Hartford Becomes a Movie Star
New movie Midas Produced, Filmed and Set in Hartford
The Gold Building has hit the silver screen, along with Scott’s Bakery and several other Hartford locations in the new film Midas. The filmed opened in Hartford, New York and Los Angeles last week.
Midas was written and directed by Hartford native TJ Noel-Sullivan, whose parents grew up in the Blue Hills neighborhood. He said,, ”I wanted to highlight some of my favorite places in the city. When friends come in from out of town, and ask where they should go, I can tell them to watch the film,”
Noel-Sullivan is founder and president of the Hartford Film Company, located at 56 Arbor Street, Hartford and a graduate of Hartford’s Classical Magnet School. He got his start in filmmaking at Real Art Ways, as a high school student in the Eye on Video Summer program, a long running apprenticeship program designed to teach students the fundamentals of filmmaking. Now things have come full circle and Noel-Sullivan’s first feature film is being shown at Real Art Ways through July 11 and at theaters across the country. Midas is also slated to come to Cinestudio on the campus of Trinity College, and to streaming services later this fall. More information about the project can be found at www.hartfordfilm.com/midas.
MIDAS was shot 20 filming days in the Summer of 2022. Over 30 local cast and crew members were hired on the project, in addition to some of the lead actors who were brought in from New York and Los Angeles. Noel-Sullivan said that a nationwide casting search was conducted for the lead five roles, attracting over 5,000 submissions across the country. A number of those submissions had connections to the Hartford area, and Lucy Powers, a graduate of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, won the role of Claire in the film. Other local actors appearing in the film include Erik Bloomquist, Kendyl Davis, Rob Santos, and Shannon Fish.
Hartford itself also has a very big role in the film, as its plot revolves around the insurance industry, and Hartford is known as the “Insurance Capital of the World,: or it once was.
Midas achieves the difficult task of making insurance exciting and its plot has many twists and turns like most good thrillers. Noel-Sullivan is planning to go into production of his next film in 2025 but wasn’t ready to share any details about its plot at this time.
In addition to Midas, The Hartford Film Company has also produced recent commercials for several local organizations including Hartford Public Schools and Active City.
MIDAS Got the Touch
Hartford-based Movie with a Captivating Storyline is Must-see
With the release of MIDAS to audiences across the country, Hartford native and the film’s director TJ Noel-Sullivan has captured the real Hartford through his lens.
The summary of the movie: After a charismatic college dropout lies his way into a job at an insurance juggernaut, he recruits his two best friends for a plot to steal thousands. In the process, they uncover a much darker scheme that tests the limits of their greed. However, viewing the movie through urban eyes, Midas is a story that revolves around the main character, Rick Pryce. Rick lives like many in Hartford's North End. He lives in the house with his sister and his mother. His mother, who is battling a life-threatening disease, cooks and sells dinners out of their home. Yes, it sounds realistically familiar. In fact, Moo-Moo from the Square is selling dinners this weekend. Filmmaker Sullivan, a former student of the Hartford Public Schools, as well as a Yale University film scholar, has brilliantly captured the realism of Hartford. Every scene, and every image was filmed in Hartford, from the multiple Jamaican restaurants to the multi-million-dollar corporate towers.
The back story and subplot are incredibly authentic. Sullivan expertly portrayed Hartford as the tale of two cities that it is, a city of immense wealth that manipulates extreme poverty. Hartford, known as the “insurance capital of the world”, has a reputation for redlining properties and overpricing insurance policies. Hartford also has a reputation for having the poorest zip codes in the country. Without giving away the movie, Ricky the hustler out-hustles the corporate con men of the MIDAS Insurance Company. I, like others in the theater, were pleased with the movie’s ending. Hartford does not want to see a woman, dying from cancer, be denied insurance coverage by one of Hartford's juggernaut insurance companies.
The story is believable. The movie is must-see. And Midas definitely got the Midas touch.
Midas is playing at Real Art Ways 56 Arbor Street, Hartford, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. until July 18th.