Hello there, everybody, and welcome back to the disc Connected. I am
here somebody that I've been waiting multiple months to finally have on here, And
this is Billy Ray Bruton. And this is gonna sound a lot like me
because he has a list of titles. First off, he hosts the Incinerator
Pod, which is a podcast that I also produce. We'll be talking more
about that later, I'm sure. But possibly the biggest time taker, I'm
sure for his life. He is the managing director at the Three dollars Bill
Cinema in Seattle. He's the founder and artistic director of Scripts Gone Wild,
which many you have probably heard of already. And then he's also the festival
director of the Skyline Indie Film Festival and now something called Make Believe Seattle.
How you doing, Billy Ray? You know, doing pretty swell ron?
How the hell are you doing? Fantastic? I? Uh wait? Is
this is this? Is this? A? Is this an nsf W channel?
Can always oh fuck yeah, awesome, Okay. I like to let
lose and not have to think about the kiddies. Absolutely. Uh yeah.
We can let loose as we want. And that's that's gonna be the point.
With a lot of this stuff because Script's Gone Wild gets wild and Cinerator
Pod is full of drama. But some of these film festivals are some of
the exciting things that I really want to dive into today. But I mean,
first off, let's break down you as a person before we break down
each of these jobs. The film originally, Oh my god, Well,
what got me to film originally was a bicycle because I used to come home
from school every day, ride my bicycle to the Rosalie Plaza video store,
and I would stick around for two or three hours. I would put the
VHS boxes back on the shelves for Mike, who ran the video store,
and then he would let me take two or three movies home every night.
Then I would ride my bike back home and I would just watch movies until
you know, I was done for and either I was ready to go to
bed or my parents made me go to bed one And so that's when I
got obsessed with movies. That was at a very very young age, probably
five or six. That's a pretty fair trade, yeah, absolutely, And
I did that for years through high school. I would do that because it
was a small town, small video store. So Mike is not he didn't
need employees. He ran it himself. But it was nice when it was
busy to have someone there to put the boxes back up. But that was
sort of it I start, you know, I was I was always more
of a writer than anything else. When I was younger, I wrote a
lot, but it was very much just like, you know, write something
and then pass it around in third grade to all your classmates, And that's
what I would do. I would literally write something, I would pass it
around to the entire class and they would all write notes about what they thought
of it on the back pages. And yeah, so that was kind of
my gateway. And the older I got, obviously, the more I became
a centophile and uh yeah, but you know, I think what most people
don't realize is that I was much more of a theater person than I was
a film person for a long time. Like I ran a theater company in
Birmingham for a little over a decade and I still consider that I've probably done
more theater than film on the whole. But films where my films, where
my heart's at. You can you can hear when you start talking about theater
work that it holds a special place for you and it really comes across as
you discuss it. So it's always nice to hear you break out of that
shell from film and dive into some of the theater work. Thank you.
Yeah. I love theater, I really really do, and I go back
to it a lot. Like you know, I when I left Birmingham,
it was I was burnt out, frankly, like I had basically been a
one man band at my theater for eight years and I was just burnt out.
And so when I moved to LA I just really didn't want to do
any thing with theater. But then about four or five years once I was
there, I started missing it again. So I started doing Hollywood Fringe festival
shows. Did a couple of shows there that did really really well. We
actually took one to Off Broadway in New York. And yeah, and I'm
looking to get back to theater again soon, hopefully too in Seattle maybe.
But you know, like I said, I oscillate, I go film theater
film theater. I think I'll always do both. I'll always do both.
Well, I mean you mentioned Seattle. You moved up there during the pandemic,
right, it was fairly recently, Yeah, it was, it was
actually July of last year, so we're just over the one year point.
I packed up and moved from Beverly, from Beverly, not to Beverly.
Yeah, it was, you know, it was during the pandemic. I
was like a lot of people, I was doing the whole like am I
happy where I am? Like? Is this where I see my life in
the next ten years? And the answer was at the time no, And
so I was like, where do you want to move? And so I
know, literally literally narrated it down to Austin, Ditver or Seattle, and
with in forty eight hours of looking for a job, this job came to
me. And so it was just it kind of felt like Kismet a little
bit, and I'm I'm I'm leaning over to grab something. Billy Ray also
has some fairly new Uh is it one or two puppies? Yeah? That
was Uh, that was me getting something out of my Basenji's mouth that he
was shot with that he was going to choke to death on. As I
look at him, he looks very confused as to why I took this ball
bearing out of his mouth, And I'm also like, where's why is there
a ball bearing in my apartment? I'm not that guy. This isn't a
fucking garage. But AnyWho, Uh yeah, move to Seattle on a whim.
Honestly very glad that I did. I mean, the weather is certainly
more appropriate for the way that I like to live. And I just love
the city. See that was a great city. Well I stay here forever,
who the fuck knows, But right now it's working so pretty happy in
the last year. Have you been able to feel fairly acclimated since then?
Yeah, I mean I think so. I mean I got two dogs,
so that was a that was an investment, right, So that's definitely changed
the way I live my life. But I mean have I have I done
as much in the city as I want to know? But I do blame
the dogs for a lot of that. Well, and we're also still in
a pandemic literally, yeah, yeah, I mean that's been part of it
too. You know, Seattle took the lock down really seriously and still probably
take it more seriously than a lot of places, and so that sort of
made getting out a little bit challenging too. But but no, love the
city, love the people here. You know, wish there was less crime,
but hey, it's America. I yeah, that's a great point.
Seattle been in the news a lot over the last few years, but I
still see it as a place that I would absolutely love to be in for
how long that could be weak, It could be a couple of years.
But uh yeah, I'd still never seen Seattle, so I'd love to see
it someday. You got this long list of titles. Let's pretty many titles.
First off, for those that haven't heard, they've been living under rock.
