Graham Streeter, a Sacramento State alumnus film maker, didn’t need a film degree to make a successful movie, but his business degree helped.

Streeter’s movie “Cages” has been playing since March 22 in Singapore theaters. What started out as a small independent movie is turning into an international success. With sales rising in Singapore, the movie is getting more recognition. Hallmark picked it up and is planning to show it in 24 Asian countries.

“After Asia, we are showing in Europe, and after that, the movie will be in limited release in America between spring and fall of next year,” Streeter said in a phone interview.

Cages is a movie about family and healing. The story begins when a Singapore woman gets into a violent fight with her boyfriend. With nowhere else to go, she is forced to take her 7-year-old blind son to her father’s house, a man who left her when she was the same age as her son is now.

“Emotional layers are peeled away between the father and the daughter and the issue of why the father left the family in the first place brings up long -forgotten wounds,” Streeter said.

“The story deals with current Asian issues. Twenty years ago it was considered taboo and sexual to hug your own children, now those lines are not as strict and it’s becoming OK to show affection.”

The mostly Asian cast revolves around the blind boy, played by Dickson Tan, and his grandfather, played by Makoto Iwamatsu (“7 Years in Tibet,” “Pearl Harbor”), who died recently of cancer.

“Cages is about sight and about how wonderful colors are, but there is also a wonderful audio track to accompany the visual aspect of the film,” Streeter said. Iwamatsu’s character owns a songbird shop where birds are taught to sing for competitions. “The dynamic between the audio of the songbirds and the blind boy is very powerful. You see him come out of his shell with the birds,” Streeter said.

The cast also includes Zelda Rubenstein (“Poltergeist”), who has known Streeter for about a decade.

“I met Graham at an Oscar Party nine or 10 years ago, and we have been friends ever since,” Rubenstein said. “This character was written for me, and it is a wonderful piece. It was really an actor’s dream,” she said. Her character is a British woman who has a love interest with Iwamatsu.

“I have known Makoto for 25 years and we always wanted to make a movie together. He was a fine performer and a dear friend,” Rubenstein said.

Streeter graduated with a double major in international business administration and the Japanese language. He knew at an early age that business wasn’t his passion.

“I always knew that I wanted to do some form of art. I just didn’t know which form. The business degree was more for me to learn how to survive in the business world,” Streeter said. “In the real world, you are your own boss and your own professor. In order to make a movie, I impose due dates on myself. College trained me not only to start assignments and finish them, but to do them right.”

The film had virtually no marketing budget and a production budget of $700,000. Streeter used unconventional methods to promote the movie. During the filming process, he made a documentary about Tan’s role in the movie.

“He is actually blind, and that got us a lot of press,” Streeter said. “The documentary is getting almost as much attention as the movie is.”

Filming in Singapore was not an easy task. The country is building so fast that once a location was found for a set, a couple weeks later it would be torn down and the crew would have to find another location. Funding was lost a few times because of international disasters.

“9/11, SARS and Bird Flu caused us to lose funding. I had to rewrite the script a couple of times and the cast changed as well,” Streeter said. “Making a film is about timing.”

The filmmaking process is one of passion for Streeter.

“Filmmaking is about management, leadership and business, but when you get to the bottom of it, ‘Cages’ is a drama of the heart, a drama of the soul,” he said.

More information about “Cages,” including a trailer can be found at cagesmovie.com and grahamstreeter.com. Brandon Van Meter can be reached at [email protected]