When Carl Kurlander came to Duke, he hoped to be a doctor just like all of his mother's husbands. Seventeen majors later, he was a Hollywood-bound history major.
But that is only the beginning of Kurlander's story, recounted in My Tale of Two Cities, his yet-to-be-released autobiography and documentary of the revitalization of his hometown, Pittsburgh. He will introduce the film at a screening on campus in the coming week.
After graduating from Trinity College in 1982-at a time when the University had no film program-Kurlander moved to Hollywood. Early in his career, he adapted a short story he wrote to impress a girl into the 1985 film St. Elmo's Fire, bringing him early success.
After writing for several TV shows, including Saved by the Bell, and becoming a father, Kurlander and his wife decided to move back to Pittsburgh, where he taught film at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Rust Belt city was in financial ruin at the time and had just declared bankruptcy. Kurlander wanted to help the city in some way, and the spark for My Tale came from his dermatologist, who had the idea to make a movie. The doctor, along with 18 of Kurlander's neighbors, bankrolled the project.
"I've never been part of such a collective experience," Kurlander said. "Everybody was so giving, [and] we didn't know what the movie was. There was no sense when we started."
In fact, a theme of the film is the community feeling that Pittsburgh-native Fred Rogers celebrated in his TV show. Kurlander even describes the film as more "Mr. Rogers and Me" than Roger and Me.
"If there's a religion in Mr. Rogers and believing in your neighbors, then I've got it," he said.
In fact, he is so into the Mr. Rogers motif that he said he will give a prize to anyone who comes to the screening wearing the "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood" shirts given to the Class of 2011 last year.
Kurlander said he is unsure what the impact of the film will be, although he added that early feedback has been positive. If nothing else, he said making the film had given him a better sense of identity.
"At some point you feel like Holden Caulfield's older brother, an unsympathetic character in [your] own life," he said. "Making this movie was about finding my own voice."
In My Tale, Kurlander comes across as a sort of clumsy, comic figure, but David Paletz, professor of political science and former director of the Program in Film/Video/Digital-to whom the filmmaker credits much of his success-said this epitomizes Kurlander's personality.
"It's very Carl," he said. "Underneath this sort of exterior is a real dynamo."
And although the film might have changed Kurlander, and a lot has happened to him since his Duke years, friend Rob Cohen, Trinity '83 and the basis for Andrew McCarthy's character in St. Elmo's Fire, said he is mostly unchanged.
"He was the same [then] as he is now, just younger," Cohen said. "Of course, he was thinner and had more hair."
My Tale of Two Cities and St. Elmo's Fire will be screened Oct. 27 at 8:30 and 11:30 p.m., respectively, in Page Auditorium, with introductions by Carl Kurlander. For more information, visit fvd.aas.duke.edu/screensociety or mytaleoftwocities.com. Kurlander and Cohen will sit on a panel called "Careers in the Entertainment Industry" at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 28 in the Friedl Building.
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