A film being showcased in Kilgore at the Reel East Texas Film Festival this week features four Katy area residents in the cast: Brian Brawner, Cullen Dauchy, Matt Gore, and Charlie Winfree. The film, called “The Rocin Chronicles,” is being produced by former Katy ISD educator and coach Mac McStravick.

The Reel East Texas Film Festival is held in Kilgore, Texas from November 11-14. “The Rocin Chronicles” will be shown on Friday, November 13. at the Texan Theater in Kilgore. The film is about a football coaching staff in a small town in Texas during the early 1970's -- somewhere between Houston and San Antonio -- and it uses humor and some drama to see how men create and build community.

The Reel East Texas Film Festival will be the feature’s first film festival, following the year of editing on the project. “It is a well-run festival that has given us some roots to plant into the Texas soil, I am grateful for including us in the program,” said producer Mac McStravick said.

McStravick, with "Good on Ya Mate Productions," worked at Katy ISD for 17 years in the early 1990’s, through the mid-2000’s. His Houston-based company uses cast and crew coming from the Houston area. The producer, the director and the DP are all local as well, with deep roots in the community, McStravick said.

“My family is from Houston, though we spent almost four years in Sale, Australia,” McStravick said. “As a kid, playing sports in Sale, if you played hard- no matter if you won or lost, the old timers would come over, tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘Good on ya, Mate.’ That is why my production company is called ‘Good on Ya, Mate’-- you do your best in this life, and, even if you make a mistake, you apologize, get up, and keep on going.”

McStravick went to high school in Tomball and joined KISD after college, spending three years at West Memorial Jr. High, and 14 years at Katy Jr. High where he taught history and coached football, basketball, and track. He also had a junior high soccer club (boys' and girls' teams) at Katy Junior high called Los Tigres. He left Katy to move closer to home- in Richmond, but continued to teach at private schools and later in Lamar CISD at Briscoe Jr. High.

Brian Brawner attended Katy High School where he played football through his sophomore year, then becoming an athletic trainer. He was in Tech Theater from his sophomore year through senior years. While stationed in Moscow during his stint in the Marine Corps, Brawner tried out for local theater production of “Catch Me If You Can,” auditioning for a minor role and ending up as the main character in the play. Brawner later saw “Coach Mac” who asked him to try out for

the role of ”Coach Ski” in the film. Brawner, who is working on two additional ideas for future movies, is the son of former City of Katy Mayor Chuck Brawner.

Cullen Dauchy, who performs the voice over in the film, moved to Katy fresh out of vet school at Texas A & M in August of 1971 and has lived in West Katy on Carnation St since 1974. He graduated from Prairie Lea High School in 1964 in Caldwell County where he played football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and ran track. “My one experience in play-acting is when I was recruited from the freshman class to play a male part in the junior class play in the spring of 1961, because they didn’t have enough boys in the junior class,” Dauchy said.

Matt Gore, who plays "Officer Beckendorf," grew up in Williamsburg Hamlet and attended Winborn Elementary and McDonald Jr High and graduated from Katy High in 1999. He attended McNeese State University on football scholarship, playing from 1999-2003.

Charlie Winfree, who plays "Kovar," went to Spring Woods HS and moved to Cinco Ranch as an adult. “I played all the sports, but football was my favorite,” Winfree said. “I wasn’t involved in theatre but admired it from afar. At 62 --forty-four years later == I decided to take the leap and what a wonderful experience it has been. I have proved to myself it’s never too late to chase a dream and gained the confidence to just keep going with no expectations while reaching for the stars.” Winfree has another project, a feature film, coming out soon.

The story of the film concerns a small town in Texas – Rocin -- in the early 1970's, and how the men on the coaching staff build community using humor, while leaning on each other in the hard times. It is the combination of two award-winning scripts, concerning the same small town, with an ensemble cast anchored by John Enick, as Emil Lee (Muley) Sanchez.

This film was shot in Orchard, and Wallis Texas with the set at the old high school in Orchard. Narration for the film was done at a recording studio in Katy- Go Long Studios.

“I originally wrote this script as a way for young men to see that we all make mistakes,” said McStravick, “and it is how we deal with those mistakes that build character; it is also for older men to remember they need to be mentors for those who are following behind them: ’as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’"

The film will make the film festival circuit in hopes of gaining some idea of the interest in a story about a small, Texas town, and the men who love their community and work to be good shepherds of those they serve, McStravick said. “I would love to see us continue to film in and around the Katy area, and use local actors, actresses, artists and musicians to make a few more of ‘The Rocin Chronicles,’” he said.

“Katy, Texas, was and is a special place for me,” McStravick said. “Many of the ideas for this story have it's roots in the history and the people of Katy. When I go there, to old town Katy, I

feel a bit like I have returned to Rocin, Texas, with their love of football, and the welcome of old friends.”