Mad to the bone
By JOHN WOOLEY, 9/11/2004
A scene from Kelley Baker's new film, "Kicking Bird."
Angry Filmmaker hopes this 'Birddog' will hunt
The Angry Filmmaker's coming back. And, yeah, he's still angry -- although maybe he's not quite as steamed as he was a few years ago.
Portland, Ore.-based Kelley Baker took on the persona of the Angry Filmmaker as a way of drawing attention to the dilemma faced by truly independent moviemakers, who have almost no chance of getting distributed via the normal theatrical channels.
No film-biz novice -- he's worked as sound designer on such major-studio efforts as "Good Will Hunting" and "Far From Heaven" -- Baker still found himself frustrated when his first picture, "Birddog," could not attract a distributor.
Ultimately, he took things into his own hands. In much the same style and spirit as the roadshowmen of old, who hauled their films from theater to theater with their own hands, he started traveling the country with his pictures, appearing in alternative venues like Tulsa's Nightingale Theater. Soon, he and his films began finding their audiences.
"People across the country are hungry for this kind of stuff, for real independent films with real stories and different points of view," he said in a recent telephone conversation. "I mean, we're tired of trust-fund babies. Sofia Coppola -- now there's an independent filmmaker."
He laughed. "We make our films by any means necessary, and I distribute mine the same way. I'm certainly not making a fortune here, but I'm getting my films seen and I'm getting invited back. As long as the distributors are going to ignore us, we as filmmakers have to find alternate ways to get our stuff out.
"I've been touring like crazy this past year," he added. "I'll go out for two weeks, come home for two weeks, go back out. I probably hit 40 cities this year, literally doing a show in one town, driving 150 miles, and do ing a show in the next town. I've been a rock 'n' roll band -- without the music or the band."
What he does have is his movies, two of which he'll show this weekend. "Birddog," screening Saturday, is his first feature, the darkly comic and often bizarre tale of a Portland used-car dealer whose possession of a 1948 Kaiser leads to the uncovering of a hidden, disturbing part of his hometown's history.
On Sunday, he'll show a rough-cut of his latest, "Kicking Bird," a remarkably textured and moving tale of high school down-and-outers fighting their own circumstances.
" 'Birddog' is about betrayal, and (his other feature) 'Gas Cafe' is about confusion," noted Baker. "I think that 'Kicking Bird' is about saying, 'I'm still here, I'm still making movies, and you have to deal with me.'
"Since 'Kicking Bird' isn't com pletely finished, I'll screen it and then I'll talk about the decision I made to make another film for very little money, and the production things that come up when you do a film like this," he added. "So Sunday will be both a screening and a bit of a workshop."
He hopes to visit Tulsa next year, to show the completed version of the new picture.
"The last couple of years, I've just worked on my own stuff," he said. "I've truly stepped away from the whole Hollywood thing. That doesn't mean I wouldn't go back and do something if someone threw a lot of money at me, but I seem to be doing real well now with my own stuff in a lot of places.
"I'm happy with the way things are going," he said. "I'm happy. But I'm still angry."
SCREENINGS
Event:
Movie screenings and discussion with producer-directorwriter Kelley Baker
When:
"Birddog" screens at 8 p.m. Saturday, "Kicking Bird," in rough cut, screens at 2 p.m. Sunday
Where:
Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Admission:
$8 Saturday, $10 Sunday