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News: Screenwriter Alum Presents Sneak Preview of Film

Members of the Calvin community gathered on April 15 at Celebration Cinema to enjoy the national premiere of the independent film A Foreign Affair. Written and produced by Calvin alum Geert Heetebrij (’93), the film received a warm reception.

A Foreign Affair, starring Tim Blake Nelson, David Arquette, and Emily Mortimer, is the story of two farm-boy brothers who attend a “romance tour” in St. Peta foreign affairersburg, Russia after their mother dies in hopes of finding a housewife to replace her. In the process, they gain the interest of a female documentarian.

The evening, co-sponsored by the CAS department and Alumni and Public Relations as a “Calvin Around Town” event, necessitated use of two theatres, easily filled with primarily Calvin alumni and CAS students. For students, the event concluded with a Q&A session with Heetebrij immediately following the show. For Calvin friends and Alumni “Around Town,” a dessert reception and another question and answer time with Heetebrij awaited in the Wave Room, a banquet room on the upper level of Celebration.

A Forgein Affair is Heetebrij’s first feature film production. A native of the Netherlands, Heetebrij attended Calvin College and received his BA in Philosophy. He moved to Los Angeles later, although according to Perrin Rynders (’82), who made some introductory comments, Geert “knew very little about making movies, but loved watching them.” Beginning as a script reader, Heetebrij slowly gained the skills of screenplay writing and eventually developed the script for A Foreign Affair.

Heetebrij came up with the storyline when the internet was just opening to the public. He discovered a website for mail-order brides where according to him, “you could order wives like pizza.” The film’s plotline was juxtaposed with documentary clips which featured real romance tour clients as well as real would-be brides.

Warmly greeted by applause following the film’s showing, Heetebrij answered student questions before heading to the alumni reception. He mentioned that viewing the film with the Grand Rapids audience was a very enjoyable experience. “There’s nothing like it,” he said, “especially here. It feels like home.”

A Foreign Affair was one of eighty-five films shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2004 and will be open to the general public on May 7.

—Kaitlyn Bohlin

Read a related article at ChristianityToday.com.