Chris Malinowski to screen film at Lewes Public Library

Multitalented filmmaker, guitarist and vocalist Chris Malinowski is screening “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir,” from 3 to 6 p.m., Saturday, March 7, at the Lewes Public Library. The event will include a Q&A about his upcoming film, “Daniel Le Flou,” following the screening.

In 1979, Malinowski went to the drive-in with his father to see a film called “Phantasm.”

“That was the first film that made me want to make motion pictures,” Malinowski said.

Growing up in Newport, Del., he continued his education at the University of Delaware to major in English with a concentration in film theory. After watching countless movies, he decided he wanted to get into film production. Malinowski transferred to Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y., which offered more specific areas of study to help redirect his focus. 

While films have always been a keen interest for Malinowski, music was his first passion. He learned music through his father, a guitar teacher, and has been in various bands: Freakshow, The Absurd, and now The Collingwood. The Collingwood is an original rock band that has already released numerous albums on music streaming platforms.

Spending a lot of time in Lewes during the late 1990s, he said he always felt like there was some kind of seething mystery under the sidewalks and sand of Lewes that no one was talking about. It took eight months to write a script and five to six months preparing for the film. Shot for $150,000 with 17 crew members and 56 cast members, Malinowski’s visions were brought to life over the course of 28 days.

After meeting with the councils of Rehoboth and Lewes to get approval, Malinowski started contacting the owners of all of the area locations he had grown to love: The Buttery, Whiskey Jack’s, Planet X, Cafe Azafran, Second Street, the Virden House, Lewes Canalfront Park, Dairy Queen, Rehoboth Boardwalk, Lewes police station, the Greene Turtle, Cape Henlopen State Park and more. As some of these locations no longer exist, “Yes, Your Tide is Cold and Dark, Sir” serves as a time capsule and shadowy love letter to the beach towns of Sussex County.

The plot follows 63-year-old Rudy Claitonowsky, a rogue guitar instructor, and three of his teenage pupils disappearing into the sand dunes of Cape Henlopen. Clay’s son, Cliff, makes an emotional pilgrimage to the shore to help find his father and amend the past.

Malinowski’s next motion picture, “Daniel Le Flou,” is planned to shoot this summer in Delaware and Pennsylvania for $20,000 to $50,000. The female-centered dark drama focuses on a precocious teenager named Louanna who befriends a middle-aged homeless man, Devin, who is a drifter in her rural Pennsylvanian town. After Devin is mysteriously murdered, Louanna attends college in upstate New York, where she stalks a restaurant owner and family man, Daniel, thinking he is Devin’s doppelgänger. 

With one film released and another on the way, Malinowski managed to encapsulate the towns of Lewes and Rehoboth perfectly on film.