A St. Louis “no-budget” mockumentary wins big on the festival circuit
By Brett Underwood
Photograph by William Sawalich
In a world where self-help books and countless media personalities market self-improvement, one local, freewheeling mockumentary, A. (anonymous), aims to strike back. Daniel Bowers, an award-winning filmmaker who grew up in Webster Groves (but now teaches English in San Luis Potosí, Mexico), directed the film in St. Louis with a cast of locals (including Ray Brewer and George Malich, above) who improvised scenes in front of borrowed equipment on a next-to-nothing budget. Presented by Cinema St. Louis as part of its sixth annual St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, the film’s debut drew a near-capacity crowd to Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre on a Tuesday evening in late July.
“Ray really understands the art of improv. It’s very natural for him and what he does best,” said Bowers of his star. “George is also amazing. A lot of times I had a hard time getting through a take because of something unexpected that he’d say.”
A. juxtaposes issues of family, religion and modern medicine by examining the varied addictions and struggles of seven misfits in a 12-step program led by a self-taught “guru” named Gavin Tartowski (Malich), a recovering 47-year-old “obsessive-compulsive wearer of tight pants.” Members have just one thing in common: their discomfort with traditional recovery groups.
The program, “A.” (or simply “anonymous”) puts “all problems under one umbrella” and welcomes members to follow the strength of a “nonsectarian, gender-neutral life force” to recovery through unorthodox means. Some of the major conflicts arise between Gavin and Benji (Brewer), who is present not by choice but at the behest of his divorced mother. Brewer’s portrayal of a 35-year-old huffer of detergents, who wears a Mexican wrestling mask during his binges, is peppered with sarcastic objections to Gavin and to the group’s methods. Malich stars in many of the scenes, expressing Gavin’s needs and passions as a barista at a Dippin’ Donuts and explaining his methods in helping others through A.
“The script was basically the story, with extremely little dialogue written in,” Bowers says. “We would have a situation and an exit from the scene and the actors would improvise.” In Brewer, the production had a seasoned veteran of the art who had studied in the Players Workshop at Second City in Chicago and co-founded a couple of local sketch and improv groups, including The Network and Brand X.
One of the film’s breaks came in May, when A. was named winner of Indie Film Nation’s “MySpace Filmmaker of the Week”; later that month, A. was welcomed to Boston’s SOWA Film Festival, where it was pronounced “a major new work—not to be missed.” The Independent Film Channel made the trailer available online and the Night Gallery Film Festival selected it for its festivals in Alaska, Arizona, New Zealand (where it will show this month in Auckland and Gisborne) and Oregon.
“Having the film play in festivals around the world is the payoff for all the hard work,” says Bowers, who spent 16 months with the project. But because he and his crew had used borrowed equipment and amateur actors, time was by far their biggest investment.
“We did it for $600,” says Brewer, “and that was $300 over budget!”
A. (anonymous) screens this month at the St. Louis International Film Festival (November 9–19). For times and prices, visit www.cinemastlouis.org. For more information about the film, go to www.myspace.com/anonymousmovie or www.lacklusterpictures.com.
