SYNOPSIS:

Rochester, New York. 1970. Dovydas “Dave” Grigas is a young amateur photographer who wants to be the next Andy Warhol. But with artistic success yet to happen, he pays the bills as a Duplicate Technician – a “dupe tech” – printing Top Secret spy satellite photos at Eastman Kodak for the U.S. military and the CIA. In the early days of the U.S. spy satellite program, cameras aboard satellites shot hard-copy, non-digital photographs, and returned the exposed hard films to Earth physically, by means of a recovery vehicle (RV) that detached from a satellite and descended back to Earth. Once inside the atmosphere, the RV popped a parachute – enabling it to be snagged in midair and recovered by a specially equipped U.S. Air Force JC-130 aircraft. The recovered RV – nicknamed “the bucket” – was then flown, courtesy of the Air Force, to Rochester. Dave Grigas’ classified job printing “bucket” photos comes courtesy of his semi-estranged father, a Lithuanian immigrant and Kodak chemist who accidentally shot his son in the knee one tense summer night during a race riot. After innocently entering a photography contest, Grigas is tricked – then forced – into spying for Alex Kass, a KGB officer who claims Grigas’ father is a war criminal, and threatens to abduct the elder Grigas back to Moscow for trial. Now Grigas must figure out a way to free himself from Soviet control before he’s found out as a spy – without risking his father’s life and freedom.