Barbie overlooks a mid-century Underwood typewriter. Biographies of great filmmakers and titles on storytelling stand to her left. In the foreground, behind a wooden desk the color of dark honey, sits director and writer TJ Noel-Sullivan, founder of Hartford Film Company. 

We’re in the filmmaker’s offices at Real Art Ways. 

It’s a full circle moment for Noel-Sullivan: his love of filmmaking was forged four floors down, at RAW’s Eye on Video, summer student filmmaking program. 

“It was my real introduction to actual filmmaking – how to use a camera, how to tell a story and write a script,” Noel-Sullivan said.

That experience and tutelage at Real Art Ways became the foundation for his career; he later went to Yale and sojourned to Los Angeles, where Noel-Sullivan worked on Barbie (hence the hero’s presence in his office). 

In 2022, he returned to Hartford to make his first feature, Midas, which was shot entirely in our fair city (and also has a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Working in Connecticut versus California or New York was like night and day.  

“If you walk into a [NYC or LA] restaurant and say, ‘Hey, we want to film,’ they go, ‘Here’s our agent’s card,’ he said. “If we walk into a restaurant here, they say, ‘Hey, how can we help?” 

That is what will build a film sector here: grass roots pride, cooperation, and enthusiasm. “If you have an industry taking off, it needs that goodwill and community support,” including donations from restaurants and other businesses. 

And that support goes right back to the community: The Association of Film Commissioners estimates that every $1 spent by production companies generates $1.50-$3.00. 

As for Hartford Film Company, they’re working on Unplanted Seeds, a documentary about the nation’s teacher shortage, an acute problem in Hartford. The team is also taking a lead role in teaching RAW’s Eye on Video, the very program that gave Noel-Sullivan his start. 

Full circle indeed.