From shooting wedding videos to directing, editing, producing and writing his own films, Alpesh Patel has seen many facets of the film industry.

Patel, Class of 1995, has worked as an editor on television series including Ghost Hunters and America's Next Top Model, he said. Now, he is the writer, director, producer and editor of the film Graduation Night, completed in 2003, which aired Nov, 8 on Starz. He is also in the process of getting his film Touch Wood into the hands of distributors, Patel added.

Graduation Night explores the themes of leaving high school, friends and his crush behind while thinking to the future in a humorous way, Patel said.

Patel described the film as a rite of passage for him.

"High school movies are kind of like a guilty pleasure and I actually did it because I thought I could focus on characters and stories that I was familiar with," he said. "Pretty much most filmmakers, back even toward George Lucas, they have that teen movie like American Graffiti that's their first film and rite of passage."

Patel even used his own yearbook in the film, to which he added in the characters from the movie so that it would fit in the film, he said.

Adrian R'Mante, who plays Nam in Graduation Night, has been in noted television series including The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and 24. He described the film as a PG version of American Pie with less of the fillers.

R'Mante said the film was special for him in the sense he had played over-the-top dramatic characters up until this film, where he enjoyed playing a "regular person."

"Some of the best moments of my career are in scenes in Graduation Night with [co-star] Abigail [Spencer]," he said.

The film also allowed him to reconnect with his roots, he said. R'Mante said he is one-quarter Cherokee Indian and the character he plays is of Native American descent.

Patel said he also runs VisionStorm Entertainment, which he uses to make his feature films.

He said he is a "one man band of sorts."

Patel also wrote the screenplay for the film Blind Ambition, which was released earlier this year and won numerous awards at film festivals, he said.

Patel moved from India to Mechanicsburg, Pa., when he was 7, he said, adding he vividly remembers his father and uncle taking him to movies in India.

"I remember the big Bollywood posters," he said. "The theater had a magical allure to it."

He went to Penn State and graduated with a degree in film and video production. After school, Patel said he moved to Harrisburg and shot wedding videos to make money. He said he remembers the tension at the weddings because if the equipment failed, there would be no extra takes.

"It was one of the worst times of my life," he said. "Until they started walking down the aisle, it was so tense."

To further his career, Patel decided to move to Los Angeles in 1997.

"It is important to be out here in L.A.," he said. "This is where the business deals are made."

Patel said spirituality can be seen in his films, but not overtly. He added he is inspired by the idea the universe is beyond just the physical.

Nonviolence has also been embedded in him and his films.

"Growing up in a Hindu family, nonviolence is ingrained in me. My dad wouldn't even let me have a toy gun to play with," he said. "I remember one day coming home crying because he wouldn't buy me a toy gun."

In Patel's other film, Touch Wood, he examines what happens when tradition mixes with capitalism.

The film is about a father and famous Bollywood filmmaker named Mr. Moto (Pramod Kumar). Moto cannot make it in the Hollywood film industry so he decides to try the adult entertainment industry instead, Patel said.

"It's the perfect mix of oil and water and hypocrisy and tradition and what would happen if these two things collided," Patel said.

Mr. Moto's traditional father (Gerry Bednob) comes into the picture and Moto has to try to hide what he does from him.

Bednob is also in another recent film about the adult entertainment industry, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which was filmed after Touch Wood, he said.

Bednob, who has been in films including 40 Year Old Virgin (Mooj) and Encino Man (Kashmir) said the main difference between these two films is everyone's OK with what Zack and Miri do in the film, while in Touch Wood, many of the characters disagree with Mr. Moto's actions.

Upon meeting Patel, Bednob said he was quiet and laid back. He added that he believes Patel will succeed in the film industry.

"He's very passionate in his work and it shows," Bednob said of Patel. "That will take him very far in the business."