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entertaining u newspaper: your monthly guide to entertainment
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by kellie abrahamson
kabrahamson1@aol.com
Chances are, unless you fall into a tiny niche audience, you’ve never seen an art film. For most people that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Now, by “art film” I’m not referring to the Eternal Sunshines or the Mulholland Drives of the cinema world. These films, while visually stimulating and innovative, have an undeniable Hollywood shine that no amount of ambiguity or quirkiness can shake off. True art films are not for mainstream audience consumption. In fact, there’s a good chance Joe Moviegoer wont be able to make it through one of these ultra low budget experimental flicks without either falling asleep or writing it off as elitist mumbo-jumbo and heading for the hills. Folks like Joe can’t be faulted for either reaction- these movies simply aren’t for them. In fact, local director Morrison Pierce, who has over a dozen of these experimental films under his belt, says he makes movies for one person and one person alone: himself.
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The name may ring a bell, especially if you’re familiar with the Jacksonville art scene. Pierce has been painting for 15 years and has shown his work in various galleries around town, most recently at Jane Gray Gallery with collaborator Kurt Polkey. Pierce has been making no-budget experimental films for about eight years. With the help of friends, fellow cinephiles and anyone else willing to lend a hand, Pierce breathes life into the stories he dreams up, drawing inspiration, in part, from the works of other filmmakers.
“I just keep studying everything that I watch and then I try to do it for a lot less money and hopefully [make it] a little more entertaining,” he said.
Movies like Pierce’s don’t make a lot of money, if any, which is why most art filmmakers have a hard time finding a place to show their work, especially in Jacksonville. If you can actually manage to book a screen for the evening, you’ll probably have to shell out hundreds of dollars for the room only to have a handful of people willing to give your film a look.
“Four hundred bucks to rent out the San Marco Theatre just for your friends is kind of expensive, especially if you’re an indie film person,” Pierce said. “I mean, nothing’s for free… A film you can make for $100, the only place it’s going to end up is in your friends’ collection or on the Internet.”
It’s got to be frustrating to pour your heart and soul into a product that only a handful of people will see and, out of that handful, only a fraction will “get.” Pierce, however, is a “water half full” kind of guy.
“We have a film that comes out next month that’s called All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and it’s actually going nationwide,” Pierce said. “It’s a big budget slasher film and I was one of the art directors in that and I’m very proud of that work… Hopefully when people see all the different things I did in that it might be easier to say ‘Hey, can I have some money for a movie?’”
Aside from waiting for All the Boys Love Mandy Lane to hit theaters, Pierce is working on creating more short films his own way, with plans to get behind the camera again within the next two weeks.
“I’ve already got everything lined up [for the next film] except who’s going to be in it,” he said. “It’s going to be a cross between Dogville and Dr. Caligari.”
There aren’t too many people in town making movies like the ones Pierce toils over and that’s okay because he’s the kind of guy with a wealth of ideas and an unwavering willingness to translate them to film, despite a lack of expensive equipment, huge stars and a multi-million dollar budget. This brand of filmmaking, while not for everyone, is a glimmer of hope for those sick of the parade of cookie-cutter movies coming out of Hollywood. To see some of Morrison Pierce’s short films, visit his YouTube page at youtube.com/morrison1346.
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