Silva blog.

At noontime today I was casually leafing through the latest edition of the Reader, a Chicago weekly, when I ran across an article about a low-budget, locally made movie. A photo of the director was with the article, and when I looked at it, I thought, that fellow looks a lot like Tom Silva. Closer reading revealed that it was Tom Silva -- at least, the person of that name whom I've known professionally for four or five years. I know him as a PR man for a major Chicago-based developer, the Alter Group.

In that capacity, Tom's always been very helpful, and besides he has one of the more interesting backgrounds of anyone I know in publicity. A Malaysian of East Indian extraction, he grew up in Kuala Lumpur, was educated in schools modeled after British boarding schools, then attended university in New York and did some graduate work in Chicago. He's invariably interesting to talk to. For my part, I may be one of the few Americans he knows who has actually been to Malaysia.

But I had no idea he aspired to screenwriting and directing. His movie is being screened tomorrow evening at an art house downtown, so it's unlikely I will be able to see it yet, though I would if it were closer. (Tom himself is on vacation in Malaysia now, so he won't be there either.) This from the Gene Siskel Film Center program:

THE QUIET
2003, Tom Silva, USA, 119 min.
With Jeremy Sklar, Kymberly Mellen

Made entirely in Chicago, The Quiet charts the creeping deterioration of the marriage of two affluent young professionals, Ted (Sklar) and Christy (Mellen). A north side town house filled with trendy lifestyle accessories provides an attractive front for a relationship that has long since taken a disturbing turn behind the scenes. Christy's passivity extends to ignoring the obvious signs of Ted's affair, while his deep-seated hostility is manifest in Christy's mysterious bruises. Actors Sklar and Mellen, both veterans of the Chicago theater scene, shine in roles that demand nuanced non-verbal communication. DigiBeta video.