What is Scripts Gone Wild? Well, Scripts Gone Wild is It is
a script reading but also drinking game. So basically, we choose a popular
film script. We assemble a bunch of like celebrities and actors and things together
we read the script. But it's also drinking game, so if people mess
up, they take a drink. We have some rules and stuff in there
too that also trip folks up, and each one benefits a different charity.
And we've been doing this. We started it at the Chattanooga Film Festival back
in twenty seventeen. No wait, ye, twenty seventeen, we started back
Chattanoo Film Festival. Once I moved back to la we started doing pretty regular
live shows that El said. Of course, the pandemic. Threugh was for
a loop. So we started doing virtual reads. But that was actually a
blessing in disguise because we were really able to expand our base of folks.
We were able to like really increase our audience, and so we just returned
to our first live show and over in almost three years, we just did
creep show. What else said, It was a sold out house, did
really really well. Looking forward to a lot more coming up, some live
shows because as great as the virtual reads are, and I will and I
will say, we do have a virtual read coming up at Skyline Indie Film
Festival UH September the seventh, at eight thirty pm Eastern time. You don't
have to be in Virginia for that. When you can check it out,
go to Skyline Indiefilmfest dot org. What a master at a plugging there that
was beautiful. Thank you, thank you. I like to have my informations
at Saintly on my tongue. Uh. That link will be in the description
below, of course. But with Script's Gone Wild, are there any names
that have been involved that some people might recognize? Oh? Sure, Joel
McHale's done one with us. Patrick Fabian from better call Saul Diedrich Bader,
who most folks know from Drew Carey Show. Perez Hilton has done one for
the horror fans. We've had Barbara Crampton, Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder.
I mean so many people. I mean a lot of really cool people meet
Stole Array Newman, like just all sorts of crazy folks have been on there.
You know, we just did Creep Show. We had Barbara Crampton,
we had Joanah Ray, really fun group. We try to make it a
good mix of like celebrities, influencers, just actors who we think are really
fun and we want to do it with. Like, we try to create
a really cool mix of people with the show, and we've got a pretty
good stable and roster of folks who do it pretty regularly with us that are,
you know, second to none. Frankly, the community around scripts on
Wilde has been wonderful to witness, and you can tell even like the Twitter
replies after this last Creep Show reading just everybody was so glad to have you
back. So I'm just glad to see you back doing something you love like
this and meeting people in person and hopefully making people laugh as always. Thank
you. Yeah, I mean that was It's always been the goal. Like
we just want to go be ridiculous for a couple hours and raise some money
for charity, and like that's it. So I mean, if we do
that, we're successful. So Scrips Gone Wild. Obviously most of the time
is in person or virtual, and you got to be somewhere at a certain
time or in a physical location. But if anybody else wants to see you
or hear you, we got the Incinerator podcast that we can listen to every
couple of weeks, and I can't wait to hear what the elevator pitch is
about this show. So why don't we just do what the Incinerator pod is
to all of the viewers. So Incinerator is a subverted movie elimination game where
guest takes turns sending a films from a list of twenty five into something we
call the Incinerator, where those films have varying amounts of damage inflicting upon the
meeting that some films may be wiped from your memory, some films may not
like it's it's it varies, and then we have a lot of stumbling blocks
that we call land Mines, which kind of fuck up the players along the
way. It's basically just chaos and podcasts for I'm kid you not. We
were playing Dune the board game, which is usually known as the most complicated
board game ever created, and I said, boy, this would be fun
to do as a podcast. Yep, And that's literally how it came about.
It went from doone the board game to the Incinerator podcast. It's loosely
inspired by a couple of other podcasts, Screen Drafts, which I'm on a
lot, and then Film or Film Spotting, which is one of, if
not my favorite film podcasts. And so both of those were kind of merged
together to create the Incinerator, respectfully, because we love both of those podcasts.
And yeah, I mean that's kind of just chaotic. It's chaotic and
fun and wild and very enjoyable. There have been some wonderful guests that have
a background in some of the films. There have been really great topics.
I mean, we just talked about nineties action films recently, We've got One
of your first episodes was best stage to screen Adaptations, which for a lot
of people that is one of the blind spots because not a lot of those
are being made nowadays, so that they are just behind and hearing people that
are so knowledgeable on a subject. Just go ham and not just pitching why
one film is better than the other, but why these twenty five films that
we're talking about are all amazing and deserve a legacy, but now you have
to sacrifice them. It creates this mystifying drama that is wonderful. And to
be completely transparent, you have a brilliant producer who is me and I I
am honored to be a part of it. I am stoked that I was
asked to come on. I still don't understand why I was selected, but
I adore being involved with you, and you were a wonderful person. So
thank you for putting your voice out into the world. Well, thank you
and back at you, sir. And it's been lovely working with you.
I'm glad to hear that. But you've got some bigger things that are affecting
some maybe marginalized segments segments of society. You are bringing art into the world
for some you know, we'll say themes that doesn't get enough of a nice
fair shake. Nowadays, it's getting more than it used to. For sure.
But first off, the Three dollars Bill Cinema on Seattle, what is
that? Sure? So? Three dollar Bill Cinema is a sort of it's
twenty seven year old. It's a sort of a institution in the city of
Seattle. It is the largest queer film organization in the Pacific Northwest. It
is I believe, the third largest queer film festival in the US, and
we do a host of events to out there. Our flagship is Seattle Queer
Film Festival, which is an eleven day film festival in October. We also
do Translations, which is a trans film festival that we do in May.
We're one of the only trans film festivals in the world. We also do
a summer camp in the We also do a summer camp for a queer youth.
We do outdoor cinema in the summer. Like, we stay pretty busy
throughout the year with stuff. And you know, Seattle Core Film Festival.
Like I said, it's sort of our big flagship event. It's actually coming
up. That's what we're spending all of our time sort of invested in right
now. We actually have just announced our Gallas screenings for that, which is
really exciting. And yeah, it's an awesome organization. It does really good
work here in Seattle, and I feel really lucky that they thought I was
the right person to come and sort of helm you know, and the helmless
bitch. But yeah, I love it here and I think we're really doing
important work in Seattle, and folks seem to be enjoying it as well.
