Peter Callahan

Writer-director Peter Callahan had the kind of success with his first feature in 2001 that most filmmakers can only dream about, but it was still nearly eight years before he made another film. Callahan, a high school dropout from Upstate New York, worked as a cab driver before returning to school, eventually receiving an M.A. in Journalism from Columbia University. After a stint in Los Angeles, he moved back to New York to make a semi-autobiographical independent feature, "Last Ball," an observational comedy-drama about a feckless thirtysomething man stuck in his small hometown who has a passionate affair with a married woman. The film, which featured Leo Fitzpatrick and James Rebhorn, was a hit on the festival circuit, winning prizes at the Avignon and Dallas International Film Festivals, among others. Despite the film's success, it was not picked up for theatrical distribution. Callahan had more luck with his second feature, "Against the Current," another Hudson Valley-set dramedy, starring Joseph Fiennes as a man with a tragic past who decides to swim the lower part of the Hudson River to New York City. He enlists an old high school buddy (Justin Kirk) and a woman he's recently met (Elizabeth Reaser) to help him on his journey. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It was also shown at the Woodstock Film Festival, after which Callahan took it on a theatrical tour of the Hudson Valley. IFC distributed the film on demand as part of its Sundance Selects programming package.