Lying Beside You (2001)

Jared Williams is a young aspiring filmmaker whose obstacles in pursuing his filmmaking dreams are a good script and money. When Jared's best friend, Kevin Leonard, finds him the "good script", money is now the one thing standing in the way of Jared and his film. During their quest for funding, Jared and Kevin discover the mentor program; a program which guides young filmmakers through the production of their feature film and grants the participants $3,000 toward the completion of their project. Since acceptance into the mentor program is based on education and prior experience, Jared and Kevin feel it necessary to "fudge their resume" in order to ensure entrance into the program. Once in the mentor program, Jared has to live up to the film guru he has claimed to be in addition to constantly covering his tracks so his lies are not discovered by anyone, including his cast and crew. During the course of production, Jared falls in love with his lead actress, Jessica Roberts. Problems begin to arise when Jared is forced to lie to Jessica in order to keep up the facade and becomes plagued with guilt. Through the course of Jared's endeavor, he is surrounded by interesting characters. They include: Barry, the cinematographer who is a food-obsessed basket case who is shooting Jared's film; Freddie Peterson, the unorthodox, mute writer who provides Jared with the fantastic script; and Denise Sanfillipo, the suspicious mentor program classmate who believes Jared is hiding something. Everything is going well with Jared's movie and his relationship with Jessica until the climatic day in which all of his lies are revealed. When the cast and crew abandon him, the grant money is gone, and he loses the woman he loves, Jared must confront himself on what he has done and try to find a way to right the wrong both professionally and personally.