So for anybody that might be interested in that and possibly inspired by the type
of thing that you're working in, what exactly would you say your role is
through a three dollars bill? Sure, so I oversee all of three dollars
bill cinema. So I'm the managing director, which for all intents and purposes
is executive director. It's just the difference in title. So yeah, I
basically make sure the ship is sailing smoothly. I do a lot of grant
writing. It's just always something I've had a bit of a knack for.
So I stepped up to do that when I came in because the organization had
never really invested in grant writing in a substantive way, and I knew we
were just missing out on a ton of money, you know, from granting
organization. So I do a lot of that it's managing the day to day,
keeping the books balanced. I mean, I'm not an accountant. We
have one of those, but I kind of spearhead that, you know,
a lot of creative stuff too, and just coming up with screenings and events
and things like that, like a little bit of everything. Frankly, we're
a pretty small team. We have four full time staff members myself included,
and we have a festival director who's seasonal who actually runs SQFF. So a
very small team, but we we get We get along great and make it
happen pretty well. I think nice. We're gonna talk more about that creative
side in just a minute. But the other two things that we had brought
up there were the festival director of Skyline Indie Film Festival and Make Believe Seattle.
Let's break each of those down, sure well. Skyline Indy Film Festival
is a it's a tiny film festival in Winchester, Virginia. I became familiar
with them a few years ago. My best friend who used to produce this
or who used to produce this pod I used to produce Incinerator podcast which now
Ryan produces. He has a relationship. He's from Winchester, Virginia and so
he knew the Skyline Indy folks, and I produced a short film that he
was in that played at Skyline. That was my introduction to them. I
just thought it was such a cool community to have a film festival, and
you know, they had been around for a while, but still weren't getting
the kind of audiences that I thought they deserved, and so I sort of
offered last year to come in as a co festival director. So I have
co festival director. Technically, Brian Patrick, who founded the festival, is
my cohort there who's amazing, And Brian's a great guy, and I've been
happy to sort of jump in there and pro and kind of helped create some
cool stuff for sky like because I do think it's just such a unique area
and I think it's a perfect place to have a film festival. I think
it's just getting the word out there and the consistency and all of that,
and so yeah, I actually fly out Wednesday of next week for that festival.
So it's the eight through the eleventh. We've got some really cool films
this year for folks who might be around that area. We're opening with five
point twenty two seventy seven, which for folks who have been following it was
shot in two thousand and four and Patrick Reed Johnson's sort of labor of love
that is finally getting a physical release in October, and so we're doing that
as our opening night film. Our Buddy Graham Skippers film The Leech is going
to be our closing night film. But we've got a lot of cool stuff
in between as well. We're doing a film trif to Dinosaur Land. We're
doing a live screen drafts, a the virtual screen drafts, the virtual scripts
Gone Wild should be a lot a lot of fun and that's awesome. Yeah,
eight through the eleventh. I would encourage folks to check it out.
It's virtual as well, so if you're in the Virginia area but you're like,
I can't quite make it to Winchester, you can catch it out virtually.
Not the whole program isn't available virtually, but there's some really good stuff
on there. So Yeah, a lot of these film festivals that have done
virtual they they've adapted fairly well, but obviously with rights and stuff, there's
a lot yeahs distributors are cracking down on what they're allowing to be available virtually
more so than we had hoped. We had hoped that maybe, I think
a lot of festivals had hoped that maybe the studios would start embracing it more.
I had always thought that. I was like, you can't teach old
dog's new tricks. They're going to go back to their old model as soon
as they can. And it seems like they have for the most part,
which is unfortunate. But at the same time, like, as someone who
believes in the theatrical experience, I also understand it to a degree, so
uh, And then fairly recently, I believe what is make Believe Seattle.
Make Belief Seattle is probably the thing I'm most excited about right now. And
it's it. You know. As soon as I moved to Seattle and sort
of got a lay of the land in terms of like what are the film
festivals, what are all the things that are available to the community, it
became very aware to me that there was a discernible lack of genre content.
Not that you couldn't find genre films playing, but there wasn't really a genre
festival, and no offense if there is one that I just did not come
across, but there's not one that it has certainly made any waves. And
you know, as someone who has been really involved in genre festivals, who
goes to Fantastic fest every year, who's a hard nut, I've always wanted
to start one, and this just felt like the right time. It felt
like this was a part of the country that needed one, and so we're
planning it for March twenty twenty three March sixteenth through the nineteenth. We're going
to do screenings at two or three different venues in Capitol Hill. We're planning
some really amazing events and some crazy awesome guests that are going to be coming
into town for that. We're really trying to blow the roof off of it
for the first year. So a call for entries just open. So if
you're a filmmaker and you have anything that we can call genre, whether it's
horror, sci fi, animation, anime, martial arts, whatever like,
you can can submit it film Freeway, Slash or just Gonna Make Believe Seattle
dot com and you can just submit your film there. We have three categories.
We have short films, we have feature films, and we actually added
a Midlenk section, which a lot of festivals don't. Most festival like I
don't actually don't know have any other festival it doesn't honestly, but should be
doing it because mid league films have become a big thing the last ten to
fifteen years. I would honestly say since the birth of mumble Core, they
started becoming a really big thing. And our definition of that is any film
between thirty five and seventy minutes. And I'll be honest, over half of
what's been submitted to us thus far has been midlea films, which is really
exciting. That tells me that there is a need for that out there,
and I hope to see more festivals follow suit with that. So so yeah,
I'm getting really excited about it. I don't have a lot I can
say about it because we're still you know, it's in early state. Yeah,
but we have our venue when you booked, we have our call for
entries open, We're starting to book our guests at our films, and so
yeah, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. So even if
you're not in Seattle, I think there are worse ways to waste your money
than to come on up and have some fun with us for a few days.
