made this man into the beast? When did he stop accepting responsibility over his actions?’ I based that understanding on my undercover experience. He is a totally tormented criminal but with a human side.”
Because there are so few films out there given from the pedophile’s point of view, “First Date” has caught the attention of the Polly Klaas Foundation, an organization that helps find missing children. A spokesperson for the foundation supported the exposure the film provides to the risks to underaged kids from online predators, which is a growing problem:
“We knew that child predators pose a problem to young people on the Web, but we were stunned to learn the vast numbers of teens engaging in incredibly risky behaviors online. This study is a wake up call for parents. Simple warnings or safety lectures are not going to work in the current Internet age.”
There is a clip of the film here. It was too dark to see but the dialogue is first rate.
Gary Huggins appears to have captured something very raw and unique.
