“Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it” – Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

Inspired by the above Fanon quote, Relative Obscurity was a labor of love for a group of friends who first met and began working together at Ohio University. For writer/director Jeff Rosenberg, a playwriting graduate, narrative storytelling was always a passion. During his time at OU, he enjoyed three extremely successful full-length theater productions, as well as establishing a phenomenal working relationship with the many talented actors the school had to offer. While the theater world presented many potential opportunities for Rosenberg, he knew deep-down that his true interests lay in the film industry. It was not until the winter of his senior year however that he began working with Par-T-Com Productions and things truly began to blossom.

Led by John Swartz (Producer), Devin Doyle (Cinematographer) and Spencer Houck (Editor), Par-T-Com Productions was starting to make waves around campus as a dedicated group of talented young artists. Never weary of putting himself out there, Rosenberg offered up his services as a writer to Par-T-Com and joined their team for a 48-hour filmmaking competition. The result was Detonate, a bomb-diffusion musical, and their first collaborative project. Detonate went on to win the MTVu: Best Film on Campus competition, judged by Gus Van Sant, Joel Schumacher and Allison Anders, and a regional Emmy. In addition, Detonate found a home at several international film fests.

Over the coming year, Par-T-Com continued to blossom as an artistic collective with several more festival successes and regional Emmys, as well as airing during the 77th Annual Academy Awards. While Swartz, Doyle, Houck and other Par-T-Com members continued to thrive in Southeastern Ohio, establishing and building a reputation both on and off campus, Rosenberg was also hard at work in the Cleveland-area making preparations for their first feature, Relative Obscurity.

With the invaluable help of the production’s investors, Rosenberg successfully raised the necessary budget for the group to finally begin work on making the highest-quality picture possible. Never in their dreams did they imagine things would come together as well as they did.