RIC student film crew faces law enforcement at Lincoln Woods Park
- Olivia Barone
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Olivia Barone
Editor in Chief
Student filmmaker Alex Celico and crew were surprised to see Rhode Island State troopers arrive at Lincoln Woods Park during their filming of Celico’s newest short film. “About an hour into the shoot,” at approximately 5:00 p.m., “I hear ‘put your hands up where we can see them.’ At first I didn’t think they were talking about us… I was like, ‘there’s an active shooter? We need to get out of here,’” Celico recounted.
Celico set out on the evening of Oct. 28 to complete the filming of his final project for this semester’s FILM-352. Short film “Don’t Fence Me In” is a western-inspired project about two cowboys and how the consequences of their misadventures have finally caught up to them. However, production came to an abrupt halt when Rhode Island State Police received an anonymous report against Celico and his crew for an alleged open campfire and possession of two firearms.
The open campfire in question was in reality an LED light set to “fire mode” and covered in sticks. The firearms: twin Red Ryder BB guns used as props belonging to the film’s starring cowboys played by RIC students Reagan Gould and Gavin Lapan-Carpenter.
Celico’s crew, made up of both RIC students and alumni including Shane Marshall, Jonathan Pineda, Chip Bowdoin and Jeffrey Lopriore, were patted down and their equipment was searched by police. Each cast and crew member were then asked for identification before being given the green light to continue filming until 9:00 p.m., Celico reported.
“An hour [after RI State Police left], we saw a [Lincoln Police] patrol car. And we’re like, ‘why are the police here again?’ and with their giant megaphone they say ‘put that fire out, put that fire out’ and now we were confused because why didn’t [RI State Police and Lincoln Police] talk to each other?"
Celico and company reportedly explained the situation and previous interaction with RI State troopers to Lincoln Police but were asked to leave at 6:30 p.m. Celico told The Anchor of the park’s confusing hours, claiming that Google Maps showed it was open 24-hours. Meanwhile, Google and the park’s website provide conflicting answers, suggesting that closing time is either 8:00 p.m. or sunset.
Upon alerting RIC’s Campus Police, the film set was allowed to relocate to campus in a last-ditch effort to wrap up production of “Don’t Fence Me In.”
“The name comes from an Ella Fitzgerald cover of an old song. It’s about [this cowboy named] Wildcat Kelly who has all these responsibilities but doesn’t want to be fenced in…” Inspired, Celico asked himself: “How can I turn this into [modern media]?”
Heavily music-inspired, Celico’s 8th short film and first western also features a cover of the traditional ballad: “Git Along Little Dogies (Whoopie-Ti-Yi-Yo).” Recorded by Celico and Lapan-Carpenter, “Don’t Fence Me In” is the latter’s musical and acting debut.
Sitting around a campfire are “two cowboys on the night before they’re about to be hanged… It’s their last night of freedom and they’re talking about running away from all these responsibilities. They realize that being tough didn’t help them in any way. They’re still bottling up all these emotions for the thrill of [running away],” Celico explained. The short film centers on their end-of-life conversation and what two free spirits will say when finally backed into a corner.
To see the short film that almost never was, “Don’t Fence Me In” was uploaded to Youtube via Celico Film Productions on Nov. 10.