Buffalo Bill's Defunct

Directed by Matt Wilkins
Produced by Eliza Fox

For more information contact
Northwest Film Forum Executive Director
Michael Seiwerath
(206) 329-2629
michael@nwfilmforum.org

Or visit the production website at sisyphusproductions.com.

PRESS

Seattle Times:
Dismantling the Past
By Tom Keogh

"An ambitious and often moving feature, produced locally and directed by Seattle's Matt Wilkins, "Buffalo Bill's Defunct" is both shrewd and sophisticated filmmaking. Essentially a collection of poignant short tales about the grown children and grandchildren of ornery but magnanimous "Buffalo" Bill (Earl V. Prebezac, co-founder of Edmonds' Driftwood Players), the action begins when Bill accidentally rams his truck through a wall of his dilapidated shed. Deciding it's time to demolish the rustic hut, widower Bill enlists his kin in removing its family paraphernalia from bygone years. This dismantling of the past becomes a catalyst for learning more about Bill's kids (and their kids) through spare vignettes that have been compared, with good reason, to stories of the late Port Angeles writer Raymond Carver. One of the best pieces stars Keith Fox as an emotionally reckless and taciturn father whose grown daughter (Frances Hearn) reluctantly bonds with him while humiliating her drunken boyfriend (Michael White). Improvising dialogue and behavior, the entire cast and Wilkins find a quiet if urgent soulfulness somewhat obscured at times by overly busy editing."
Click here to read the original article

The American Avantgarde

Hosted by filmmaker
Karl Krogstad

"Buffalo Bill’s Defunct" continues to amaze me every time I watch it. I feel as if I am in the hands of an emerging master, who is working in that wonderful time in his career when budgetary constraints and limited resources only add fuel to the bonfire of his indefatigable imagination. The archival footage of the characters at various stages of their lives was mind-blowing, and added to the hyper-realism achieved by the ensemble cast. Actor Keith Fox was hilarious. Earl Prebezac was fascinating. Frances Hearn was mesmerizing. I have never seen anything like the diaper scene—a sad and funny encounter between two grown men that ends in a surprising display of affection. The structure of the film seems to be built of gossamer, and flows perfectly to an ending that affected me first physically, then emotionally. It is, dare I say it, brilliant." -- Karl Krogstad

The Oregonian:
beyond the multiplex
Friday, October 15, 2004
By MARC MOHAN

"WEST HOME -- When he accidentally drives through the door of his dilapidated garage, an elderly curmudgeon named Bill (Earl V. Prebezac) tries to cover up his ineptitude by declaring he's decided to tear the thing down. As various family members are enlisted to help with this absurd task, the shed is emptied of ramshackle heirlooms and board games, sparking gossip and remembrance in the form of flashbacks. In one tale, Bill's granddaughter takes her boyfriend to meet her father, and a cruel drunken prank ensues. In another, the family's youngest generation confronts natural reality in the form of a roadkill fawn. Dancing elliptically around themes of familial disintegration and modern disconnectedness from the world, "Buffalo Bill's Defunct" earns its subtitle: "Stories From the New West." Director Matt Wilkins and producer Eliza Fox, winners of a Judges' Award at the 2001 Northwest Film and Video Festival for the short film "Interior Latex," have crafted a solid, impressive-looking film. The semi-improvised performances are consistently naturalistic, and the production as a whole marks a promising feature debut for these Seattle-area filmmakers."
Click here to read the original article

WW Pick In the Willamette Week:
Buffalo Bill's Defunct
By DAVID WALKER

"Filmmaker Matt Wilkins' funny and touching tale of family dysfunction was a big hit at the Seattle International Film Festival. Wilkins paints a portrait of an extended family in eastern Washington, brought together by a lie told to cover an accident. Local indie filmmakers would be well advised to watch Buffalo Bill's Defunct, a solid film that was primarily improvised."
Click here to read the original article

