When you live in a suburb dominated by the traditional view of marriage — one where starting a family is what you do, not what you choose — how does a couple without children fit in?

For Frankfort filmmaker Robert Alaniz, this question has been a recurring theme in his personal life, one he shares with his wife, Carol, and two cats, Peanut and Missy. It has also served as the inspiration for his fifth film, D.I.N.K.s (Double Income, No Kids), a “comedy of choice” that delves into the lives of married couples without children.

In a special program Wednesday night at the Lemont Public Library, 50 E. Wend St., Alaniz and several members of the cast and crew discussed the creative process behind D.I.N.K.s.

For Alaniz, the film is somewhat of a humorous open letter to people in his life who view him as "selfish or sacrilegious" because of his decision not to become a parent.

"I am a D.I.N.K., and my wife and I have had to endure a lot," Alaniz said. "There were a lot of important issues I wanted to get into the story, but I wanted to have fun with them."

The film, which Alaniz describes as "a fish-out-of-water story," tells the story of Richard and Rachel Brooks, a childless married couple who face judgment from their new neighbors when they move to the fictional town of Legacy, Ill.

"I styled Richard after myself," Alaniz said. "He's a struggling freelance writer who spends a lot of time hanging out at the local coffee shop."

In the film, Richard must deal with loud, unruly children who run around the coffee shop while he's trying to work — a situation Alaniz regularly found himself in when he worked in the Frankfort Starbucks.

"I just started looking around the coffee shop and started to draw inspiration from actual incidents of children misbehaving and how it made me feel," he said.

Similar to Alaniz, Richard becomes so angry that he starts to writing a column for a local newspaper about the woes of being a D.I.N.K. As the movie progresses, he runs into problems with the mayor of Legacy, who believes the column is damaging the town's reputation.

D.I.N.K.s is the first comedy for Alaniz, whose past films include Timeserver (2004), Barrymore's Dream (2005) and The Vision  (2009). As in his previous full-length features, most of the cast and crew of D.I.N.K.s hail from the Chicago area. One of the film's youngest stars, 8-year-old Luke Mayer, is a 3rd grader at River Valley School in Lemont.

According to the film's website, Mayer has been saying he wants to be a "moviemaker" since he was 3 years old and is very comfortable acting in front of a camera.

During the program Wednesday, crew member Braid Reising and assistant director Sarajane Crowley — both college students — praised Alaniz for trusting young, aspiring filmmakers in the production process.

"For a college student to work on a feature film, what a great opportunity and experience," said Reising, an art designer for the film who hopes to work on animated features in the future.

To create the fictional town of Legacy, the crew shot at various locations throughout the south suburbs, including the Orland Chateau, New Lenox Village Hall and the Lemont Public Library.

Sandra Pointon, director of the Lemont Library, said she was approached by Alaniz for a scene involving a children's program. He has spoken at the library twice before in the past two years.

"It was very cool for us to be featured in his film, so we were happy to have him back with the cast and crew to give us a sneak peek," Pointon said.

As for Alaniz, the hard work is over. After editing more than 30 hours of film down to a two-hour feature, he's eagerly awaiting audience reaction.

"It's just like any other kind of performance where you just put yourself out there, put your heart and soul into what you're doing and hope for the best," Alaniz said. "I like the movie and think it's funny, but I'm a D.I.N.K."

Advanced screening

An advanced screening of D.I.N.K.s will be Feb. 17 at Orland Park Cinema, 16350 S. LaGrange Road, Orland Park. Invitations will be sent to people who contributed and donated to the film, but a limited number of tickets also will be available to the public. D.I.N.K.s will have its premiere March 25 at the Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago.

For details, go to the movie's website or the website for Alaniz's production company, Sole Productions.

For more on "D.I.N.K.s" and Alaniz, check out Karen Hanson's feature in Frankfort Patch.