REEL LIFE Colella crafts her latest paean to Providence BY CHRISTINA BEVILACQUA

For fans of screenwriter/director Laura Colella’s 1998 Providence-based film Tax Day, tomorrow has finally arrived. Stay Until Tomorrow, that is, her new full-length feature, four years in the making, which debuted in Avignon, France, in July, captured best feature at the New England Film/Video Festival earlier this month, and will have its Providence premiere Thursday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Providence Place 16 at the Providence Place Mall.

Like Tax Day, Stay Until Tomorrow features an episodic, unpredictable narrative which shows with subtle humor that experience, not material wealth, determines a rich life. But while Tax Day’s main actors served as little more than guides to the scenes unfolding around them, Stay boasts a sophisticated narrative detailing the relationships between a set of highly developed characters. The 20-something protagonist, Nina, is a former child star who has been traveling the world since she dropped out of college. On a brief stop home, she asks an old friend, Jim, if she might crash with him for a few days, which become weeks as adventures past, present, and prospective vie for her attention. Vying for the audience’s attention is the parallel "film-within-a-film" story narrated by the Actor Playing Jim, whose deadpan comic voiceover comments on the action behind the action on the screen. The disparate origins of the cast (French, Irish, American, Russian, Indian, Puerto Rican, Asian) add to the film’s unselfconsciously international aura, which also derives from a series of scenes set in Paris, as well as brief bits shot by Colella during trips to Russia, Italy, Cuba, Morocco, Kenya, and China. The latter are used as flashbacks illustrating Nina’s own travel memories.

Perhaps paradoxically, though, the film is also a paean to Providence, where most of it was shot (though the city is identified only indirectly in the film). Street scenes, rooftop views, and happened-upon architectural icons and afterthoughts are integral to the action, which often springs from its particular setting (including a drugged-dream night scene shot at Howard Ben Tre’s fountain on Westminster Street).

Michelle Satter, a director at the Sundance Institute (where Colella workshopped Stay in the screenwriting and directing labs, and which assisted in the production of the film — including an unprecedented presentation by Robert Redford to Colella’s potential investors two years ago), says, "Laura’s work has a strong sense of place, both geographic and atmospheric." Cinematographer Richard Rutkowski, who shot both Tax Day and Stay Until Tomorrow, agrees, calling Providence "a character in Laura’s films." Actress Eleanor Hutchins, a Providence native, like Colella, describes the experience of coming back from New York to play Nina. "Providence is Laura’s home, but through her films she explores it as though she’s never been there — she gave me new eyes," Hutchins says. "It’s not a backdrop, it’s not just there — it’s to be touched, rubbed, stepped on, spit on, enjoyed!" Adding to the atmospheric sense of place is the characteristically haunting soundtrack by Alec K. Redfearn (who contributes a haunting cameo as well).

Artistry aside, making a film requires the ability to raise and manage money. Colella’s investors cite her credentials (Harvard degree, teaching at RISD, Sundance’s sponsorship), her clarity of purpose, and her acknowledgement of the business side in explaining their enthusiastic support. Rick Smith, former executive director of the state Film and Television Office, described Colella last year as "further along in her career than anyone in the state. The word independent literally applies: she is definitely an independent filmmaker who doesn’t need anyone’s help."

(The public is welcome at the October 28 premiere. For info on tickets, visit www.stayuntiltomorrow.com.)