<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LAKE ARTHUR — A short film is being shot at an eight-acre country-style home along the Mermentau River just outside of Lake Arthur this week.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Sunset in Heaven” is a life-and-death story based on the work of novelist and short story writer Tim Gautreaux, a Morgan City native.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Director Matt Morgan, who is originally from Lake Charles and now lives in New York, has always wanted to make a film in Louisiana and was familiar with Lake Arthur.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I am originally from Lake Charles and still have family in the area,” Morgan said. “When I started telling my parents about making the film, they took me all around and showed me locations.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Morgan was familiar with Marion Fox’s residence along the river in Lake Arthur and thought the home and nearby fields and barns were the perfect setting for the film. Other parts of the film will be shot at his grandfather’s home in Sulphur.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I knew this is where I wanted to shoot,” he said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">A $2,000 grant from the Jeff Davis Film Commission is helping to make the vision for what Morgan describes as a low-budget film come true for Yacht Club Films.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“A $2,000 grant goes a long way when you are making a short film,” he said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Fox, executive director of the Jeff Davis Parish Tourism, Film and Economic Development commissions, is elated that the film is being shot locally.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“It’s very good positive publicity for the parish,” Fox said. “For all the film festivals they enter, people will see that it was filmed in Jeff Davis Parish. Any time you can get good, favorable and positive publicity it is worth it.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Morgan started making movies with friends while in high school and soon developed a career out of it. “But this is my biggest project as a director,” Morgan said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Most of the actors and production crew on location with him this week he met working on other productions and in college. Morgan found Gautreaux’s short story in November and adapted it into a screenplay.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He said Gautreaux, a writer in residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, was skeptical at first after receiving an email about making “Sunset in Heaven” into a screenplay.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“He was on board after he realized I was serious and wasn’t going to mess it up,” Morgan said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The film follows the life of Chad Felder, who has grown fearful of the world around him and its many dangers, following the loss of his wife to cancer. He later meets Joe, an elderly farmer, who helps him come to understand death as a necessary and beautiful part of life.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Morgan and his 10-member film crew, including five actors, will spend the next four days filming interior and exterior shots at the Fox residence and at his grandfather’s home in Sulphur.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Post production will take six months to a year to complete. Then, Morgan plans to show the work as film festivals. Morgan hopes to return to Louisiana for future film projects.</span>

<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">—</span>

<p class="p1">Follow Doris Maricle on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/DorisAmPress" id="twitter.com/DorisAmPress">https://twitter.com/DorisAmPress</a>

<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">

<p style="text-align: center;"></span><p></p><p>Director Matt Morgan and Producer/Assistant Director Joe DePasquale of Yacht Club Films review production plans during rain delays Wednesday for filming on "Sunset in Heaven." The short film is being shot this week at homes</p>