For his first feature film, writer-director Justin Lerner '02 wanted to make a love story from an unconventional angle. He wrote a screenplay as a coming-of-age story about a young man with Down syndrome who wants to be in love.

For the film, "Girlfriend," Lerner cast his high school friend Evan Sneider, who has Down syndrome, in the lead role, alongside actors Shannon Woodward, Jackson Rathbone and Amanda Plummer.

Sneider is not a trained actor but came to the role "without having to act much," Lerner said. "What he wants in the film is not really that different from what any human being desires, and I'm using everything he is, his favorite patterns of speech. I tried to use all of that in the film."

Lerner will present "Girlfriend" at Cornell Cinema Sept. 16 at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre, followed by discussion with the audience. He also participates in a Q&A session open to the public, Sept. 16 at 4:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center's Film Forum with Donald Fredericksen, director of undergraduate studies in Theatre, Film and Dance.

"I'm trying to approach a level of realism in the film that in some scenes we really achieved," Lerner said. "There are entire scenes where it is all improvised. There's no dialogue for the scene when the brothers are watching television. Because Evan is obsessed with the soap opera 'Days of Our Lives,' I just asked him to describe the plot of one episode. I am in love with the idea of stealing moments from an actual life and putting them in a narrative film."

"Girlfriend" had its world premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and has been in several domestic and international film festivals. The film won the jury award for best narrative feature and "Best of the Fest" in the audience category at the 20th Woods Hole Film Festival, and it has drawn attention and praise for the story and performances, Sneider's in particular.

"After certain takes he would be so invested he would ask me why the characters were a certain way," Lerner said. "I can't speak for everyone with Down syndrome, but Evan himself has a huge heart and a large capacity for empathy."

Lerner said he gave Sneider guidance on the set, and because of their history, "working at that brotherly level, sometimes the protocol turned us into bickering brothers."

Lerner studied theater and film at Cornell, then earned an MFA in directing from UCLA in 2007. His thesis film, "The Replacement Child," won two Student Emmys (Best Drama and Best Director) and was shown at more than 40 festivals including Telluride, Sundance and Torino, Italy.

Lerner is on campus for the first time since 2002 and looked forward to visiting film and directing classes with his former professors and mentors, David Feldshuh and Marilyn Rivchin, and to showing his work at Cornell Cinema.

"I went all the time as an undergrad," he said. "They're responsible for exposing me to some of the best foreign, Asian, documentary films -- everything."

After the festival run and limited platform release in selected cities from New York to San Francisco, Lerner plans to release "Girlfriend" on DVD and video-on-demand.

"One reviewer said it succeeds because you can't fit it into any genre," he said. "Thematically, I hope no one sees it as a message film or about Down syndrome, but as a narrative drama. I took lengths not to discuss Down Syndrome in the narrative -- because it's not a disability that is universal, it's unique to each person. I wanted it to be about Evan. He does experience something that is universal."