Bay Area filmmaker who turned Grand Hampton neighbors into actors hits silver screen at Tampa Theatre

TAMPA, Fla. - A Bay Area filmmaker who began enlisting his neighbors to act in movies during the pandemic is being featured at the Tampa Theatre for the second time. 

Antony Capers' dream is to be a Hollywood movie director.

"When my dream actually takes off, and it actually works, not only am I able to change the life of my family, I'm also able to change the life of all of the people that was a part of this from the very beginning," he said. 

Antony Capers makes movies in the Tampa Bay Area.

Capers doesn't have a fancy movie studio or a big time producer to hire actors. But he does have his Hillsborough County neighborhood - Grand Hampton.

"What I do is I reach out to my neighbors, I reach out to my friends in the community, and these are my actors, these are my actresses," Capers explained. "This is our backyard playground. We've don't have to go to Hollywood, bring Hollywood here." 

Most of the 120 actors have never been in front of a camera before.

Many of Capers' actors have never been in a production before.

"Ended up being really something that kind of like made me come out of my shell and made me realize that I actually have maybe another talent that I never knew that I discovered until then," Ramona Ingram shared.

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His unique approach has landed him on the big screen. Caper's Grand Hampton trilogy will be a part of Tampa Theatre’s ‘Nightmare on Franklin Street’ series. 

"Seeing the work on the big screen. The sound. The smell of the popcorn, the smell of just the movie theater, It just makes it that much better," Capers shared. "It brings you in a lot more." 

Anthony Capers shoots a scene for his movie in the Grand Hampton neighborhood. 

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Tampa Theatre said it's important to highlight the work of local filmmakers.

"Not only celebrate the work that they are doing in the community, but give them that moment to really see their work on the big screen," explained Jill Witecki, director of marketing for the Tampa Theatre. "That's something that's really special and really important that we can do here." 

This big project started small with Capers  just trying to update his resume during the pandemic.

The Tampa Theatre shows films made by local creatives.

"All I did was take my son back out there and film one clip to try to update my video portfolio. Fast-forward two years later. Here we are from just me and my son to now over 120. That's a lot of people," said Antony. "We also got accepted and selected for the Orlando International Film Festival this past summer, as well as six nominations in UK, London for the Lonely Wolf Film Festival. And I've never even been in London." 

The community is hoping for big things.

"Nobody has a neighborhood like this. And we're the first to do it so the end game, honestly, is to get it out there, is to get it on a network and get Grant Hampton to the world, so they can understand what it is," Capers explained.

Anthony Capers directs actors during a movie shoot. 

Capers does everything from writing the script, directing, and shooting the movie. 

Tampa Theatre’s ‘Nightmare on Franklin Street' will be Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. 

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