Radio Personality Making Film on Long Beach

Howie Appel believes in Long Beach, so much so that he brings Long Island radio listeners a piece of the city every Tuesday evening.

For the past two years, Appel, known on the airwaves as “Halftime Howie,” has hosted a local radio show on WGBB 1240 AM that features all things Long Beach. Now he wants to share his favorite city with the rest of the nation, and believes that it has the people, history and culture to captivate America. He has teamed up with filmmaker Alexander Kargaltsev to create a documentary about Long Beach and its colorful residents.

“I feel that Long Beach is such a unique place with the beauty of the beaches, the boardwalk and the so many events and passions that people have here,” Appel said. “Where else do you find all that? I want this to be big. I want to reach every city in America and wow them.”

While Appel wants to explore Long Beach’s history and culture, his main focus will be on its many charitable events and organizations and the motivated people behind them. Among the organizations Appel cites are the Michelle O’Neil Foundation, Long Beach Polar Bears, Waterfront Warriors, Christmas Angels and George Ennis Film Festival, all of them having raised thousands of dollars for charitable causes.  

“To me there’s no other town that has so many big events,” Appel said. “We want to tap into all the great things that people do and their passions. Long Beach has so much history and the people are so passionate about what they do.”

Kargaltsev, 25, attends the New York Film Academy on full scholarship, coming to the United States from Moscow where he was a television, movie and theatre director, and has since won several film contests. He and Appel met through a mutual Facebook friend, and he is excited about the project and recognizes the Long Beach’s outstanding geography and many charities.

“The most interesting thing is the drama between vital nature, like beaches and oceans, and charities for people with disabilities and cancer and HIV,” Kargaltsev said.

On Wednesday, Appel and Kargaltsev were scheduled to film their first event, the Surf2Live camp in which special needs kids are taught how to surf. Their plan is to film for more than a year and capture all the major Long Beach events.

Appel also plans to interview historians, government officials, community leaders and famous former Long Beach residents, including Billy Crystal and Larry Brown.

Down the road, Appel hopes to find sponsors for this low-budget documentary, and when its completed he plans to enter it into several prestigious film festivals like Tribeca.

“There are so many people who give their time and effort in this town and that’s what we want to capture,” Appel said. “Long Beach people are giving and loving people. When people move to Long Beach they never want to leave.”

* Joseph Kellard contributed to this story.