Sachem Grad's Film Takes Home Four Awards at this Year's Long Island International Film Expo

What began as goofing off in the hallways of Sachem High School in the late '90s, came full circle for Ralph Suarez last month.

Playing with a video camera was once a way to kill time and fulfill his creative urges, but Suarez, who graduated from Sachem in 1998, recently won four awards, including Best Long Island Feature, at the Long Island International Film Expo for his feature length comedy "Purgatory Comics."

He remembers using a palmcorder, shooting short films of unscripted stories with gibberish for outlines and improvisation to fill the gaps.

RELATED: See what Suarez had to say about his big night

"I took it too seriously then," he said. "We used to hangout after hours and shoot in the hallways. That's where it started."

The film is a dramedy about a young woman who hides from a complex life in a comic books store. The cunning dialogue and low-budget feel is similar to that of the cult classic "Clerks," which was ironic since Brian O'Halloran, who starred in "Clerks," co-hosted this year's award ceremony.

"Purgatory Comics is an adorable 'coming of age' film about trying to find your direction in this world," said Debra Markowitz, Director of Nassau County's Film Office. "With likeable, quirky characters; it will delight the movie-goer who is looking for a few laughs."

At SUNY Geneseo Suarez studied broadcast communications, spent time working at the school radio station and graduated in 2002 with the simple, yet loaded, knack of being creative. After graduation, he landed a gig at a marketing company in Farmingdale, the same one he works at today as creative director.

It was in college that he shot a film called "Warm Milk," about a student dealing with insomnia, who had a friend dealing with narcolepsy. Warm milk turned out to be the remedy for sleeplessness and the film, which was followed by a sequel, became a hit on the upstate New York campus. In 2007 Suarez incorporated his production company, which is called Warm Milk Productions.

"It holds a personal and special meaning to me," said Suarez, who credits Sue Deveau, his second grade teacher at Cayuga Elementary, and Arthur Mazzei, another teacher of his at Sachem North, with allowing him to be creative at a pivotal time in his life.

Still harnessing a penchant for writing and film, Suarez trained himself to master the mechanics of screen writing.

"I was hungered to see something I wrote happen," he said. "Screenwriting is where my home is."

Aside from short films in high school and college, "Purgatory Comics" was his first feature film. The 10-day shoot in 2007 verified his quest to make a respectable piece of work. For about $24,000, the film was made.

"We cut some corners, but kept the production as high end as possible," said Suarez of the film that was shot entirely on Long Island in parts of Selden, Ronkonkoma and Shirley.

Between present day and 2007 – minus two days of additional shooting in 2008 – the film sat idle. Suarez, 30 and a resident of Ronkonkoma, credits himself as a very detailed person and the pressure amounted to a dead standstill. Then it was screened on opening day at the Expo. The cat was out of the bag and Suarez was officially entered into the world of filmmaking full force.

Angela Benedict, another Sachem graduate, won Best Actress, Jonathan Zungre won for Best Supporting Actor, and the film won for Best Song, which was "In the Spin" by Fox Vulpini, a group from Finland.

The top prize was for Best Long Island feature, which saw Purgatory beat out a piece called "A Little Help" starring The Office's Jenna Fischer and Chris O'Donnell from NCIS. Purgatory Comics was also nominated for Best Feature, but did not win. It didn't matter for the filmmaker.

"To be nominated alone was one of the biggest honors I've ever had in my life," Suarez said.

It's been less than a month since the major achievement and Suarez has been fielding calls from actors and filmmakers about new projects.

"It hasn't opened the door to Hollywood," he joked. "It has totally reignited the first and passion. I was falling out of it but now I'm anxious to do something new."

Another Sachem grad doing big things.