By Johannes Becht
News Editor
"And ... Action!" The camera starts focusing on Zachary Hokeah, who is laying on the ground, aiming a sniper rifle at the parking lot in front of Frontier State Bank in Oklahoma City.
"All clear," he speaks into the microphone.
Hokeah, a master student from SWOSU, is playing a SWAT sniper for the new movie "Out of Exile," directed by Kyle Kauwika Harris. The crime thriller is about a recently paroled thief, Gabriel Russell, who tries to balance his life and mend a troubled family as an FBI agent hunts him down, along with his crew, after a botched armored car robbery.
"I had asked my friend Harris months ago if I can get a role in his film, and he said he'd look around and see which role he would want me to play," Hokeah says. "Two months later he called me and said 'Hey, I got a role for you as an undercover agent.' When I got there he told me I should play a SWAT sniper instead."
Zokeah enjoyed shooting with Harris. "It's always a pleasure to work with Kyle, I have worked with him on three other projects besides this one. He's always been understanding, he is very outgoing and he doesn't mind changing the script if it doesn't make sense. That's what a good director does."
After "Out of Exile," and a generally difficult 2020 due to COVID-19, Hokeah is looking forward to 2021 when he intends to focus on new movies and series.
"I have a few projects of mine that I wanna do, hopefully starting next semester in January or February. Also, I am involved with two other projects that I gonna be shooting sometime next year. One of them is a drama where I play the lead, it's a sort of a PSA (Public Service Announcement) about drug use. And there is another martial arts mini series, and I play the lead in that as well where I am a martial arts assassin."