LA zip code, Michigan attitude: Sam Logan Khaleghi on filmmaking

Emmy-nominated Sam Logan Khaleghi may have an LA area code, but his attitude is “still very much Michigan.”

Khaleghi spent his teen years in metro Detroit, but grew up previously in Kalamazoo. When asked how he made it from the mitten state to Hollywood he says he still doesn’t know, but the journey involved hard work, “every day, in little bits at a time.” Right after high school, he was already making commercials and short films. By the time the next summer rolled around, he had gotten into a few festivals, then started winning awards, and things accumulated from there.

Fast forward to today, Friday, September 13, where Khaleghi is hours away from personally presenting his newest feature film, Approaching Midnight, in Grand Rapids. After many visits with his father, who coached a youth soccer league here, Khaleghi came to see Grand Rapids as one of his several homes. He is genuinely thrilled and elated to be coming back.

“There’s nothing more exiting than going to a movie theatre you went to when you were younger and watching your movie,” says Khaleghi.

Khaleghi’s newest feature film, Approaching Midnight, follows Sergeant Wesley Kent (Khaleghi) after he returns from Afghanistan and ends up fighting personal battles at home. The film itself isn’t extraordinary, but the feat of it is; Khaleghi directed, produced, starred in and wrote the script himself.

“Wearing all the hats and trying to decipher at which point I had to take one off and put another one on,” he says, was the most interesting and challenging part of the job. Now when pressed for a favorite director, he has to admit that he can’t pick one; he respects all directors, regardless of how their movie turned out.

“Because filmmakers work so hard,” he says. In his case, life began to imitate art while filming Approaching Midnight.

“The crew was like a platoon,” he says, half-jokingly, “and making the film was the mission.”

Khaleghi himself has not served in the military, but several of his friends have, and the stories of camraderie and brotherhood they shared inspired him to write this script. The film premiered at an American Legion Veterans charity event in Detroit and the American Legion National Convention in Houston.

Sam Logan Khaleghi will be presenting Approaching Midnight today, Friday, September 13, at 7:30 PM, at Celebration Cinema’s Woodland theatre. Approaching Midnight also stars country music’s Jana Kramer and Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder). The film will screen at Woodland for one week at 5:00 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

For more information on the film, please visit: http://www.montereymedia.com/approachingmidnight/