Former-local filmmaker brings movie about deaf man in love back to the Peninsula where he shot it.

A couple of years ago, filmmaker Eli Steele decided to revisit a script that he had written when he was just 18. Ten years earlier, Steele had abandoned the project, which concerns a deaf protagonist, because he thought it might limit his career options as a writer and director. “I didn’t want to be known as a deaf filmmaker, just a filmmaker,” says Steele, who was born profoundly deaf.

But three years ago, following the urging of his sister Loni, Steele, who by then had a handful of completed short films and documentaries under his belt, started reworking the screenplay. He found that the script started to grow with the addition of a new character, a double-amputee named Alma. “It made the movie about disabilities, not just deafness,” Steele says.  

Also, he decided that he would direct the piece himself, rather than facing the possibility that there might not be anyone interested in making the movie.

Now, at 31 years old, Steele has completed the film, titled What’s Bugging Seth? The movie—which Steele also produced—has recently picked up Best Feature Film awards at the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival and the Fargo Film Festival. The filmmaker, who lived on the Monterey Peninsula on and off for years after receiving a degree in literature from Southern California’s Claremont McKenna College, filmed the hour-and-a-half-long feature film entirely in Monterey County during the summer of 2004.

The movie follows protagonist Seth Singer (Ross Thomas) as he tries to establish a pest control business at the same time that he is deciding between two love interests: a perky blonde model named Nora (Nora Kirkpatrick) and Alma (Amy Purdy), a red-haired rocker who was born without legs. With dramatic tension courtesy of a rival pest control company and a handful of interesting characters such as Seth’s comic sidekick Mason (Kareem Grimes), the chain-smoking owner of a clothing store for short people, the film is engaging. It will also be fun for locals to spot places they know, as Seth tries to come to terms with his dilemmas in recognizable locales like Monterey’s Alvarado Street and the Easter egg-colored Victorian homes of Pacific Grove.

Alongside Thomas, who has appeared on television shows such as CSI and Cold Case, and local actors including Justin Gordon, Amy Purdy makes an impressive acting debut as Alma. Steele says that he found Purdy after putting out a nationwide casting call seeking double amputees to play the role.

Steele says that one challenge of making the film was getting Thomas into the mindset of a deaf individual and making sure his dialogue was realistic but at the same time easy to comprehend. “We worked a lot on the dialect,” he says. “We talked about that before every take.”

The filmmaker wants audiences to get two things from watching What’s Bugging Seth? “My biggest hope is that people will enjoy the film,” he says. “On a deeper level, I hope they will come away with insight into the way people with disabilities live.”

Like his film’s protagonist, Steele feels that he wasn’t able to fully reach his potential until he embraced his handicap. “The ultimate irony that Seth discovers is that it is not until he finally accepts his deafness that he is truly free to be whatever he wants and to love whomever he wants,” he writes in the movie’s press kit. “And it wasn’t until I embraced my deafness as an integral part of myself that I was able to make What’s Bugging Seth?, and in the process, establish myself as a filmmaker.”

Since Monterey is featured prominently in the film, and since local folks were part of the movie’s cast and crew, including Director of Photography David Myrick, Steele is excited to show What’s Bugging Seth? at Monterey’s Golden State Theatre this Thursday through Saturday. “The reason why I’m doing this,” he says, “is to thank all the local businesses and homeowners. I’m happy to show the film here, finally.”

WHAT’S BUGGING SETH? PLAYS AT THE GOLDEN STATE THEATRE, 417 ALVARADO ST., MONTEREY, THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY AT 8PM. $8/GENERAL; $6/FILM SOCIETY MEMBERS. 372-4555.