A full-length coming-of-age comedy made in northwest Ohio will premiere Thursday at the Maumee Indoor Theater.

Since he was a teen, Johnny Antonini, 28, originally from Sylvania, had tossed around the idea of making a film about a young kid getting a job as a lifeguard during the summer season, an idea fueled by his regular summer job during high school and college.

Filmed in part at the Sylvania Country Club, The Lifeguards is Mr. Antonini’s first feature-length film.

“The dream has always been to direct and make films, but how to get there,” Mr. Antonini said.

In search of how to break into the movie-making business, Mr. Antonini traveled to Chicago, where he was working on his acting credentials when the city shut down during the pandemic.

Still honing his skills in film production, Mr. Antonini and his girlfriend moved back to northwest Ohio, where they both were originally from.

With limited funding, the eager community of Toledo allowed this movie to happen through their support.

“The biggest help that really just helped us keep costs low was a bunch of local restaurants donated food to us for lunches,” Mr. Antonini said.

Local establishments, the likes of Marco’s Pizza, Ye Olde Durty Bird, Bambino’s Pizza, and Fricker’s all donated lunches to the production, along with a number of establishments that allowed the crew to use their locations.

“It was really the community. They really helped us out,” Mr. Antonini said.

Before filming The Lifeguards, Mr. Antonini had made two short films in Chicago. With the help of the film community, he had orchestrated a few two-day film shoots and wrapped them up quite nicely into heartfelt, indie shorts.

The Lifeguards was 11 times longer than his previous projects and also pushed the crew into a new way of working.

“It's actually the first movie that I've done,” Andi Jo Taylor, 19, of Holland, who plays the film’s main female lead, Emma, said about her experience working on the film.

“It was a very long process,” she said about the 22 straight days of filming that took place from August to September.

“I had the best experience working with the crew and the cast,” she said. From hot weather to cold weather to trying to figure out how to kiss underwater, Ms. Taylor was exposed to a number of challenging situations made lighter by camaraderie with the cast and crew.

Even though Ms. Taylor played a lifeguard, she did not know how to swim during the filming of the production.

“He [Mr. Antonini] made it his mission to not only get this film done but keep me alive. And I'm grateful for that,” she said.

Another individual who is very excited about the premiere of the film is Charles Wetzel, the vice president and networking coordinator for Film Toledo, a nonprofit film commission in Toledo.

Mr. Wetzel plays the character of Norb, a late twentysomething faced with the reality of having to grow up.

“It's collaborative,” Mr. Wetzel said about one of the many film projects he has been a part of.

“It's a group of people who are all working to make something better than themselves,” he said, adding that the film is, “... definitely ambitious” as a feature-length production.

The last time Mr. Wetzel worked on a project of this length was nearly a decade ago, and he hopes that this film may be the beginning of a trend of people utilizing the Toledo area for expression in this way.

“When you hear about a film being made, mentally, you want to help it get made,” Mr. Antonini said about Toledo’s desire to prove itself. “Because it can only be good for the city.”

The Lifeguards will premiere at the Maumee Indoor Theater on Thursday. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the movie will begin at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $15, and the recommended attire is black tie or floral shirt designs.

First Published April 28, 2024, 1:35 p.m.