MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
Now, a story about a movie that's likely not coming to a theater near you unless you live in New England. This is the story of filmmaker Jay Craven, his car, and money spent on film stock, gasoline and tires. It's also a story about regional cinema and one filmmaker's belief that Hollywood does not and should not have a monopoly on storytelling.
Jon Kalish reports.
JON KALISH: On a weekday afternoon, director Jay Craven pilots his Mini Cooper into the New Hampshire seacoast town of Portsmouth. He's done a lot of driving over the past year.
NORRIS: Last week, I was in Bucksport, Maine for two evening showings and a matinee. And then I was in Rockland, Maine, and then Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
KALISH: Craven's tiny car is packed with a 35-millimeter print and DVDs of his film, along with a bunch of projection gear. Speaker stands and a screen are strapped to the car roof with bungee chords.
NORRIS: And tomorrow night, we're in Damariscotta, Maine, and on Thursday, in Jamestown, Rhode Island.
KALISH: All 130 feet in the Portsmouth Public Library's community room are occupied for a screening of Craven's most recent feature, "Disappearances." More than a year after Craven started showing it, he's still drawing crowds to his story of a Vermont farmer's ill-fated attempt at whisky smuggling during the Great Depression.
while sneaking a load of Canadian whiskey into Vermont. The farmer is accompanied by his teenage son, Wild Bill, who is actually not all that wild.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "DISAPPEARANCES")
NORRIS: (As Quebec Bill) The Mounties are gonna be all over us before we know it.
NORRIS: (As Wild Bill Bonhomme) I hope so.
NORRIS: (As Quebec Bill) What?
NORRIS: (As Wild Bill Bonhomme) If they get up to us, we're giving up on the spot. And you're going to a doctor, no stops. You have to promise.
NORRIS: (As Quebec Bill) As long as you promise to bust me out of jail.
KALISH: Like many of the characters in his films and quite a few of his neighbors in the part of Vermont that is affectionately known as the Northeast Kingdom, Jay Craven is something of a maverick. Rather than leave the promotion and distribution of his films to others, he does it mostly by himself with the help of a lot of volunteers. Craven has personally introduced more than 150 small screenings around New England.
NORRIS: The idea of regional cinema is very important to us because we believe that Hollywood does not have a monopoly on all the stories that are worth telling, and that this is a cultural enterprise more than it is a commercial enterprise, which is not to say that we aren't trying to get every nickel we can.
KALISH: Craven made "Disappearances" for less than $2 million. A quarter of that came from small contributions. Craven raised another $1 million from investors who, he says, haven't seen any return on their money yet. Over the years, Craven has gotten respected actors to work for scale in his views.
William Sanderson is best known for his role as the hotel manager in the HBO series, "Deadwood." Sanderson plays one of their Vermonters on a whisky- smuggling run in "Disappearances." He was a bit surprised during the shoot that Craven was asking his stars, including actress Genevieve Bujold, to go out to dinner with people who weren't part of the crew.
NORRIS: I keep getting these invitations to dinner. And a nice person. But I went to dinner a few times, and I found out later they're potential investors in the film.
KALISH: Sanderson's co-star, Kris Kristofferson, performed two benefit concerts during the shoot that raised $70,000. Luis Guzman also worked for scale on "Disappearances." Guzman is a character actor who's played a gangster in "Carlito's Way" and a DEA agent in "Traffic." He's a neighbor of Craven's in Vermont.
NORRIS: I'm proud to be a part of that because here's a guy going around, and he's showing this film to everybody. And you know, he's doing the right thing with it, taking it to the people.
KALISH: In 1993, actor Michael J. Fox worked for free in Craven's first feature, "Where The Rivers Flow North." Fox also contributed $10,000 towards the production. That film told the story of a Vermont logger and his Native American companion as they wait for trucks to haul away trees they hope will bring in some money.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "WHERE THE RIVERS FLOW NORTH")
NORRIS: (As Bangor) Where them trucks?
NORRIS: (As Noel Lord) They'll be here anytime.
NORRIS: (As Bangor) Winter come tender(ph) on the corner(ph), old man. No winter woodpile, no hemp(ph) on cellar, hardly any hemp in the attic. No tea and sugar. We're running out of tobacco. Maybe you take that 5,000 now.
NORRIS: "Where The Rivers Flow North," we took to 212 cities and towns across the country and created a dynamic where it could sell videotapes to video stores back in those days, which paid pretty well. And when we didn't get a TV deal that we liked, we decided to launch a grassroots Oscar campaign for Tantoo Cardinal, the female lead in the film, and as a result, got attention in Los Angeles, and finally got a good television deal from The Disney Channel, and the Sundance Channel, and Star and places like that.
KALISH: Craven has also tried his hand at television. The idea for a sitcom came from an audience member at one of his film screenings. "Windy Acres" is about a New York City businesswoman who moves to Vermont and falls in love with a struggling farmer. Craven shot the series for Vermont Public Television with a crew made up in large part of students at Marlboro College where Craven teaches. The actors are professionals. In this scene, the businesswoman questions her teenage daughter's taste in men, specifically an auto mechanic named Turkey Tatro.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOW "WINDY ACRES")
U: He's on parole. And Laura says he ate his wife.
U: Does he look like a cannibal to you? A rhetorical question.
U: My rhetorical answer? Yes.
KALISH: Craven wanted to do a second season of the "Windy Acres" series but couldn't raise enough money. But he is committed to making and showing feature films.
NORRIS: We do the one thing we know how to do, which is to put our equipment at the back of the car, and go to town halls, and go to alternate venues, and go to movie theaters, and continue to dig deeper roots into the region. We may not have what are considered to be commercial demographics, but we do have audience, and we know where that audience is. And as long as we keep going out onto the road, we connect with that audience.
KALISH: Craven is still on the road showing his films. But his next movie could very well be set outside the Green Mountain State. He's currently developing a film about a roadhouse stickup that takes place below the Mason-Dixon Line.
For NPR News, I'm Jon Kalish.