Anthony “Chusy” Haney-Jardine, of Asheville, answered questions via e-mail while doing post-production work in Chicago in advance of the Sundance festival.

Question: What challenges did you face in making the movie?

Answer: We were first-time filmmakers. I committed every error in the book. One should never make a film like we did. Also, I contracted Rocky Mountain spotted fever at the outset of production. I still suffer from a certain amount of torpor. If this all reads like gobbledygook, it’s the tick talking.

Q: How much did the film cost, and how did you finance it?

A: The film is self-financed, relying on friends, family and the kindness of strangers. We also sold everything we owned and spent our life savings.

Q: What does the film’s being shown at Sundance mean to you?

A: Sundance means that other people — informed people — besides my family and friends find entertainment and depth in what we made. Personally, it’s a watershed moment. I think every independent filmmaker dreams of the phone call I received in late November. I cried for five days.

Q: Where and when did the idea of the film come from?

A: When my mother-in-law was dying from lung cancer. As she withered in front of our eyes and started to vanish from this life, we concluded after sharing intimate, life-defining conversations that we are nothing but a series of memories, a series of impressions on this Earth. That is our legacy. We thought that we’d like to leave behind a couple of memories that mattered, mattered to us, at any rate.

Q: Did “Anywhere USA” come from some commercials you did for Bele Chere? When and what were those, and how do they relate to the film?

A: The Bele Chere commercials I wrote and directed influenced this film in that they were:

• A series of mini-stories.

• An example of nimble production — we shot eight world-class commercials on film in three days.

• They starred people — non-actors, nonprofessionals — from the streets of Asheville. If you did any acting, I wasn’t remotely interested.

• I would go into shooting the commercial without any script or idea, so I grew fond of creating on the spot.

• They were made with a tiny crew of volunteers, mostly ragamuffin kids — we had 12-year-olds who’d never seen a film camera before. The only professional was Patrick Rousseau, who would eventually become the director of photography of “Anywhere USA.” Check his credits out on IMDB.com.

Q: Why did you change the name of the film?

A: For several reasons, the most compelling of which is that the film itself ultimately decided what the title was to be. The themes explored, the foibles and the hopes experienced by the characters are relevant to and could happen anywhere in the U.S.A. This is a film about interiors, filmed mostly in interiors.

We received a steady stream of nasty e-mails, malicious notes and not-so-veiled threats warning us about the ugly repercussions of misrepresenting this, that or the other about Asheville. Conversely, we received many well-meaning e-mails recommending that we would be remiss if we didn’t include this substrata or that, if we didn’t feature this classic personality or serve this cliché or that.

Q: What about Asheville prompted you to set the film here?

A: We love Asheville. But … I have a hard time coming up with a satisfactory answer.

Q: Your cast and crew — what percentage are from the area, and how did you find them?

A: The cast is 100 percent Asheville-based, with the exception of Jeremiah Brennan, who grew up in Greenville and plays my daughter’s uncle in the film. We found our cast working behind the counter at Subway, at the Super Wal-Mart, at the parking lot of Applebee’s, at a construction site, working part time at a convenience store and by the recommendation of a local actress. The only professional actor is my daughter Perla, who has her curriculum and filmography listed on IMDB.com. The crew is composed of locals. If they weren’t locals when the film started, they became Ashevillians when we wrapped.

A Prediction?

The recent success of a number of independent films produced in the region could bolster such efforts. Four of the 16 feature films screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival were shot in the South, two of them in North Carolina: Loggerheads (shot partly in WNC) and Junebug (one of whose stars won a special acting prize). In February, Sony Pictures Classics bought the domestic rights to Junebug (which was made for just under $1 million) for an undisclosed amount. Renaissance Films bought the international rights. Another film produced in North Carolina, Two Soldiers, won an Academy Award last year in the Live Action Short Film category.

Documentary filmmaker Paul Bonesteel (Bonesteel Films), has produced such works as Folkmoot and The Mystery of George Masa which premiered at the 2003 Asheville Film Festival and has since aired extensively on television. "The Paul Schattels and the Chusys of the world," predicts Bonesteel (referring to Chusy Jardine, who's currently making Asheville: The Movie), "one of those guys ... is going to hit a home run

-- from Mountain Xpress