When he’s not saving lives and managing the public information and fire inspection side of the Pass Christian Fire Department, Jeff Klemmer finds joy in bringing joy to others through his side career as an actor. And his latest project, “The Gift,” is expected to land on Apple TV by the end of March.
Written by Sunny Zhao and Jeremy Fischer and directed by Zhao, “The Gift” is a “lyrical meditation on creativity, memory, and love – an exploration of how an ordinary object can hold an extraordinary past, and a love letter to art, resilience, and the mysterious power of music to connect us across generations.”
For Klemmer, who moved to Pass Christian after retiring from the Marines after 24 years of service, the film is a passion project he said he was happy to see come to fruition.
“I was doing some background work and commercials and minor roles and I was asked to do ‘The Gift,’ which was just going to be a short film,” Klemmer said. “My agent asked me to go audition for it, I had worked with Sunny before, and I went and put my best foot forward. And what started as a 20-minute film started growing, and then it became a two-hour film, and the final cut is about 90 minutes.”
Klemmer said the majority of the film was shot in Northern Virginia, with some additional scenes shot in New York. He said the director also filmed in Italy. The film had a red carpet premiere event in Hollywood in late 2025.
“It was a little film that grew and grew, and we started working on it in 2014,” he said. “We did it on and off for a couple of years, and in 2018, it was submitted as an official selection at the Raindance Film Festival in London. It was one of 85 films chosen out of more than 6,000. I thought that was the final chapter for the film. It sat on the shelf for a while, but Sunny called me up last year and said the film was going to be released, and we were going to do a big red carpet event in California.”
The film saw a limited release in cities such as New York and Los Angeles, and Charleston, before landing on Apple TV this month.
But regardless of where his side job takes him, Klemmer said he and his wife are very happy in Pass Christian.
“We love the community here,” he said. “We looked at a lot of other places close by because my wife was working at Stennis. But we found Cat Island Coffeehouse and decided Pass Christian is where we wanted to be.”