‘Lost and Found in Cleveland’: Indie film filmed across Northeast Ohio delivers a heartfelt message of hope for the holidays

Through the years, the city of Cleveland has been the site of the filming of many major motion pictures, from the 1983 holiday classic “A Christmas Story” to this summer’s blockbuster hit “Superman.” One such film, now playing in theaters, tells a story that is sure to warm the hearts of audiences just in time for the holiday season.

“Lost and Found in Cleveland,” which premiered at last year’s Newport Beach Film Festival and later broke attendance records during its screening at Playhouse Square, was created by Double G Films, a production studio founded by writers and producers Keith Gerchak and Marisa Guterman. They explained the inspiration for the film came from the popularity of the long-running PBS TV series “Antiques Roadshow.”

“It was something I watched every Monday with my dad,” Guterman recalled. “Coming from L.A., I was really drawn to these people and their stories through these objects, and it just kind of felt like the purest form of storytelling, and I just wanted to know what happened to them before and after.”

When Guterman proposed the idea to Gerchak, he liked it and said he wanted to see a film like this take place in his hometown of Cleveland rather than in Los Angeles.

“Keith really exposed me to what Clevelanders and Northeast Ohio is all about,” she said. “We portray that authentically, and we celebrate people who live here and their stories through the film.”

The film follows the lives of five different people whose paths cross when a televised antique appraisal show comes to Cleveland. The objects the characters bring in for appraisal ultimately represent each person’s dreams and legacies.

“Lost and Found in Cleveland” features an all-star cast that includes Dennis Haysbert (“The Unit”), June Squibb (“Alice”), Martin Sheen (“The West Wing”), Stacy Keach (“Mike Hammer”), Liza Weil (“Gilmore Girls”), Santino Fontana (“Frozen”), Esther Povitsky (“Alone Together”), Loretta Devine (“Boston Public”), Jon Lovitz (“A League of Their Own”), Jeff Hiller (“Somebody Somewhere”), Rory O’Malley (“The Book of Mormon”), Dot-Marie Jones (“Glee”), Yvette Yates Redick (“Day Shift”), Benjamin Steinhauser (“Kids Baking Championship”) and Mark L. Walberg (“Antiques Roadshow”).

Guterman said that while the film took 20 days to shoot, the idea of making it was first proposed 12 years ago.

“Independent films are kind of miracles,” she said. “Any film is a miracle really. It takes so many impossibilities and different people, different scenarios. Twelve years can actually be seen as a short time, relatively speaking.”

“It’s a very complex process to make a movie and to turn it into reality,” Gerchak said. “It’s really a fascinating journey to go on.”

During those 20 days of filming, scenes were shot in such locations as Playhouse Square, the West Side Market, the Western Reserve Historical Society, Slavic Village and even the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum in Canton.

Gerchak and Guterman said they want viewers to walk away with a sense of hope portrayed in the film.

“It’s a film that they can return to annually with their family,” Guterman said. “I think those opportunities are really rare. Maybe they’ll recognize themselves in one of the stories, recognizing the humanity in each character. I think those kinds of stories aren’t being told. Stories of hope are really important in dark times.”

“Lost and Found in Cleveland” is now playing in local theaters, including Regal Cinema in Medina, 200 West Reagan Parkway. A trailer for the film can be found at https://tinyurl.com/4m8bb2r3.