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Work Comp Expert Subject of Independent Film
Author: | Saturday July 07, 2007
Motivational Speaker's Life Given the Big Screen Treatment
Industry Speaker's
Life on Big Screen
Richard Pimentel Subject of
"The Music Within"
Most professionals in workers compensation who have attended conferences and meetings around the country knew that Richard Pimentel was a funny and insightful man. As an expert on work place communication, getting individuals back on the job and teaching managers how to be better managers, Pimentel always packed the lecture room.
Now his life story may also bring people into the movie theaters. Released earlier this year, "The Music Within" has been playing the film festival circuits and getting good reviews from critics an audiences alike.
How did it all come about? Up and coming director Steven Sawalich heard Pimentel during one of his speaking engagements. "I was sitting there and he has this amazing ability to take the audience on this roller coaster ride of emotions where one minute everyone is laughing hysterically and then the next moment everyone is crying," Sawalich states in an interview with Pop Syndicate, an online entertainment web publication.
Several discussions and a few years later the idea for the movie became a reality. For those who have heard Pimentel speak at the various industry conferences, some of his life story is known, but the movie apparently goes into emotionally moving details.
It tells of Pimentel's abandonment as a young child, his tour of duty in Vietnam, his successes in academics and a major turning point in his life, meeting Art Honeyman, "the smartest and funniest man he has ever known." Through his experiences with Honeyman who has cerebral palsy, Pimentel became involved with the disability movement and developed his talents as a motivational speaker.
Actor Ron Livingston plays Pimentel and the cast includes Michael Sheen, Melissa George and Rebecca De Mornay. Plans call for releasing the film nationally on September 14.
Ed. Note: Richard Pimentel works for the firm of Milt Wright & Associates, Inc., a publishing, training and consulting firm focused on workforce development and disability management. One review described the film as "angry, rueful and surprisingly funny." In one of our future editions we plan to bring readers a Voice Newspaper review of the film.
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