Hartford’s A Star In New ‘Diamond Ruff’ Gangster Movie

Hartford hits the big screen starting on Thursday, Jan. 8, when “Diamond Ruff,” which was shot and set in the capital city, opens at the Spotlight Theaters on Front Street in Hartford.

It’s the right cinema to host the premiere of the film: The movie’s opening shot was filmed right across the street, at the Connecticut Convention Center. That opening shot shows the well-known entrance of the center, superimposed with the word “Oakland.”

“We needed a place that looked like an airport,” said Joe Young of Bloomfield, the movie’s writer and producer, who based the film on his book of the same name.

After the scene set in Oakland, the rest of the movie is set in Hartford. Interiors, and a few exteriors, also were shot in Manchester, Willimantic and Cheshire.

The first Hartford screening is at 10 a.m. Thursday, and will be open to the public, as well as school groups. A red-carpet premiere will be held that evening at 7 p.m. The movie will run for a week.

On Friday, the movie goes wider, showing at Parkade Cinemas in Manchester for a week starting with a 10 a.m. school-groups-and-public screenings. Entertainment Cinemas in Springfield, Mass., will open the film on Jan. 10 and will show it at Landmark Theatres in Atlanta on Jan. 15.

Depending on how opening weekend goes, it may expand after that, said Young, who produced the movie with his own company, Young! Studios of East Hartford.

The film will be released on DVD and VOD on Feb. 10.

The gangster redemption drama stars Fredro Starr of the rap trio Onyx in the title role. It tells the story of a Hartford boy, Diamond Ruff, whose parents were killed when he was a child and who grows up to be mastermind of the Hartford underworld.

The movie was shot in 2011, but it seems to fit right in with the tragic year 2014, as a major plot point concerns the fatal shooting of an unarmed black youth by a white cop.

“Remember this is from a book I wrote in 1997,” Young said. “Things don’t change too much. I guess there will be something else that comes up five years from now.”

The cast is full of local actors, including Hartford attorney Jeffrey Dressler in a key role early in the film, Hartford native Lenise Smith as a mother, Dean Yalanis of West Hartford as a Mafia boss, Durham native Michael Barra as a store clerk, Greg Nutcher as the cop-in-question, newsman Scot Haney in a nonspeaking role and Young himself in a few small roles.

“Diamond Ruff” also stars Felicia Pearson from “The Wire” and “Barbershop” actor Michael Colyar, who provides comic relief as Diamond Ruff’s flamboyant attorney.

The film, directed by Alec Asten of Mystic, is about crime and sleaze and corruption, but it still shows Hartford and its environs to a flattering advantage. It was filmed in many locations including the state Capitol, the Colt building, the Society Room, the Old State House, Bushnell Park, City Steam Brewery and Pratt Street, as well as the famous “Jesus Saves” building in downtown Manchester.

“Without the recession, we wouldn’t have been able to do the movie,” Young said. “A lot of buildings were empty. We got things at a reduced rate.”

The usage of the “Jesus Saves” building is appropriate foreshadowing, because in the end Jesus is the real star of the movie. Dennis L.A. White portrays a preacher whose sincere faith and down-to-earth charisma changes people’s lives.

The movie is dedicated to the late Farmington resident Dr. Peter Tutschka. Tutschka was the former chief of the cancer center at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, who helped develop the use of cyclosporine to prevent the body from rejecting transplanted bone marrow.

“He was the first one to come in, as far as financial backing, to the movie,” Young said. “He passed during production. He was never able to see the finished film. He believed in us and brought his friends in. He was civic-minded, a great spirit.”

“DIAMOND RUFF” will open Thursday, Jan. 8, at 10 a.m. at Spotlight Theatres on Front Street in Hartford. A red-carpet event will take place at 7 p.m. hartford.spotlighttheatres.com. It will open Friday, Jan. 10, at Parkade Cinemas in Manchester. parkadecinemas.com.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the time of the first movie showing.