Seattle Weekly:
THIS WEEK'S ATTRACTIONS
By Laura Cassady

"Local director Matt Wilkens has made a fictional family album, complete with bittersweet memories, hilarious snapshots, yellowing pages, and moments that might have been better off forgotten. The remarkable part is that it's done without employing cliché or manipulation. You'll cringe at the uncomfortable moments, but that's expected. You're not cringing at the film, you're cringing with it—and on the other hand, the film is weirdly heartwarming, but not enough to embarrass you. Revolving around a harebrained scheme, spearheaded by Grandpa Bill (the titular Buffalo), to tear down a dilapidated garage on the family land, the film explores the generational push/pull of family members who love one another, sure, but might not always speak the same language. To its credit, the movie doesn't take a heavy-handed approach to the dysfunctional family thing—in fact, the family is refreshingly functional. There are satisfying undercurrents of awkwardness and broken ties. You see it in the odd way that little Wiley smacks his dolls around and the way that Bill is clueless and inappropriate and asks his daughter if her boyfriend has any weird sexual habits. Is he starting to lose his grip, or is he just a weird old guy? In the end, he's so sweet it doesn't matter—but then again, he's her dad, not ours. Wilkens has said he's interested in nonverbal communication, and while much is "said" by Bill with his sea-blue eyes, half-closed by age, his family does talk and talk and talk as well. But Wilkens often separates their dialogue from the action. Their speech is used as in voice-overs in tangentially related scenes where the actors almost never face the camera. The script in Defunct was largely improvised, and, because the largely local cast is easy and talented, these scenes paint an incredibly real-feeling family in the midst of some real-feeling changes. (NR)"
Click here to read the original article

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By SEAN AXMAKER

"When aging Grandpa Bill (Earl Prebezac) backs his old pickup right through the garage door, he covers up the accident with a spontaneous project: He razes the old shed and the entire family gets in on the haphazard demolition derby. Matt Wilkins' family portrait is the third local production from Wiggly World's "Start to Finish" project, and the most personal. The lives of Bill, his children and his grandkids over these couple of days are viewed like snapshots illuminated with uncompromising glare of a flashbulb. The naked observation of family dynamics in mundane moments, squirmy behavior and oblivious selfishness that only sometimes breaks through to empathy unsettlingly gives the film a startlingly unique quality."
Click here to read the original article

Seattle Times
By MOIRA MCDONALD

"Matt Wilkins' BUFFALO BILL'S DEFUNCT: STORIES FROM THE NEW WEST has a looseness to it that's reminiscent of free verse."
Click here to read the original article

The Stranger and The Portland Mercury
By SHANNON GEE

THE STRANGER picks BUFFALO BILL'S DEFUNCT at the festival: * Buffalo Bill's Defunct--* Stories from the New West * DESIGNATES A STRANGER PICK * "Crotchety, curmudgeonly Grandpa Bill leads his goofy brood in not raising a barn, but tearing down a garage. Local director Matt Wilkins' largely improvised feature is somewhat untraditional in structure, but it feels keenly real in its graceful and humorous sketches on family relationships."
Click here to read the original article

By ANDY SPLETZER
More THE STRANGER notes on SIFF: "BUFFALO BILL'S DEFUNCT quickly sold out the Broadway Performance Hall, and as of press time there was a rumor of a slim chance that it would move to a bigger house to accommodate more people."
Click here to read the original article

Festivals and Screenings

The Smithsonian Institute

Museum of American History
Reel Surprises from North American Festivals
Fri., April 1, 8; May 6, 7 p.m.
North America is home to some of the finest film festivals in the world. Some of the films receive a theatrical release, but there are always a few gems that only festivalgoers could get to see ... until now. Several extraordinary offerings from top film festivals in the United States and Canada are presented in this special series. Be sure to get tickets now—chances are they won’t be coming to a theater near you anytime soon. APR 1 Buffalo Bill’s Defunct: Stories from the New West
(USA, 2004, 84 min., dir. Eliza Fox and Matt Wilkins)
Official Selection, Seattle International Film Festival
When aging Grandpa Bill backs his old pickup right through the garage door, his scheme to cover up the accident winds up involving the entire family—and uncovering old family tensions.
http://residentassociates.org/otoapr/surprises.asp

WORM, experimental film and music venue
Rotterdam, Netherlands
April 6th, 2006
European Premiere!
WORM

Orcas Arts Center
Orcas Island, WA
March 10, 2006 Orcas Arts Center

The Northwest Film Forum
One week theatrical run
October 14th-19th, 2005
12 screenings!

