Give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth.

 

'Front Stage & Back' is a tragi-comedic character study of larger than life, 58 year old, New York actor, Theodore Bouloukos, who has been in more than a hundred totally unheard of films.

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The film explores self-perception and the tension that exists between what we say and what we do.  “Am I an actor?”, Theo asks himself, “or am I a fucking fraud?”

Who are we when we appear to be many things at the

same time? 

 

In a funny, unflinchingly honest and moving piece of cinema vérité, Theo takes us on a muddled journey through painful auditions, underpaid gigs, and drunken dinner parties that describe his life in New York’s Upper East Side, where he shares a rent stabilised apartment with his brother.

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As we see his image gradually emerging on a portrait artist's canvas, the camera searches out the real story beyond this actor’s resilience and flamboyant wit and unfolds a tale of deeper hurt and familial complications.

 

Front Stage & Back grapples with the very human dilemma of self-definition, self-worth, and self truth, and explores the shaky foundations that these are based on.