Box salesman has smash hit at film festival

By R.E. Reimer
Newport Live
Newport Daily News

   Hats off to Nick Pasyanos.

   The Middletown filmmaker pulled down top honors in the Home Grown category at the just-ended Rhode Island International Film Festival, spread out between Woonsocket and Providence.

   Pasyanos premiered his film "Boxed Man" before an overflow crowd at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket.  The film won the "Best of Fest" award, determined by the audience vote.

   The 46-year-old box salesman made "Boxed Man" during free time on weekends.  Friends and part-time actors and lots of careful planning were needed to tell the story of a frustrated salesman of boxes - based in part on Pasyanos' experience.

   The comedy traces the salesman's adventures - and misadventures - through life and love.

   Pasyanos had hoped to have the film premier at the inaugural Newport International Film Festival this past June.  But he needed about $80,000 to complete a print of the film.

  There just wasn't time to make the Newport Film fest.  But "Boxed Man" did make the Woonsocket festival - and won.

   Now it's a matter of waiting to see if a distributor wants to push Pasyanos' comedy.