The film, set in the 1920s, features several local actors and was filmed primarily in Alpena in the fall of 2023.

“Harsens Island Revenge” is showing multiple times on Saturday and throughout the week, through Thursday, at Sanctuary Cinema. For tickets, visit alpenamovies.com.

Lansing-based film company Collective Development Inc. shot the Prohibition-era drama in the Alpena area. The film, directed by Carl Weyant, features about 200 actors, including Alpena’s Matt Southwell and David Usher.

“Harsens Island Revenge,” is an adaptation of a book of the same title by Karl Manke.

Courtesy Photo “Harsens Island Revenge” opens tonight at Sanctuary Cinema in Alpena. The 1920s movie features several local actors and was filmed primarily in Alpena.

The story centers on World War I veterans who had their own whiskey smuggling operation on Harsens Island, about 50 miles northeast of Detroit. The Purple Gang, an infamous Detroit bootlegging crew known for dangerous and erratic behavior, cornered the illegal markets in the city. Upon learning that whiskey was coming onto the island outside of their control, gang members pursue a fight with the veterans to defend their turf.

DJ Perry, the CEO of Collective Development Inc., is also an actor, supervising producer, and screenwriter of the film.

“I adapted this script from the book by Karl Manke, of the same name,” Perry said. “‘Harsens Island Revenge’ is a great morality tale about greed. Sometimes, trying to cut corners and going for the fast money, these are the consequences that can happen.”

He said the film is entertaining, but also contains lessons.

“All our films tend to have, in the writing, some real depth,” Perry said. “If you are keeping poor company, that can come back around onto you. Although there’s action, and some romance, and everything else, there are some good lessons in it, too.”

Perry plays Axel in the film.

“He’s an ex-World War I war vet, an officer, and he gets pulled into the mess, this conflict between the vets and the Purple Gang mob out of Detroit,” Perry said. “At the time, they controlled 80% of the illegal liquor in the United States. Al Capone was one of their biggest buyers, and they were based out of Detroit. That was, kind of, their home capital.”

Perry described the book and film as historical fiction.

“It’s a fictionalized story that combines several real events,” Perry said. “A lot of the mob figures, the Bernsteins and some of the hit men, were actual people, but the main characters of the story — Frankie and Stella, and a lot of these others ­– were fictionalized by Karl Menke.”

Alpena’s David Usher plays Norval, and Alpena’s Matt Southwell plays Big Mouth Bobby in “Harsens Island Revenge.” Both actors have appeared in many live theater productions at Alpena Civic Theatre, as well as other films, including “Wild Faith Christmas” by Collective Development Inc.

“It’s got a lot of good history in it,” Perry said of “Harsens Island Revenge.” “We tend to do a lot of films that have history. I like to entertain people and then educate them a little bit.”

He said many of the historic buildings in the Alpena area provided the perfect backdrop for this film, including the Centennial Building downtown, Presque Isle Lodge, and more.

“It’s hard to create time periods. We’ve done it very well for a long time,” Perry said. “We’ve done Biblical films, and we’ve done the 1800s, and now with this, the 1920s, and the 1940s — a previous film was a World War II drama. It’s one of those things that your artists have to be really on, because they’re part historian, first.”

Perry’s company travels around the U.S. to find the right filming locations, depending on the setting needed for each film.

“We go wherever the script calls for,” Perry said. “We did three Biblical movies out in Yuma, Arizona, in the desert. The World War II picture was shot in Algona, Iowa.”

Alpena has been a great location for Collective Development Inc.

“It’s funny, because we had such a great experience with ‘Harsens Island’ that last October, we were up there, and we filmed a sequel to one of our popular westerns, ‘Wild Faith,'” Perry said, referring to ‘Wild Faith Christmas,’ much of which was filmed at the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan in Alpena.

“Wild Faith Christmas” will be coming into theaters in November, Perry said.

“We’ll probably do the same kind of thing, premiere it up there, because that was all shot in the Alpena area,” Perry said.

Collective Development Inc. was formed in 1996, Perry said, but he started making films a few years prior to that.

“It’s a changing industry,” Perry said. “And of course, now, with AI, we’re seeing even more evolution … But, we are embracing it as a tool.”

He said AI has potential for creating problems within the film industry, but staying up on current technology trends can be beneficial, if used in the right way.

“I’m just trying to stay out in front of the wave of technology,” Perry said.