Canton native Jake Thomas' film "Bow" has Ohio premiere at Cleveland Film Festival

Canton native Jake Thomas' original music drama, "Bow," will have its Ohio premiere during the 47th annual Cleveland Film Festival at 5 p.m. today at the Allen Theatre.

Thomas wrote the film, which was directed by Isaiah Smith, editor of "American Horror Story" and "Lost in Space," and stars Milan Khali, Sherry Kear, and Talia Goodman.

"Bow" centers on a young violinist attempting to perfect her crucial audition piece before she suffers a devastating setback.

Thomas said he was inspired to write the script because of his grandparents’ early pioneering work in speech therapy for the deaf and hard of hearing communities, as well as his love for classical music.

“It’s not just a movie about self-expression,” he said, “but even more about the sacrifices parents make so their children can have a voice.”

Jake Thomas studied at Malone University

The son of Jim and Suzie Thomas, he attended Avondale School and graduated from Heritage Christian School in 2003, followed by Malone University in 2007 where he earned a degree in media communications.

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During his last semester at Malone, Thomas studied at the Los Angeles Film Study Center.

"It was part of a consortium of Christian colleges and universities," he said. "It's basically counted toward studying abroad. It was a four-month program where we studied filmmaking."

While there, Thomas secured an internship at Henderson Productions, which was owned by the late Garry Marshall, who also owned the Falcon Theater, a stage-play theater located in the same building. The theater has since been renamed for Marshall, who died in 2016.

"I would help out around the office, read scripts and wrote short, one-page coverage notes, which basically summarized the plot and characters of a play for the producing director there," he explained. "He liked my work so much he offered me a part-time job after I graduated to come out and basically read through a backlog of scripts from different playwrights from around the city, around the state that had been signed for consideration."

Thomas and his brother, Seth, made the move. Seth Thomas has since moved to Chicago.

Thomas said contrary to what some believe, Los Angeles and the film industry is not anti-Christian.

"I would say that's not true at all because you've got churches everywhere," he said. "LA's got huge pockets of Christian communities. Right now, I live in East LA right down the street from a coffee shop and bakery that plays Christian music all day."

'There's a lot of actors who ... (are) very strong believers.'

Thomas said he's met a number of Christians like himself in the industry.

"There's a lot of actors who may not be very public about it or socialize with certain political circles, but they're very strong believers," he said. "They're much more focused on interpersonal relationships."

Thomas said the industry cares more about a person's work ethic than their faith.

"That's what the industry values," he said. "Not necessarily your perspective or viewpoints. People who are willing to put in the work and turn out some great scripts or a great performance. The Christians I know who have gone very far in their careers have been the ones who have done that, and that's been their witness."

Thomas said he's a big fan of "The Chosen," the Netflix series about Jesus created and written by Dallas Jenkins, who is a friend. He did some work on the social media campaign for the series.

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"What I like about 'The Chosen' is, many people say how the humor is unexpected and how it humanizes Jesus," Thomas said. "The narrative structuring is fantastic. I love how it's able to build very relatable human stakes behind overly familiar stories. What really turned me onto that was in the first season with Peter and the story about the miraculous catch of fish, and how Peter is overwhelmed with gratitude ... but the show takes creative license and creates a scenario when, if Peter doesn't catch fish, his family could be arrested for tax evasion. I liked that the show uses some of the best storytelling devices for TV, that shows the like 'The Wire' have perfected and implemented."

Thomas said he hopes people who see "Bow" are encouraged to pursue their own artistic pursuits and to embrace perseverance.

"I want people just to feel the freedom," he said. "Even if there's obstacles in the way and things are getting hard for them to do it. I also want people to keep their eyes open to seeing how they can help others."

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jake Thomas' film 'Bow' has Ohio premiere at Cleveland Film Festival