There is no easy way to say this next sentence without sounding like I'm
sucking up to my boss or anything. But the amount of impact that things
like this can have on communities across whether it be a geographical area or a
segment of people who have, you know, some random thing in common,
whether that be loving culton genre films, or being a part of the trans
community. It is something that can genuinely unite a segment of people in ways
that is really difficult to do otherwise, And it seems like one of the
most creative and necessary ways to do these when it comes to film festivals.
Isn't surrounding programming For anybody that doesn't just you know, they hear the word
programming in your mind, Like, how do you define that in What do
you think is something that separates good programming from bad programming? I think it's
the curator. But it begins and ends with the curator. And I think
we've entered a time now where people have really started getting back into the idea
of curation. I mean, even if you look at like the streaming services,
which may seem like it's just a bunch of like titles dumped on there,
there is amount of attention and to detail that goes into what they're curating,
and especially thinking places like Hulu or movie or things like that, like
you want somebody whose voice you trust, and to me, the best film
festivals out there are the ones that have like a really strong sort of authorial
voice, and especially when it comes to genre content. You know, I
think people have this idea that genre is such a niche thing, but it's
so not. Like, you know, there are genre fans, massive amounts
of genre fans all over the country, whether they're big cities like Seattle or
Austin or where they're in little, tiny communities, And like, my experience
has been that the most amazing film festivals are usually the ones that spring up
in places where you would not imagine they're a film festival to be. And
you think about places like tell your Ride, or you think about like like,
I mean, even you know, Fantastic Fest Year, you know,
back when it started in Austin was kind of like what. So I think
it's all about who is curating and about whether or not they are taking a
holistic approach to their programming. And you know, everybody's idea of genre is
different. I know mine is very different from a lot of other people's,
Like even the films that we're already toy with doing screenings of. I'm like,
these are never films that you would see a place like Fantastic Fest play
or like fright Fest or something like that, but they certainly are genre films.
And so I would say with Make Beliefs, I feel like part of
it is like I feel like a lot of cenophiles feel unwelcome at places like
fantastic Fest and fright Fest and like places like that. They feel like it's
a place for horror fans or it's a place for like you know, they
don't feel like it's a place for them. I'm trying to do that a
little differently with mine. I want it to be a place where folks,
like folks who love Fantastic Fast can feel justice home as folks who love something
like tell your Ride where you're gonna get a good mix of stuff, and
I'm all about I'm all about the mix. I'm all about making sure there's
something for everybody, but that it all fits in with whatever theme we're going
for that year, and hopefully I'll be successful. I've been programming for over
fifteen years now, I hope I do a good job of it. I
figure, I figure if I didn't do a good job, I wouldn't still
be doing it. But yeah, I just I hope. I mean,
people are definitely gonna get ex sense of what my tastes are by what's being
played at the festival. I mean, I've got other folks who are helping
me program, so it's not just me, Like, I definitely wanted to
bring in other voices and like other not just other voices, but other experiences
and people from different backgrounds. Who can you know, who have maybe you
know, different out look on things than I do. As you know,
a cis white guy from the South. You know, I like having other
voices in the room. But you're definitely gonna get a good sense of my
of my taste from it, for sure. Yeah, I completely agree with
that. And on a small scale, programming for me, like you can
literally call programming when somebody asks you for a movie recommendation and you are giving
them something that could fit their taste, and to me, one of the
most important things is knowing who that person is, but then adapting that to
a large scale for something like one of these festivals. It literally translates to
knowing your audience and you have to know what you are wanting to draw in
there. So, you know, you just said you've been programming for fifteen
fifteen years. Can you think back to something that you you programmed yourself and
maybe name a couple of films that we would recognize that played concurrently or part
of, you know, a string of films that you think that was a
really great set of programming and maybe why that translated so well, yeah,
let mean, look, that's actual a great question, and then I don't
think about nearly enough. I think it'd be easier, which will it does
not skirt your question, but it'd be easier to talk about the programs as
a whole that I feel proudest of and I can kind of nitpick a little
bit. You know, I programmed at Birmingham Shout in Alabama for a number
of years. I was the programmer slash festival director, and that was a
it was a queer film festival based there, but it initially became part of
Sidewalk Film Festival, which is a bigger film festival that more people have probably
heard of. And we got some pretty awesome premiers and some like Birmingham Shout
for at least while I was there. This is no shade on them now,
but at least while I was there and I was treating it like it
was a fully fledged individual festival, we were starting to catch some pretty good
traction. Like we were getting world premiers that I can't believe we got.
We were getting we were getting a lot of buzz and like the Queer festival
circuit, like it really was becoming sort of a force in the queer festival
world. You know, once I left, I can't say that they kept
that momentum going. And I'm not giving myself credit by that for any any
reason. I just think that I mean, and I don't care if this
comes across them this on. I think I frankly cared more about that aspect
of it than they do currently. But those were programs I was really proud
of. We world premiered my buddy Stephen Cone out of Chicago, who's an
incredible filmmaker who did Wise Kids, Henry Gamble's birthday party. We premiered his
film black Box, which is something I'm really proud to have done. We
premiered a couple of Dell Shor's who I've mentioned previously. We were talking about
Olivia Newton John on a recording of my podcast. We did Blues for will
Adeane, which was this great film with Beth Grant Octavia Spencer. But then
I also the year that I programmed for La Film Fest. I was really
proud of that year, Like we programmed, so me and my friend Heidi
Honeycutt, who runs a theory of film night on show, we were the
programmers that year, the final year of LA Film FESTI and we programmed the
the horror competition and we played some great films like Thriller, which was a
Blumhouse film. We did ghost Light. I mean, just a lot of
really cool horror films, like like indie, like upper scale indie horror films.
