Show Me Digital Film Festival back for its second year

More than 20 years after leaving Jackson to pursue a career in entertainment, Dave West is about to return, and not just to see his family.

West, who graduated from Jackson High School in 1983, has traveled from coast to coast, going from actor to director in a hectic and uncertain industry. When he returns to the country's midsection today, it will be as one of the stars of the Show Me Digital Film Festival.

The second annual festival starts today with a slate of 17 films, three of them feature length, screening at the University Center over two days. West plays a role in three of those films. He's an actor in the feature "BachelorMan," the co-writer and director of the comedic short "PuddleJumper" and the writer and director of the dramatic short "The Do Over." Along with "BachelorMan" writer/actor Rodney Lee Conover, West will also take part in a question-and-answer session after Saturday's movies.

West is exactly the kind of success story festival organizer Cape Filmmakers Cooperative chairman Pat Bond wants to bring to his burgeoning event. West has managed to do what so many locals in filmmaking want to -- get into the industry.

"It's pretty different," West said on a cell phone from a beach in Los Angeles Tueday. He was shooting a movie there, a short film West is working on at the same time as his feature-length directorial debut called "The Pickup."

"There's nothing 9 to 5 about my life at all. There's nothing that could be considered normal in the sense that would be normal in Southeast Missouri."

After leaving the area in 1983, West moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., and studied acting and directing. He languished for years as an actor, doing bit parts on TV and acting in commercials and independent films.

Until he discovered directing.

"L.A. is so competitive, as an actor I felt like I was always standing in line to do someone else's project," West says from over the cell phone that has become the "ball and chain around my neck."

His desire to direct pulled him in to "PuddleJumper," a 2002 short comedy about a man with a romantic interest and a bad case of Montezuma's revenge. The film tore up the festival circuit, and West's future was determined -- he would direct.

West's acting career wasn't finished, though. He felt so strongly about a movie called "BachelorMan" that he agreed to act. Along with it came the privelege of working alongside David DeLuise, son of Dom, and meeting the family. The film was released in 2004 and has also experienced great success on the festival circuit.

Bond is proud of "BachelorMan," along with "PuddleJumper," "The Do Over" and all the other movies in this year's festival. That includes the controversial documentary "The God Who Wasn't There," a film critical of Christianity.

And he's hoping the strength of those films will bring the crowds back in this year to the film festival. Last year's one-day inaugural event was packed with a capacity audience, many of whom showed up just 10 minutes before the festival began.

Bond hopes that wasn't just beginner's luck. "I always worry right up until the thing starts," said Bond.

Avoiding a sophomore slump is important because Bond wants to make the festival a permanent fixture on Cape Girardeau's cultural landscape. Part of the reason is to have a local showcase for films by the CFC, a loose conglomeration of actors, writers, directors, musicians and others that numbers more than 100 (but with only about 12 active members).

Bond himself has two short films in the festival this year, the espionage thriller "The Last Job" and the drama "Pulse." He's always wanted to make movies, even though he's never gone to film school.

With the low-budget creative ethic of famous self-starters like Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino, Bond and his group want to continue making films without restrictions, no matter how small the budget.

"We're still doing what we want to do," Bond said. "We still have creative control. No matter what happens, I'll keep making movies, even if I don't make any money."

There are literally hundreds of festivals around the country like the Show Me Digital, and hundreds of independent filmmakers like the CFC bankrolling their own projects. The odds are against the festival -- most of the small ones don't make it past a few years, Bond said. After all, Cape Girardeau is far from Cannes.

But if he can make it a few years, then the festival might just be a permanent thing, even in a small town like Cape Girardeau.

For independent filmmakers like West, it doesn't matter that the Show Me Digital fest is still a baby, even though he's screened his films at festivals big and small. For one, Southeast Missouri is his home area. But there's another, more basic reason.

"If I have an opportunity to sit in a theater audience with a bunch of people I don't know and watch my movies, I'll go anywhere for that," West says over the Pacific Ocean waves.

As long as there is an audience to sit with the filmmaker, Bond will be satisfied.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182