Get behind local film

Art goes beyond just the visual pieces we see every First Friday in local galleries. And Cape Girardeau has a lot more to offer than just those visual arts.

We have poets, writers, musicians and even filmmakers living among us. You may see them at the coffee shops and bookstores, sporting any and all variety of grooming, style, age and disposition. You may even be sitting next to one of them right now.

Don't worry, they don't bite.

Earlier this year one sub-group of local artists was getting a lot of play in the pages of this newspaper and all over the local TV and radio news -- the filmmakers. They're a rag-tag bunch of ruffians, living on the fringes of society, making their guerrilla films and socializing in their own little culture.

Just kidding.

Like their counterparts in the other arts, these moving picture aficionados are just like you and me in many ways. Some of them have families, some don't. Almost all of them have day jobs. Some are management types, like Steve Turner, who used to be the head guy at the local Barnes & Noble Booksellers. He now has his own film production company -- Schrader-Turner Films. They have a feature-length film in pre-production right now called "Mary's First Words."

And I just talked this week to a Jackson man, Erik Harper, whose own production company Renegade Heart is working on its own feature-length psychological thriller, "A Killer's Choice." Local resident and Bulgarian-born artist, photographer and filmmaker Victor Kantchev is also currently producing a feature-length movie.

There are lots of the "filmies" here -- so many that Cape Girardeau supports two independent film groups, The Cape Independent Film Association and the Cape Filmmakers Cooperative. And those are just the two that I know of.

These guys (and gals) are ambitious, too.

Two years ago two of the best-known filmies at the time -- Michael Huntington and everyone's favorite Breakaways bartender, Patrick Bond -- teamed up to produce what may be the first film festival in Cape Girardeau's history. They called it the "Show Me Digital Film Festival."

The first year was a smashing success. The second, not so much.

The second year of the festival was sort of put together at the last minute. Bond and Huntington had a falling out during the planning stages, leaving Bond to pick up the pieces. They've since made up, and the festival goes on with Bond and Huntington as cochairmen. But this year's event probably won't be anything like even the sparsely-attended two-day offering last year. Huntington is talking the fest up.

He says there are almost enough films for a full slate already, and the focus will be local.

"Last year was a little off in numbers. We're back on track to make this the best fest ever," Huntington told me.

As of now, the festival has no set date, no set venue, just lots of people working on it who want to see the area's only independent film festival succeed. But it will be downtown. And the way Huntington talks, this year is the one that will really establish the festival, and local filmmakers, as major players on the local art scene.

But like with any other successful event, people have to care about the festival to guarantee success. Before "Killshot" mania came to town, the filmmakers were largely on the fringes -- not known to locals outside their group.

Why Cape hasn't embraced film as another art form is unknown.

Staying on the fringes

Until the filmies are embraced as an important part of the local art scene, they're likely to stay on the fringes. It's too bad, because there are a lot of them, and they really have a passion for making "moving pictures."

Huntington seems to think it won't be long, with three budgeted features being made by local filmmakers. These aren't guerrilla films.

Maybe "Killshot" was enough to help. The festival hasn't happened since the movie came to town, so there's no way to judge how the "Killshot" hype affected interest in local film. Let's hope the interest has grown. If Cape Girardeau wants to be an arts town, there's no way to legitimately exclude a rather important art form.

As for "Killshot," still no news. Sorry folks. Maybe you can satiate your craving for movies by going to the Show Me festival. I hope so.

~Matt Sanders is the Arts & Leisure editor for the Southeast Missourian and the editor of OFF Magazine.