I'm really proud of that program. But I mean, then again,
like I don't generally put out a program if I'm not proud of it.
Like if I'm putting it out and I'm not proud of it, then I
shouldn't be putting it out. But then again, like, look, I
don't program for Seattle quart Film Festival really, I mean, I had input,
but we have a festival director who's amazing, who does the programming.
But I think our program this year for SQFF, i'd rival it with any
any queer festival program in the country. I would say it rivals any one
of them. And yeah, I mean that's my favorite thing to do,
is like build a schedule and like you know, build out a film schedule.
It's my favorite thing to do in the world. I'm about to do
a lot of people that you know have channels like this, or just film
fans in general that love horror and genre and cults, cinema and stuff like
that. It's almost October, so one of the things I'm looking forward to
is participating in my annual let's make a calendar for October that I can watch
a bunch of new to me horror that I've never seen. And the way
that I can small scale program for myself is great, and I've found that
it has this impact which clearly somebody in your shoes you must feel on such
a larger scale, because you are literally shaping the taste of potentially thousands of
people. And while that sounds like a lot of pressure, I can't imagine
some of the even larger scales, like studio heads and these physical media labels,
like all the films behind me, the way that they are literally curating
tests or curating taste for potentially thousands of buyers. Do you have anything in
your past where somebody has, you know, professed how much your programs has
affected them or led to just some amazing experience. Oh yeah, I mean,
like I when I when I started programming Birmingham Shout, I sort of
assembled at the time what I honestly thought was sort of I think was like
a dream team of queer filmmakers, like and at the same time it was
and I'm thinking of folks like Nathan Adloff who directed Miles and Nate, Margaret
Stephen Cohne, and I mentioned earlier Morgan John Fox from Memphis, the late
great Ash Christian who was a good friend who passed away a couple of years
ago, who directed and produced a lot of incredible films. Like we all
kind of merged together around the same time, right when all of them were
starting to take off, and they were filmmakers that I brought in, they
were jurors like we just it was this great little community that we built up
around that and it forged a lot of relationships, like because of that like
Ash ended up producing Nathan's film, and like, uh, you know,
and like all these people started working together and like creating all of these like
you know, like Nathan ended up working with Morgan and they work with Adam
Wingard on a film, and it's just this whole thing of like these interconnected
and those are my favorite things that happen in a festival is when you can
bring people together and then you can watch them go work together, and like
that is honestly the most exciting thing in the world for me, because I
when I'm doing a festival, I think a lot of festivals focus on their
audience, and I think that's I mean, obviously you have to focus on
your audience, but I don't think they a lot of festivals put enough attention
on their filmmakers. And that's something that I've always I've always done and been
really proud of, is that I try to make sure any festival I'm a
part of that the filmmaker experience is literally second to none. That because that's
where you really generate buzz is by filmmakers company your festival. Oh this is
an awesome festival. I'm gonna tell these people they need to some better I'm
gonna submit. You know, you bring someone in when they're young with a
short film, they're gonna be more keen to come back to you, or
they've got a kick ass feature film, and like it's building those relationships,
which I think is o key. And but yeah, all those early days,
I think about just all of the crazy things that happened out of that
and that like you know, created all these little tangential projects, Like I'm
really proud of that. But yeah, I've had people come up to me
many times when they watched a film and they're like, you know, like
thank you for programming list, like this movie is incredible, like this or
you know, I mean, I don't want to say that I've ever had
someone come to say this film change my life, but like, you know,
as someone who has had films change their life, you know what happens
all the time. And uh, but that yeah, that's I mean,
obviously, that's that's why most programmers do it. Like you program it for
that those little you know, triackling amounts of praise that you get here and
there, Like that's kind of way you do it. You certainly don't run
a film festival or program a film festival for the fucking money, because if
you're doing it for the money, you are running around in circles chasing your
own tail. My friend, Uh, are you telling me that you're not
getting filthy rich programming film festivals for the the uh, gay and trans communities?
You know, no one in no one working for a film festival is
getting rich. Let's be clear, right, people at Sundance aren't getting rich,
Like they might make more than a small festival, but they're not getting
rich like you know, film festivals are nonprofits. They run like nonprofits.
They are generally year by year. Like it's very rare where a film festival
ends its year and they're like, well we're set for next year, right,
So yeah, it's a struggle. It's a struggle. That's why I
have a lot of respect for anybody who is saying, like I'm going to
make this happen, and especially in smaller communities where the resources maybe aren't there
like they are in a place like la or New York or even Seattle.
Like a lot of respect for folks in like rural Arkansas and rural Missouri and
places like that who are like, oh, I want to create a film
festival like fuck yeah, like that's what we need more of. I agree.
And the saddest part about the whole festival process is it takes a person
like yourself that has their ear to the ground and no again knows the audience
but also knows the filming that will want to be involved and can curate this,
you know, this omnibus of a feeling, like a genuine vibe for
either a day or a weekend or a week long festival that is going to
last and make people feel like there is an impact. So it's kind of
an unsung hero situation where it all rides on sometimes one set of shoulders and
clearly to get where you have, You've You've killed it quite a few times.
I've killed it in good ways, and I've also killed it in bad
ways. I've gotten through with a lot of fuck ups that I've learned from.
Fortunately, so I do feel like I'm in a much better position now
to do something like Make Believe than I would have been ten years ago.
I could have done it ten years ago, but I don't think I had.
I don't think i'd failed enough to really do it the proper way.
And I feel like I feel like I'm ready to do that now, and
it's not my first time. Like I found it a film festival in Chattanooga
a few years ago called Shindig, which which was a queer festival there.
It was in partnership with the Chattanooga Film Festival folks. And honestly, you
asked me that question earlier, that might be the proudest I've ever been of
a program, frankly, because you know, I was really proud of it.
