‘It’s a Pittsburgh story’: Locally filmed drama ‘Dear Zoe’ ready for its closeup

The roots of “Dear Zoe” run deep in Western Pennsylvania. They were first planted almost two decades ago and are set to gain an even stronger hold next week on the Pittsburgh area.

“Dear Zoe” began its creative journey as a 2005 novel written by local author Philip Beard about a Pittsburgh family coping with the aftermath of a heartbreaking loss. In 2019, a film adaptation of Beard’s story, directed by Gren Wells and starring “Stranger Things” breakout Sadie Sink was shot throughout the Pittsburgh region.

The film will make its local premiere on Nov. 2 with a sold-out screening at Downtown’s August Wilson African American Cultural Center. Yinzers will also be able to catch it the following evening at The Oaks Theater in Oakmont, before it becomes available Nov. 4 on VOD and at The Manor Theatre and Waterworks, Cranberry and Century Square Luxury cinemas.

“It’s so important to us to have an in-person premiere in Pittsburgh, to have a reunion with our cast, crew and share this movie on the big screen,” said Marc Lhormer, a Pittsburgh native and the film’s producer and co-writer.

Sink stars as Tess DeNunzio, a high schooler whose world is shattered following the death of her sister, Zoe (Mckenzie Noel Rusiewicz), on Sept. 11, 2001, in an accident completely unrelated to that national tragedy. She is joined in her grief by mother Elly (Jessica Capshaw), stepfather David (Justin Bartha) and younger sister Em (Vivien Lyra Blair).

After realizing she won’t find much support at home, Tess runs away to stay with her biological father, Nick (Theo Rossi), in Braddock. She finally starts to make progress on her healing journey thanks to this rekindled relationship and a romance that blossoms with new neighbor Jimmy (Kweku Collins).

“Dear Zoe” shows off quite a bit of Pittsburgh geography and makes a point to highlight some of the city’s instantly noticeable socioeconomic disparities. Pittsburghers will probably recognize locations such as the Food Shoppe in Squirrel Hill, Shady Side Academy Junior School in Point Breeze, Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. in the Strip District, the North Shore and multiple parts of Braddock.

Lhormer and his wife, Brenda, bought the rights to adapt “Dear Zoe” in 2008. It was during the 11-year wait to begin production that Marc Lhormer’s father — a Clairton native who died in 2015 — suggested filming in Braddock. The book never specified where Nick lived, and Lhormer was sold on Braddock after experiencing a “vision of Oz” upon realizing how unique it was to have a place where residents could look out from their front porches and see both smokestacks from old factories and the tips of Kennywood rides.

“I love the fact that our movie isn’t one of those movies that was shot in Pittsburgh and is pretending to be somewhere else,” Lhormer said. “It’s a Pittsburgh story, and it feels so good to be doing something so authentic.”

That dedication to Pittsburgh authenticity extended to allowing Rossi to attempt a Yinzer accent. How successful he ultimately was at capturing that dialect will certainly be the subject of debate, but Lhormer believes that Rossi’s efforts to transform into a “working-class Italian guy” proved successful enough that audiences should be able to “focus on the story and relationships” regardless of his vocal cadence.

When the Lhormers cast Sink as Tess in spring 2019, they had no idea that she would be a mega-star by the time “Dear Zoe” was ready to come out thanks to her role as Max Mayfield in “Stranger Things.” Lhormer said that during the audition process, the actors reading for Tess were required to recite the first line of the book, “I have memories of you from before you were born,” which would be used as part of Tess’ voice-over in the film. He would close his eyes and try to imagine how Tess would deliver those words.

“When I heard Sadie say those lines, that was the voice I heard in my head,” Lhormer said.

His gamble on Sink paid off in the chemistry she had with everyone on set, including Collins as his Jimmy continued vying for a spot in Tess’ heart. Those two shared a few sequences filmed at Kennywood that required them to go on certain rides over and over. There’s a closeup of them having an intimate conversation on the Skycoaster that Lhormer said was actually filmed at 31st Street Studios in the Strip District, with the ride’s real harness loaned to them by Kennywood. The shots of Sink and Collins being lifted up on the Skycoaster and plunging back to earth, though, were 100% real.

Sink wasn’t the only young “Dear Zoe” actor who rose to greater fame before the film was released. Blair, whose Em shares a special bond with her big sister, recently appeared on Disney+ as a young Leia Organa in the streaming service’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” miniseries. Lhormer loved getting to watch Sink, Blair, Bartha, Capshaw and Rossi form a realistic family unit, a bond that will probably be most evident to viewers during an end-credits montage shot outside a Steelers game at Acrisure Stadium.

“What I love about these folks is that you feel like you’re eavesdropping on a real family,” Lhormer said. “You’re not distracted by watching Brad Pitt or George Clooney. They feel like real people.”

All the emotional ups and downs everyone goes through in “Dear Zoe” are exacerbated by this being a story set in the shadow of 9/11, still a fresh wound when Beard was writing his novel in the early 2000s. In Lhormer’s mind, the COVID-19 pandemic has made “Dear Zoe” “unbelievably current,” due to the similar feelings of loss and grief many of us have experienced over the past 2½ years.

“I feel like there’s this really interesting invisible string that runs over 20 years from 9/11 to the COVID pandemic that makes ‘Dear Zoe’ more relevant than ever,” he said.

The Lhormers could have released “Dear Zoe” last year to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11, but their plans for any in-person premiere were dashed by the delta variant’s sudden surge. They decided to wait a year so they could give “Dear Zoe” the glitzy debut they believe it deserved, and set that November release date to coincide with National Children & Teens’ Grief Awareness Month.

Lhormer said they always wanted the Pittsburgh premiere of “Dear Zoe” to be in the Cultural District, and having it at the August Wilson Center comes with the added benefit of a built-in “connection with the incredible storytelling legacy of August Wilson.” He’s expecting it to be a special night, and hopes everyone there and whoever checks out “Dear Zoe” in any form feels as strongly about it as he and his wife do.

“It’s this beautiful story, a Pittsburgh book adapted to a film by Pittsburgh people shot in Pittsburgh,” he said. “It really captures the essence of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh’s character, and that notion of taking some rough knocks, getting back up and reinventing yourself. It’s inspirational.”