Mt. Prospect native making inroads in film business
Matt Glasson said his years at Prospect High School helped him realize that he wanted to be a filmmaker.
Glasson, a Mount Prospect native who graduated from Prospect in 1992, saw Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" when he was a freshman at the high school. The experience changed his outlook on movies.
"It really opened my eyes to all the possibilities of film," he said. "I spent the rest of my high school years seeking out every movie I could that was offbeat or did things a little differently. Not that I stopped watching Hollywood movies. I think I saw 'Die Hard' 10 times in the theater during that time."
Glasson now lives in New York, but he'll be making a trip to Chicago later this month to screen his first feature film, "Love Stalker," on Feb. 17 at the Portage Theater. He'll participate in a question-and-answer session after the screening.
"I'm really looking forward to it," he said. "I love being back home, and it will be great to screen the film for everyone."
"Love Stalker" is a black comedy that puts a dark spin on the conventions of Hollywood romantic comedies. Glasson plays Pete - a cocky, barhopping guy always on the prowl for a new woman. He meets Stephanie, a popular blogger, and sets out to win her love, with not-so-cheery results.
"We call it an 'unromantic comedy,'" Glasson said. "I'm drawn to dark humor, and this story definitely has lots of it."
Glasson cowrote and codirected the movie with Brian Bowls MacClean, whom he met while studying film at Columbia College Chicago. Glasson and MacClean became creative partners at Columbia and continued working together after graduating.
They shot "Love Stalker" in St. Louis and parts of Illinois during the fall of 2010. The hard part came next - getting people to see the movie. Glasson sought advice from Billy Baxter, a longtime fixture in the movie business known for finding films at the Cannes Film Festival to bring to the United States. Baxter struck gold in the 1970s by bringing Lina Wertmuller's film "Love and Anarchy" to American screens and helping to finance George A. Romero's blockbuster horror film "Dawn of the Dead."
Baxter told Glasson to bring "Love Stalker" to Cannes.
"We brought it there last year. It was crazy," Glasson said. "We didn't know how things worked there. But we had our lead actress (Rachel Chapman) there dressed to the nines, and sure enough, that helped us get meetings and be invited to parties."
Glasson and his collaborators hustled and schmoozed like crazy, eventually managing to get the film screened. A small write-up in GQ magazine followed, and today Glasson's team is negotiating with a company to get the film distributed in Spain.
Meanwhile, back home Glasson has been trying to get the film booked in regional festivals and one-night screenings. For the screening in Chicago, the film will be coupled with "Love and Anarchy" as part of a "Billy Baxter Presents" double-feature. Baxter died on Jan. 20.
A few other screenings of the film will follow, then Glasson will return to New York, where he'll round up some freelance video and editing jobs to pay the bills and start writing his next project.
"I'll probably be nearly broke when I get back to New York," Glasson said with a laugh. "But honestly, I feel so lucky to have made this movie, and to be working in this business."
“Love Stalker” screening
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17
Where: Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee, Chicago
Tickets: Start at $10; go to