We were in a city where you would not expect a queer film festival
to be and which is my favorite place to do one. And you know,
I learned a lot from that experience. I learned a lot of things
what to do and what not to do. I think that certainly in formed
me here. Yeah, it's just you got to be willing to You got
to just be willing to dive in and do it because it's like you don't
make a lot of money from it, and it's all encompassing, like it's
a shit ton of work for a very little reward. So you've either got
to be fired up and passionate about it or it's going to make you miserable.
So if somebody is watching this, and they're inspired, and they're in
rural Missouri or you know, the middle of bumfuck Tennessee and they want to
do something like this. On a granular level, what goes into making something
a good even like a double feature, Because obviously, like the New BEV
Cinema is the most famous right now theater across the country that people, you
know, people around here in Missouri are literally looking at the what's going to
be playing at the New BEV this month just to take a look and maybe
watch some of those double features. And it's it's lazy sometimes to say just
the same director or a sequel, or these films both feature you know,
non exploitation, but you gotta have the right flow. What is that in
your mind? Well that's a tough answer. I mean, I think it
differs from programming programmer. For me, it's all just about a feeling.
It doesn't have to be anything that connects a film. It could just be
about a failing. Like these two films remind me of each other, like
a good example being I programmed a double feature once of Field of Dreams and
the right stuff. Now, on the surface, it's like these films have
nothing in common, but they do Like I watch those films and I get
the it's Americana like It's like that's it's a feeling. It's not something that
really connects them in a in an obvious way. It's just something where you
watch them and you get similar feelings. That's how I program. A lot
of people do program double features based on you know, like what you just
said, and there's nothing wrong with that. Like I look at curation like
I sort of I feel like, at least I'm gonna take credit for coining
the term movie mixtape with movies with Gravy, in which I'm continuing on into
a new project. But that's the way I approach things is like I was
a kid who grew up. I made mixtapes on cassette. I've made mixtapes
on CD. I've made mixtapes on a fucking iPad like now and now I
think we all do it on Spotify. But it's like I've gone through so
many different cardinat incarnations of making mixtapes, music mixtapes as a human being,
and I like sort of transferring that to film as well, and with musical
mixtapes. What's it about. It's about the feeling, Like what are you
trying to convey to the person that you're making a mixtape for. Well,
maybe they've broken up with somebody and you want to make them feel better about
that. Like maybe their parents have divorced and you want to make them feel
better about that. Maybe you just want to create something fun for a road
trip, Like you're doing it based on feeling and how those songs make you
feel, and how that sort of interconnectedness works. And like I like doing
the same way with films, Like if a film puts me in a similar
wavelength with another film, I don't care if they're connected or not. That's
a great double feature as far as I'm concerned. I fully agree. I
was big in the music scene when I was younger, and really curating those
mixes is the exact way that I've always translated it, because it's it's a
form of communication. You are literally telling a type of story and not just
you know, the plot of the film. You are sending a message to
somebody watching the films, and whether that message is a feeling, a vibe,
or a sense of hope. I mean, with Field of Dreams and
The Right Stuff, you can't watch those two films back to back and not
feel some sort of inspiration yeah, and it's yeah, no, exactly like
and that inspiration feeling is exactly yeah. And you know, but like I
said, it differs from programmer to programmer, and that's what's great about it
is like it can differ and it can be different. And it's like,
you know, mixtapes. You know, I used to pour a lot of
time and effort into mixtapes, like and anytime someone would ask me the question
of like, so who are you or what my answer used to always be
is like it would be a lot easier for me to just make you a
mixtape or like a command five films for you to watch, Like you're gonna
know who I am from these recommendations a lot better than be sitting down here
and like giving you a biography. Like like these days, I'm like,
go to my letterbox, Like that'll give you a piece of idea. Go
to my letter box, look at my list. That'll tell you who I
am a lot easier than I can. That is very very similar to how
I do things with the channel I run. I get a lot of people
that ask, hey, these are coming up on soon, coming up for
sales and do you think I'd like these? And the question always is like,
well, what are your five favorite movies? What do you think are
the five best movies ever made? What are your favorite genres? And after
I hear a couple of those answers, I might be able to steer you
in the right direction. But it also it's kind of an art form and
it takes something special to understand people on a very interpersonal level that not everybody
can grab onto. And when you're doing it for a community, I can't
imagine a sense of pressure that comes with that. I'm sure it exists for
sure. Well, the pressure with this one, at least with Make Believe
here in Seattle, is is the audience even here? And the answer is,
I don't know. Like I've been here a year, it's a gamble
a lot into a large degree. Because I've been here over a year,
I feel like I've gotten a good sense of the queer community here in Seattle,
and there's a lot of overlap in the queer community in the genre community.
But is maybe there's a reason why there's not a big genre festival here,
Maybe there's not a need for it. I can't believe that's true,
Like knowing Seattle, like knowing, I can't imagine there's not a massive Like
Pacific Northwest is already such a creepy part of the country if you think about
like Sasquatch and like all of these pervasive legends and stuff and like you know,
indigenous mythology and things like that, Like it is, it's already kind
of a creepy part of the country. So I can't imagine there's not a
big audience for it. But I'm taking a bit of a gamble, like
will people care and will people identify with like my version of genre, like
what I consider genre, because yes, it's gonna be horror and science fiction
and all this stuff, but it's gonna be stuff that sort of tests the
boundaries of what genre is to a large either, Like even a filmmaker,
even our main filmmaker that we're thinking of bringing in, and I'm not gonna
spoil who it is. Who is a filmmaker that I would consider a genre
filmmaker is a filmmaker that a lot of people in the genre community probably might
not have even ever fucking heard of, because he's not someone that you see
his stuff playing it like the Fantastic fests or the Bright Fest, even though
I would argue his stuff is just a genre, is what those people are
doing. So it's like, are people gonna is that gonna appeal to people?
Like? Are the people who enjoy like straight up horror film is gonna
be enjoying going and watching something a little off the beaten path. The answer
is, I don't know. I hope so, but I don't know.
