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Courtesy of Once Films
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Perhaps you've driven past the Ivory Triangle some dark winter morning, around the time when there is yellow light spilling out of Carondelet Bakery's front windows and proprietor Bob Smith is up and at 'em, making dough by hand. The 125-year old business is an anomaly in this day and age of industrial bagels and drive-through coffee chains; judging by the sheer number of coffee huts in the urban landscape, it's clear that most of us choose (however guiltily) to just whiz up to a drive-up window for coffee and donuts. So if you've never been inside Carondelet Bakery, or met Smith, you might have some curiosity about the place. Once Films' short film about Smith and his bakery, which screened at this year's St. Louis International Film Festival, is not just a charming and affecting portrait of a man and his craft, but might just have you parking and stopping to buy your bread baked from scratch by a human being, those 15 or 20 extra minutes be damned.
"Bob the Baker," was the first installment in Once's new Spotlight Series, which documents artisans and small businesses around St. Louis. Once's bread and butter work (pun intended) is corporate videos, but filmmakers Greg Kiger and Chris Ryan do these films gratis. "We go talk to them, we shoot everything, we give them the film, to get whatever mileage the can from it," Kiger says of the Spotlight subjects. "But we're shooting it for the love and the craft of doing it. And then we give that gift to whoever wants to watch it."
Ryan says the series' subjects are engaged in "the stuff you don't hear about all the time; it's the things people don't think about. Generally they are humble folk, great characters. We ask, and ask, and ask, who is an interesting, quirky character, who's doing something interesting?"
Earlier this week, they released their second installment in the series, which profiles artist Phil Jarvis, who paints both canvases and signs. That's his work on the front of Strange Donuts, speaking of baked goods; he also did the front-window sign for the newly reopened beverly gallery next door to fort gondo (beverly's first show, "Learning From Donald Judd," done in tandem with the Pulitzer, opens this Saturday. Go see the sign, and the show; both are highly recommended!)
From Once's Vimeo page:
"Sure, he is a classically trained painter, but he is in high demand doing hand-lettered sign work for business that want that one-off artisan look and feel. Cafes, tattoo shops, tailors, the list is long. Fascinating to watch, Phil is one interesting dude!" True dat. Watch here:
Signs - Once Films from Once Films USA on Vimeo.
If you didn't catch "Bob the Baker," at the St. Louis International Film Festival last month, it is more than worth taking a few minutes to watch:
Bob the Baker - Once Films from Once Films USA on Vimeo.
Ryan and Kiger say they don't have plans to do one long-form documentary anytime soon; they enjoy the flexibility of doing short films, as well as the diversity of the subjects. By the by, Once is always on the lookout for potential folks for this series, be the butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, horse chiropractors, or milliners. If you know someone who might be a good fit, drop them a line at info@oncefilms.com.
