Bob Reuter left a mark on his hometown. It could be called a complicated one, to be sure, but the photographer, radio raconteur, and musician made an impression on countless South City rock stars, wannabes, and weirdos before his death in 2013.
On Sunday, St. Louis International Film Festival attendees can get an up close-and-personal look at the man behind the legendary voice of KDHX’s Bob’s Scratchy Records. Director Josh Rolens will be on hand to discuss his documentary Bob Reuter’s Last Tape. Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost, one of Reuter’s many bands, will play a show. Tickets are $15 for the event, which will be held at The Stage at KDHX and start at 7:30 p.m.
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About 15 years ago, Reuter first crossed paths with Rolens while at Forest Park Community College. The pair were both working as lab monitors. Eventually, Rolens went on to attend Webster University and move to New York City for his career in photography and film. But he kept up with Reuter. “He became a mentor to me through photography,” Rolens says. “I learned about his music and his radio show from there.”
Reuter struck Rolens as an inspiration, a St. Louisan who persevered in the face of a rough upbringing and who stayed true to himself artistically, inspiring a younger generation of musicians and artists. They first collaborated on a student film that Rolens did while at Webster University, a dark comedy shot on 16-mm film.
The more Rolens got to know Reuter, the more Reuter seemed like a film topic unto himself. “I guess what initially drew me to Bob was that he was a pretty magnificent storyteller,” Rolens says. “Through his photos, his music, the radio especially.”
In 2009, Rolens asked if he could shoot a short piece on Reuter. “It just kept going,” he says. “I just kept getting more and more footage, shooting live shows.”
The initial five-minute short grew into a 15-minute graduation project, Broken and Wonderful, which screened at SLIFF in 2010. Rolens wanted to expand his work into a feature film. He had moved to New York by 2013, but was in touch with Reuter about meeting in St. Louis for more interviews.
In August 2013, Reuter fell to his death in a downtown building’s elevator shaft. Rolens was left with hours of footage, plenty of material for a feature-length film. “I wanted this to be mostly from his perspective,” Rolens says. “What moved Bob as an artist was the whole point of the film. I did a series of interviews with him that I eventually ended up calling ‘Confessions.’ He’s looking at the camera, he’s talking to the audience, breaking that fourth wall.”
Rolens says he strived for a visual style, staying away from the talking-head style of documentary. The other people he interviewed provided context and evidence, Rolens says, but he wanted Reuter to tell his own tale.
The film was made with St. Louis audiences in mind. They have the most familiarity with Reuter, and Reuter was inextricably linked to the city, Rolens says. “I wanted to make it as intimate as I could, sharing it with people he knew,” he says. “I just wanted to show the importance of Bob as a storyteller and an artist, and to celebrate his life. He had a great outlook on St. Louis. He contributed as much as Chuck Berry did, but on a different level.”
