Film Student, at 45, a Work in Progress

“Welcome back to your true self.”

The words come to Ray Mercy in a dream. The words come softly, gently, from the lips of Shante, her angelic face, just her face, floating in air the color of midnight.

Glenn Towery is watching this movie, his movie. He also hears Shante’s words, but at this particular moment is concentrating more on the sound than the meaning. The college filmmaker is toiling at an editing table, synchronizing sound and image.

Here it is plain that Glenn Towery believes he has found his true self--as an artist, an auteur. “I’m going to become one of the world’s greatest film directors,” he says. “That’s my goal.”

The words would sound brash, if only he were younger. But Towery is 45 years old. The declaration sounds hopeful, ambitious, a bit dreamy.

Welles was first a prodigy of the stage and radio. Lucas and Spielberg were once the hot whiz kids fresh out of film school. More recently have come Spike Lee, Tim Burton, John Singleton. . . .

Towery, still very much a work in progress, has come a more circuitous route, a veteran of drug abuse, scrapes with the law, Vietnam and some of the tougher streets of South-Central Los Angeles. He had overcome a crack cocaine habit only five months before he enrolled in Columbia College-Hollywood, an obscure trade school that specializes in training people who work off camera in films and TV. At a graduation ceremony today at Sportsmen’s Lodge, he will be honored as the valedictorian, with a grade-point average of 3.85.

Chances are you’ve never heard of this school. It is not affiliated with Columbia University, or the Columbia Broadcasting System, or the Columbia School of Broadcasting. And though it is certainly affiliated with Hollywood, the industry, it is no longer located there. Columbia College-Hollywood, which has a current enrollment of more than 150, recently moved to Tarzana into quarters that once belonged to Panavision.

Close to 2,000 students have graduated from the college since it was founded in 1952. When Towery showed up four years ago, the admissions director mulled over the applicant’s personal history and recommended that he be turned down. Towery asked to meet the college president, Alan Rosmna, and talked his way in. Rosmna imposed one condition, requiring that Towery enter on academic probation; if his GPA fell below 2.0, he would be expelled.

Today a different president, longtime Hollywood publicist Harry F. Flynn, is eager to promote Towery to a wider world. Given his hands-on training, Towery “could do 55 jobs on set,” Flynn says. The school, Flynn says, has a good reputation for producing technicians in various fields who are familiar names inside the industry but not beyond. (One exception is actor Jamie Farr, the cross-dressing Klinger of “MASH.”) If Glenn Towery achieves his dreams, the small trade school would bask in reflected glory.

Towery is not a complete stranger to Hollywood, having acted in the early Ron Howard film “Grand Theft Auto” and as a lead in a picture of lesser note called “High Riders.”

Towery was a student at Dorsey High School when he saw a production of “West Side Story” and decided to enroll in acting classes. Gang members harassed him, he says, because they could sense he was different. He started carrying a blackjack, he says, for protection--and wound up under arrest for carrying a concealed weapon. The grandmother who wouldn’t let him outside during the Watts riots understood. “She told me, ‘You look much better running than getting your butt kicked.’ ”

Towery later joined the Navy and served on a destroyer. He was discharged after suffering burns from phosphorous in an accident handling ordnance. Later, he attended San Jose City College and briefly attended San Jose State, where he joined the Black Theater Ensemble. Returning to Los Angeles, he spent 15 years acting in the respected Inner City Cultural Center--before drug troubles waylaid him.

Towery says he quit crack cold turkey and, this time, decided to pursue work in film rather than stage. That led him to Columbia College-Hollywood.

“What’s most impressive about Glenn is that he’s 100% dedicated to his work,” says Erin Coyle, a 23-year-old classmate, as she edits her own film at another flat table. “A lot of people thought he wouldn’t finish that film.”

Actually, Glenn Towery’s first film, on which Coyle served as assistant director, isn’t quite finished. The title is “Frequency.” Towery wrote the script and directed himself in the lead role. The film, which will run about 28 minutes, presents a mythic, mystical tale about a tormented man who is given the power to hear the thoughts of others.

Is this a blessing? Or a curse?

Perhaps mostly the latter. But in the end, Ray Mercy discovers a way out of his strange predicament.

He discovers that he can give his power to others.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com Please include a phone number.