And that's that's the sort of thing that uh, I guess, like saying
scares me is a little kind of a cop out feeling to say there,
But for these massive genre festivals, you could literally be shaping the taste of
like the next decade of filmmaking. If the right people are attending your festival,
they're gonna get a sense of, oh, this is what the community's
doing. Maybe I'm gonna, you know, be led into these tastes and
now suddenly indie horror over the next five years feels completely different because of one
festival. Well, and you've just actually opened up a door now into a
Pandora's box of conversation, which I'm going to step into freely because I don't
generally away from it. I feel like genre festivals for a very long time,
maybe since the inception of like really mainstream genre festivals have felt a very
certain way, and it's felt very exclusive to like I call the nerd bro
culture. Ye, And Fantastic Fest is my favorite festival in the world.
And what I love about Fantastic Fest is that even though I do feel like
they perpetuated this culture for a long time, they are they are always evolving,
and I feel like, having watched the way that Fantastic Fest has emerged
from like a couple of years where they were having some controversies and they were
having some issues, the way that they have walked out of that is really
impressive to me because like the people who are running that festival now, like
Lisa Dryer, who's the festival director, they're doing great work. They're trying
to atone for some of the things that they've done wrong, but they're also
forging a path forward. They're not going to be dominated by the controversy,
which I appreciate and like. But I do think festivals like that perpetuated and
this goes back to not even just festivals, but like ain't it Cool News
and that whole bro culture like which has gotten a lot of those people canceled,
and a lot of those people run through the ground, which is why
I have respect for people like Drew mcweeney and Chris Cargill who were able to
rise from that and like and like keep a really impressive career going. But
all that said is I'm trying to do something a little different, Like I
want I want a genre because I feel like John festivals have felt exclusive to
people, to certain people, like they're not welcome there, and like,
not all genre fans feel welcome in a place like that, And like,
I know that a lot of you know, a lot of women, that
a lot of marginalized communities have not felt like they have a place in genre,
And I think that is so backwards. I think that is so wrong
because I think, honestly, the most exciting stuff that we're seeing in genre
right now are coming from are coming from women, directors, are coming from
LGBTQ plus directors are coming from marginalized communities, Like those are the ones who
are giving us the most impressive content right now. We should be trying to
open up and expand those festivals to those communities, and like this year,
I see Fantastic fest doing that in a bigger way. I want to see
a different kind of genre festival where everybody is welcome, where it is not
so dependent on a very certain nerd demographic, and where you know, senophiles
are being embraced just as much as like genre heads. It's a great point,
and it's sadly it's not just the festivals. There's a lot of people
in the horror and cult community that just the the genre fandoms that exist kind
of to be toxic, and it doesn't get talked about enough. There's so
many people that will, you know, decry that some of these people that
are different than them are not deserving or they get treated just very much evidently
much much worse. But so many of our greatest films they tell the stories
of those people, and then we act like they don't exist as we go
day to day to these festivals and cons and just to not be welcoming people
is such a slap in the face. I can't stand that type of action.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's frustrating. And I've seen change, which
is good and you know, but it's still there, like and I'm not
gonna I don't want to throw any festivals under the bus. I think there
are very specific genre festivals that I could point to that are still I think
excluding certain people as much as they might be trying and not fantastic fest I
want to be clear about that. I do think they're doing great work,
and I don't just say that because I have a relationship with that festival.
I really do think they're doing a good job of trying to pull out of
what kind of mired them down for a little while. But there are bigger
festivals out there that I still think have a lot of work to do.
And you know, are my aspirations to be a genre festival that like defines
the culture? No, I just want to create a genre festival that people
enjoy that, you know, that we can get some cool films and we
can get some cool events, and hopefully people are gonna latch onto it,
you know. I also, you know, I just want to create something
that I think doesn't I mean, I have no lofty ambitions that we're going
to change a paradigm or anything. I don't at all. But I do
want to make sure it's a different kind of genre festival. And if we
can do that, worse success. You know, if we can make everybody
feel included. I think worries success. And when I say everybody, I
mean black, white, Asian, queer, you know, trans whatever.
Like I want folks to feel like it's a festival for them. And yeah,
and that's it. That's it in a nutshell, and that shows And
I again, not not much just to sound like I'm sucking up for anything,
but the amount of walking the walk that you've seemingly always done to get
back to these communities is And first of all, it's ambitious because it takes
a lot, But second of all, it's it's just morally good. And
it allows me to associate myself with somebody that I know that I can be
proud of working with, which nowadays is not not always easy to come by.
No. Look, I've worked hard over the last I wasn't always I
wasn't always the nice, sweet southern boy you see before you. So I've
worked hard the last few years to to sort of learn from the mistakes of
the past. It that way, and so I feel in a good place.
I feel like I'm in a good place to create art again, which
is nice. And you know, having someone along for the ride with me
is always a blast. But you know, I've kind of a shit.
I mean, look, hell, I still want My goal for twenty twenty
three was to direct another feature film, So who knows what all else I'm
going to be trying to do twenty twenty three. That's a great question.
I know a multiple podcasts coming out from Billy Ray in the near future,
but other than that, as we close out, I want to get a
feel of a couple things for everybody used to get you, you know,
on their radar a little more. First of all, this channel is usually
about physical media. What's your stance on physical media and do you collect anything
like that? Well, it's funny, pre pandemic, I did not own
a single piece of physical media. Now, when I was younger, I
had probably five thousand VHS tapes. Maybe I'm more or less dependent. I
just had stacks and stacks of VHS tapes. What's Once DVD came around,
I like an idiot. I got rid of them, like if I still
had them now because VHS has evidently become collectible again, like I would have
had a gold mine. Didn't do that hindsight. But so then when I
switched to blue to DVDs, I you know, I had a fair decent
collection of DVDs. But then once Blu Ray hit, I was like,
fuck this, I'm not collecting physical media anymore. Every couple of years,
something's coming around and making my previous collection, at least in my mind,
obsolete, and so I stopped collecting physical media. I've always collected vinyl,
like I've collected vinyl since I was in high school, and so even when
they're during that period where nobody was collecting vinyl, I was still collecting vinyl,
and so I'm very proud of my vinyl collection. I started collecting physical
media again during the pandemic. I you know, this is gonna this is
gonna make me sound like such a and such a white, privileged print like.
