To the long and colorful resume of Skeet Willingham – author, historian, raconteur, rapscallion – we may now add “movie executive producer.” A movie that he has helped finance, “Somebodies,” is being screened this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival.

Thousands of films are submitted to be screened at Sundance, Willingham said, and just to have your film chosen to debut at the festival is a big deal in the independent movie world. If the critics and distributors love it, it could be released all over and become a big hit. Or not. Investors like Willingham are gambling that it will be.

“But whether it makes it big or not,” he said, “it’s a great movie. Hadjii is a fine, creative fellow.”

Set and filmed in Athens, the movie is the creation of a young Brunswick, Georgia, man who goes by the name Hadjii. “Somebodies” is a coming-of-age comedy about Scottie, a twenty-two-year-old black college student in Athens, Georgia.

Hadjii, on his web site, said that his story shows a different side of life. It’s “told in a new, young African American voice,” he said. “These college students aren’t rappers or running backs. They’re not gangstas or strutting preachers. They’re college guys doing what college guys do – finding their way in the world. ‘Somebodies’ is a warm, funny look into a world ignored by most films and television programs about black life, especially young black life.”

Willingham was introduced to Hadjii by a friend, a former vicepresident of UGA, and by Dr. Nathaniel Kohn, associate professor at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Hadjii graduated from the college with a BA degree in Telecommunications Arts.

“They told me about the movie and Hadjii, and wanted to know if I might want to invest some in it. I said, ‘that sounds like fun.’ Hadjii’s a nice young man, and I think it’s important to encourage that kind of thing.” As a producer, Willingham got to meet the cast and crew, and is kept informed about the film’s progress toward Sundance. “I’ve enjoyed being a participant in this movie, although a minor one just kind of sitting on the sidelines.”

Willingham is also encouraging the young moviemaker to look at Washington. “We’ve been talking pretty seriously about filming his next movie here in Washington. He’s got some ideas that would work really well in our setting. But that’s just at the talking stage now.”