PB Film

FILM FLASHBACK: A CIGAR AT THE BEACH

Director Stephen Mills Keep, an actor-turned director after the actors’ strike in 1980, wrote “A Cigar at The Beach” over the span of two late nights in Delray Beach, when he took his family there to visit his aging father, who was suffering from depression. While tending to the needs of his pregnant wife, his technology addicted stepson, and his dad, Mills took a close look at his own roles of husband, son, father and the issue of mortality.

Out of a yellow notepad full of scribbles, erasures and diagrams, the award-winning short, A Cigar at the Beach was born. The production shot over 11 days at Ormond Beach and Delray Beach and received 45 awards. Besides filming on the beach in Delray, local locations included the former Wright by the Sea motel and the Carolina Cigar Company on Atlantic Avenue.