How to watch ‘A Stage of Twilight,’ a movie about end-of-life care filmed in New Milford

Since it wrapped filming in New Milford in 2021, “A Stage of Twilight” has been touring film festivals.

On March 14, it comes back to Connecticut. The movie will be screened at Bantam Cinema & Arts Center, followed by a Q&A with director Sarah Schwab and producer Brian Long.

“A Stage of Twilight” stars Karen Allen (“Animal House,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Perfect Storm” and more) and William Sadler (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “Iron Man 3,” “The Green Mile” and more) as Cora and Barry. The couple, in their 70s, navigate Barry’s diagnosis with a terminal heart disease.

Long said that Sadler will also be at the Bantam screening.

“The goal with this movie is talking about a really difficult subject, which is end-of-life choices,” Schwab said. “Even though it’s a difficult subject, there’s a lot of love in the film. So we also like to say that it’s a love story, because it is.”

Schwab was inspired to create the film after her watching her father battle and eventually die from terminal cancer. She first connected with Long when she wrote and staged “A Stage of Twilight” as a play. The pair then started working on a film adaptation and connected with Connecticut resident Megan Smith-Harris, who came onboard as a producer.

“I grew up in a small town outside of Buffalo, New York, and it was filled with cornfields and dairy farms,” Schwab said. “Our personal property was an old farmhouse that had been refurbished by my mom and dad. And there was a certain aesthetic that I wanted.”

Smith-Harris suggested New Milford as a filming location.

“When you’re producing a film, especially on the independent level, the location or the area that you shoot is so important, because there’s a lot of things (besides) locations,” Long said. “There’s housing, there’s catering, there’s crew, there’s extras…Not to mention, you’re going to usually need the police service to help you with traffic control.”

Long said that some shooting locations, like the Mark Twain Library and Sacred Heart University, were outside of New Milford, but close enough that the area still felt like it had everything they needed to film “A Stage of Twilight.”

The two say they also filmed at Lucia’s Ristorante and Kimberly Farm.

“We had catering for all the cast and crew from Northville Market, and OC Organic Kitchen, as well,” Schwab said. “And so it was just it was a way to have every aspect of film be a part of the wider community.”

Long said that he and Schwab have returned to the area for a screening of their first film together, “Life After You,” and to do some location scouting for another film they’re working on, “Crybaby Bridge,” but this is their first time attending a Connecticut screening.