Area Native's Movie a Win in Garden State Film Festival

It's a local guy makes good story.

Joe Basile grew up in the Jersey Shore area — Red Bank, to be precise.

In his upbringing, he soaked up the shore atmosphere. When he knew what he wanted to be and grew up, he packed up, toting all his creative Jersey baggage with him, and went to Hollywood. There, Basile got a master's degree in screenwriting at UCLA, wrote about Jersey and came back home to produce, direct and act in a feature film about the area and its reputed mob entanglements.

That film, West End, garnered Basile a best trailer award in the 2011 Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park. This year, the film, submitted as a "homegrown feature," tied for best in that category at the festival, along with Twenty Million People.

It screened, aptly, in the historic Paramount Theater on the Asbury boardwalk to a capacity crowd at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. Attendees voted for the films with ballots stuffed into plastic beach pails and handed off to ushers.

The line was long to get in to see the 10:30 grouping of films; and, Basile was there with everyone else, but hard to get to, depending on your place in line.

“I set out to make a movie authentic to where I grew up," Basile said in a release. "I knew I had to film in Jersey. This was my way to pay homage to the great state where I was raised.”

The movie was produced by Basile, Shelly LoCascio and Michelle Hurley, with Basille in a lead role and as director.

“A crime drama that shares story points with Shakespeare's Hamlet," is how Basile described the film in a released statement. "West End is a classic family drama with modern characters that people can relate to.”

The movie follows Basile's character, Vic Trevi, and his complicated relationship with the mob family from which he walked away after his father was sent to prison. He returns to his family roots, after his father's murder, with his own agenda.

West End was filmed in many classic Jersey Shore spots, including the Windmill fast food stop in the West End section of Long Branch, a place where many tales have been spun about mob bosses frequenting the former Harbor Island Spa and having assorted "interests" in other areas. Seaside Heights was the film's main featured location, with filming taking place prior to Superstorm Sandy.

The film features some well-known actors and other familiar spots. Take a look at the YouTube video of a teaser above. Congrats, Joe!

For more information on West End, see the film Web site at www.westendthemovie.com or visit http://vimeo.com/54330274.