Northwest Film Forum

"...a well rounded portrait of a family passing lessons down from generation to generation, for better and for worse."
-Andy Spletzer, SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM
http://www.seattlefilm.com/film/detail.aspx?id=341

Two Portland Screenings

OCT 15 FRI 7 PM
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM — VISITING ARTIST
NORTHWEST TRACKING
NOV 5 5pm
NORTHWEST FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL
The Guild
A hit at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, BUFFALO BILL'S DEFUNCT is an intergenerational study of the various messes family members make when they attempt to deconstruct the walls that separate them. Bill, the patriarch of a Washington family, accidentally drives his car through the garage. In an effort to hide the accident, he decides to embark on an epic effort to demolish the building, bringing in his entire extended family to help. From this seed, a tangled web of family stories emerges, painting a touching and funny, but stubbornly unsentimental portrait of a rural northwestern clan. Improvised from a detailed treatment, the film focuses on bringing authentic human behavior to the screen. This the third film to emerge from the innovative Start To Finish program at Seattle's Northwest Film Forum, a project which partners nonprofit organizations with for-profit investors to finance and produce feature films. (84 mins.)
http://www.nwfilm.org/31nwfest/sat6.html

Minneapolis St. Paul Central Standard Film Festival

"On a fading old photograph from the forties, taken out in the country, Bill and his wife are labeled as "Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane"; the young couple looks very happy. But in the present, Bill's wife is dead and the grass growing on Bill's Pacific Northwest farm seems like it will overtake everything. Bill is almost unable to care for himself, and has impulsively decided to tear down a wooden barn on his land. As the old structure gradually comes down, his extended family gathers together for one of the last times on their childhood farm. A happy, interesting group - Bill's family represents a range of ages and personalities - facing childhood, first love, marriage, child-rearing and death. As they are living and laughing, so has Bill done; as he is loving and dying, so will they do. Buffalo Bill's Defunct is the work of two masterful storytellers: Eliza Fox and Matt Wilkins. Improvisational, subtle, and documentary-like, Buffalo Bill's Defunct is sentimental while avoiding sentimentality, and nostalgic while remaining immediate. It will make you want to laugh because you're sad and cry because you're happy."
-Todd Hansen, Central Standard Film Festival Program

WigglyWorld's 7th Annual Local Sightings

In partnership with Altoids, the Curiously Strong Mints
October 8-15
at Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, Seattle

Buffalo Bill's Defunct
Saturday, Oct 9, 9pm
Buffalo Bill rallies his sissy-fied clan to the old-fashioned task of pulling down their dilapidated shed with a winch and 100' of cable--a half-baked decision influenced heavily by the fact that he accidentally blasted through the garage door with his truck. As Bill's daughter and grandchildren prepare the shed for razing, they excavate rusted family artifacts, uncovering interfamilial tensions. In their own words, Bill's ensemble gossips about each other, most of the time revealing more about the person talking than the subject. The film spills the guts of this American family through stories of Bill's seeds floating through the world on their own unique, but parallel narratives. Buffalo Bill's Defunct is a poem to the entanglement of family, casting a vigil light on inheritance. The relationships are cluttered, muddled and imperfect, but perfectly functional.
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/localsight/show6.shtml

Artist Trust's Reel Big Deal

Buffalo Bill rallies his sissy-fied clan to the old-fashioned task of pulling down their dilapidated shed with a winch and 100' of cable— a half-baked decision influenced heavily by the fact that he accidentally blasted through the garage door with his truck. As Bill's daughter and grandchildren prepare the shed for razing, they excavate rusted family artifacts, uncovering interfamilial tensions. In their own words, Bill's ensemble gossips about each other, most of the time revealing more about the person talking than the subject. The film spills the guts of this American family through stories of Bill's seeds floating through the world on their own unique, but parallel narratives. "Buffalo Bill's Defunct" is a poem to the entanglement of family, casting a vigil light on inheritance. The relationships are cluttered, muddled and imperfect, but perfectly functional.

Rural Route Film Festival

Brooklyn NY
Honorable Mention

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Ninety percent of communication is non-verbal. The voyeuristic instincts we possess help us learn quickly and deeply by simply watching others interact. I rely on this form of behavioral communication, rather than dialogue, and a dogmatic approach to the written word. This creates an idiosyncratic film peculiar to myself and my players, that belongs somewhere in the open-frame, pragmatic realist school of filmmaking described by Ray Carney:
http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/acad/formstext.htm
My stories are inspired from personal experience-- incidents that happened to me, or that I witnessed, or occasionally anecdotes I’ve heard through the grapevine. I like stories that I’m instinctually attracted to-- stories that I don’t completely understand at first, but that have a magnetic pull.
As an artist who makes films, I have a strong desire to connect with audience members who are sensitive to subtlety and who are open to new challenges. I know of no greater feeling of accomplishment than to affect like-minded stangers on a profound emotional level, to make a handful of good friends in a single screening.

