Interview: LOITERING WITH INTENT's Keith Kjarval

With a plot reminiscent of a Shakespearian comedy, LOITERING WITH INTENT is the mischievous story of two aspiring screenwriters who venture to upstate New York to write a screenplay after running into a producer searching for a bankable script.

Keith Kjarval, CEO of Unified Pictures and one of the film's producers, enthusiastically described the filmmaking process. "Essentially it was an amalgamation of a ton of friends who wanted to do a big version of 'Let's put on a show,' he said with a laugh.

After they (Michael Godere and Ivan Martin, who co-star in the film) co-wrote the script, everyone fell in love with it, he said.

The plot takes off when Dominic (Godere) and Raphael (Martin) offer their (as yet unwritten) script and are given a deadline of 10 days to come up with the real deal. They head to a bucolic upstate home which, they are assured, will remain vacant. You can guess what happens. Of course it is soon inhabited by Dominic's sister (Marisa Tomei) and her boyfriend (Sam Rockwell) among other distracting characters who float in and out, sometimes getting into fights. But all's well that ends well. Sort of.

The story unfolds with romantic entanglements and romantic rivalries played out by a winning ensemble cast.

"I loved this script," said Kjarval. One of the things I love about it is that New York has a million stories of rags to riches, people dreaming of the life, living on the edges. To watch them not totally win in their get-rich-quick scheme is wonderful," he said.

Kjarval wasn't on location during the shoot, because he had been on the set of another film at the time, RUDDERLESS, starring William H. Macy, Laurence Fishburne and Selena Gomez. The film was directed by Macy, his first feature. That film had its world premiere at Sundance in January.

"LOITERING WITH INTENT is a consequential look at the New York actor's life and the compromise and extent that any artist goes to compromise the game plan to suit the opportunity," he said. "Ultimately, the film is about friends and family and how they get through difficulties in their lives."

Kjarval, who's been at the Tribeca Film Festival many times in the past, screened TRUST ME (2013) and the crime/drama A Single Shot (2013, also with Sam Rockwell). Unified is an independent film production and distribution company. It has completed seven films in the past two and a half years, the latest being LOITERING WITH INTENT.

"Another interesting thing about this company-we have the ambition and audacity to believe that any story can be told, big or small. Our goal is to merge art with commerce in a way that is very unique. We want to find films that are an alternative to the big budget box office films.

"We're trying to tell stories," he said.