I was suddenly overwhelmed with funds like from unemployment, from the government,
from all these places, and I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna
start collecting physical media again. Now I'm looking over at my shelf and I've
probably got you know, a thousand fucking you know, Blu rays and shit,
and so I'm like, I've dove in head first again. And so
now I'm definitely collect physical media again. Definitely not to the level that you
do, but but I still do collect it, and I I generally I'm
generally looking for the obscure shit. Now I've got my collection at the point
where, unless it's a new release that I just really want to own,
I'm looking for the obscure shit and the stuff that you know that just pops
in my head one days, like, oh that film, Like that's what
I'm getting now. So but yeah, I it's I love it like I
miss you know, I miss video stores. I miss going. I mean,
luckily we have a couple of really great what's here in Seattle, like
Scarecrow, but like I miss being able to just go spend hours looking at
the shelves of a video store. So I guess I'm trying to recreate that
on my living room wall. You're uh, your love for vinyl, on
your love for some of these films that that definitely is what has been palpable
for me through a lot of your appearances on other podcasts, the way that
you and I have talked with each other. That's first of all, that's
why I had to send you that one Vinyl record, just because I had
to be in your collection. But we've talked about a lot of boutiques just
you and I. Is there any company or maybe two that have emerged as
like, Man, these guys do incredible work and I love what they put
out. I mean, there's a small house called Altered Innocence, which is
based in Los Angeles. It's a gentleman who may still be with Strand Releasing
or may not. But Frank used to work for Strand Releasing, and I
just barely know Frank. I don't know Frank very well at all. I
just know it from Strand. But they specialize in like queer genre. It's
kind of their specialty, and I feel like they're doing some of the best
work out there, and that just doesn't get enough recognition. Like even just
now, you know, they've got a re release of Dressed in Blue.
They've got a couple of new films, Beautiful Beings which is fantastic, The
Hole in the Fence which is fantastic. They've got the After Blue re release
coming out. They've got the Jack be Nimble re release. Like they do
a lot of re releases. They do a lot of new queer cinema,
and I think they're just their curations impeccable. What I've seen from them.
They've put out some fantastic movies, and I always go back to if you're
looking for one to go from genre film into maybe a looking at some of
this queer cult, underground cinema that you've never seen. Knife plus Heart is
like the perfect gateway drug to get to that other side. Yeah, yeah,
absolutely, And they first I think dropped on my radar. A friend
of mine in twenty seventeen directed a film named A Closer Walk with Thee which
is like a queer horror film, religious film, very low budget. We
actually played it at Shindig, the festival I talked about earlier. That was
one of our films that year, and it was picked up by Altered Innocence
and like no other, like where else is a film like that going to
find a home? And the answer is no where, Like have they not
picked it up? I don't know that would have found a home anywhere.
And so that's why I like that they're out there finding those little gems and
treasures that aren't for everybody but are definitely for the audience that Altered Innison's caters
do. But also, you know, besides that, I always you know,
you know, Vinegar Syndrome does great work. They pick up the obscure
films that I generally fall in love with, and so I'm always into what
they're doing. So those are probably the ones that have me that get me
the most excited these days. But there's so many good ones out there.
There really are. It's certainly hard to pin down. And you mentioned earlier
about introducing yourself as a mixtape, and so I think we should leave this
what is your your your business card films? If somebody asked you, what
are what are the five films that make me get to know Billy Ray Bruton
immediately? What are we telling them? Well? Ordinary People? Which is
my favorite film ever made? I think that to start, Pleasantville, Magnolia,
Cool Hand, Luke, and probably a Nightmare on Elm Street. That
is a remarkable piece of five films. I have not mentioned this here yet,
but I'm really stoked. Screenland Armor is a repertory theater here in Kansas
City that does incredible work. They do a lot. They got a film
festival here called Panicfest that they do every year. Yeah, but October they
are launching on the very first day for their big horror month. I'm going
to see all eight Nightmare on Elm Street films on the big screen, back
to back, and it is such an experience that I long for. I
can't wait. Yeah. Not My Own Ship was the very first film I
saw in a theater. I was two years old. My mother wanted to
see it, couldn't find a babysitter and brought me with her, so I
remember nothing of it, but that was the first film I ever saw in
a theater. I was obsessed with Freddy as a kid. I was such
a Freddy kid. Like even now, like I've become I like to say
that I've become more of adjacent guy as I've gotten older. Now I say
I'm just like kind of straight down the middle. But yeah, I think
I think Freddie is the greatest horror creation in cinema. And uh, I
yeah that that film. So much about that film speaks to me, and
that whole franchise. I can watch those films any day, But all of
those eighties franchises are like sew up my alley and like just so part of
like what I grew up on. I grew up on those eighties and nineties
horror films, and so you know, any any way, and I think
once once I announced the retro screenings that we're doing and make believe I think
you'll. I think you'll appreciate them. I think knowing what we do,
you'll appreciate them. Uh. I think that's all. I got, everybody,
all the links for Billy Rare in the description below, Like I said,
please check them out. He is doing incredible, incredible work across almost
too many venues at this point. To all those too many venues. Yeah,
at some point there's gonna be a great reckoning that is. Uh yeah,
I can't wait just to see where you're gonna end up in just a
couple of years, some of the stuff on your horizon. I'm just proud
to know who you are as a person. So thank you, Oh,
thank you, sir. That's so nice. Anyways, as I always say,
from one collector, but we got two here, so from two collectors,
all of you do me no