Quotes about "Interior Latex," our previous short film, and one of the stories in "Buffalo Bill's Defunct"

"Daniel is taken to meet his girlfriend's father, setting him amidst the complicated infrastructure of a father/daughter relationship. Superb acting highlights an evocative short story."
-Matt Groening, NW Film and Video Festival

"Matt Wilkins' "Interior Latex"... a cruelly funny tale of a young man's introduction to his girlfriend's father, reveals more about its characters in 13 minutes than most films do in 90."
-Mark Mohan, The Oregonian

"Even funnier, because it's treading much sadder turf, is Matt Wilkins' Interior Latex, a nearly perfect look at a young man visiting his girlfriend's dad."
-Bruce Reid, The Stranger

"Matt Wilkins' "Interior Latex," a thirteen minute tale of a philandering father, his young daughter, her new boyfriend and dad's old flame, is a standout for the way it manages to suggest so much about these relationships during a drunken all-night party..."
-John Hartl, The Seattle Times

"The strongest of the five works featured is Interior Latex, a subtle vignette about a woman going home to her dad with her boyfriend..."
-Soyon Im, The Seattle Weekly

"Superb..."
-Min Liao, The Stranger

"The other award-winning short was Matt Wilkins "Interior Latex," an extremely well acted film that shows some real potential from this Seattle-based filmmaker."
-Jeff Winograd, IndieWIRE

"Impressive"
-Chuck Wilson, LA Weekly

Since completion in 1999, "Interior Latex," has played:

• The Northwest Film and Video Festival (Portland, Oregon) - Judge's Award from Matt Groening
• Cinematexas (University of Austin, Texas) - Semi-Finalist
• The Portland International Film Festival
• The Santa Monica International Film Festival
• The Seattle International Film Festival
• The Little Theatre (Seattle)
• One Reel Film Festival (Bumbershoot, Seattle)
• 911 Media Arts Center (Seattle)
• Fremont Outdoor Cinema (Seattle)
• Independent Exposure
• Hardshare Independent Film Festival (Winslow, Arkansas)
• IndieSpace, (Santa Monica CA)
• The Newport Beach Film Festival
• The Crash Film Festival (Mexico City)
• Annual Golden Shower Film and Video Festival (San Antonio)
• Idaho Film Foundation/ The Flicks (Boise ID)
• Western Washington University (Bellingham WA)
• Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art (Great Falls MT)
• Kodiak Arts Council (Kodiak AK)
• Haines Art Council (Haines AK)
• Out North (Anchorage AK)
• University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Pacific Cinematheque (Vancouver BC)
• Bunnell Street Gallery (Homer AK)
• Central Oregon Community College (Bend OR)
• Lewis-Clark College (Lewiston ID)
• First Night/Tacoma-Pierce Counties (Tacoma WA)
• Studio FP, Italy- Italian Television, Channel 2
• WORM, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Ms. Eliza Fox: Producer/Writer

Ms. Fox has produced and co-wrote Interior Latex, I wish I could Find Five Dollars on the Ground, Ain't Got No Chicken Bones in My Brain, and The Gods Looked Down and Laughed. She co-produced Oh Shit- That's My Mind. She was a creative consultant on The Agnostic Party. Nicknamed "The Problem Solver," she has worked on every aspect of her projects from conception through final editing, and most importantly has successfully completed all of them on schedule and within budget.

Erich Volkstorf: Cinematographer

Erich Volkstorf began his career in 1981 as a photographer for KTNV TV in Reno, Nevada. Three years later he relocated to Seattle for the PM Magazine series. He has been an independent Director of Photography for fifteen years and has worked with such groups as The Boeing Company, Microsoft, and the Bon Marche. Erich has been the Director of Photography on several feature length and short films including Shredder Orpheus, Shelter From The Sun and Interior Latex. He has won numerous awards including three silver medals from The International Film and TV Festival of New York, two 1st Place Awards in the National Film Outdoor-Travel Film Festival, and an ITVA International Golden Quill Award.



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