Entertainment

05:56 PM CDT on Sunday, April 30, 2006

First-time movie director Tommy Stovall (above) always pictured Dallas as the location for his film debut, Hate Crime. The Llano native, who lived in Big D from 1995 through 2002, shot the flick in Oak Cliff, DeSoto and the White Rock Lake area.

"The biggest reason is because we did live there and were familiar with the cities," says Mr. Stovall, 35, by phone from his home in Sedona, Ariz. "We had a lot of access to houses and buildings from friends and family and clients. I didn't start writing the script before I moved back to Arizona, but I was thinking of this when I was living in Dallas. It could happen anywhere in the country, but it could happen in Dallas because of the diversity of Dallas."

It took Mr. Stovall a few months in 2003 to write Hate Crime, a story of gay murder and religious fanaticism that opened in Dallas last week. He shot it in four weeks during the summer of 2004. The film's budget was originally $350,000 but inflated to $500,000 by completion.

The hardest part, he says, was enduring Dallas' 100-degree heat, especially for the movie's Los Angeles-based actors. On screen, viewers might notice Kiest Park in Oak Cliff, a mansion in DeSoto, an animal hospital in Richardson and the White Rock Community Church.

Mr. Stovall and his partner "used to live and work right next to the houses where we shot the main portion of the film."

Now that Hate Crime has made the rounds of festivals and continues to open in select cities across the country, Mr. Stovall wants folks to walk away with two thoughts.

"My hope is for this film to be entertaining," he says. "I didn't want it just to be a message film. But I wanted there to be messages in there and if it helps people be aware that this is a problem, then it's done its job."

Mario Tarradell