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Filmmaker series continues Nov. 15

Experimental film tells tale of devotion, grief

No matter what you call it – experimental, off-beat, arty, eccentric – Brent Green’s film “Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then” has attracted a growing fan base since its debut in 2010. Locals will have the opportunity to see the film and hear from the director on Nov. 15 when the visiting artist series presented by the Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department (TAT) at CSU Monterey Bay and the Monterey Bay Film Society continues.

Green and Donna K., who co-wrote the film and acts in it, will make two presentations, both free and open to the public, at noon and again at 7 p.m. Both will be held in the TAT studio on Sixth Avenue at A Street.

The film is based on the true story of a Kentucky hardware clerk, Leonard Wood, who obsessively built additions onto his house after his wife, Mary, was diagnosed with cancer. His desire was to construct a “healing machine” that would save her. She died, but in his grief he continued to build for 15 years. Shot entirely on the full-scale town Green built in his back yard, he combines animation, stop-motion and live-action in an ethereal opus to lovers and tinkerers everywhere.

Green is a self-taught animated filmmaker and artist who lives and works in the Appalachian hills of Pennsylvania. His films have been shown at the Sundance Film Festival, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Center, the Warhol Museum and other museums and festivals around the world.

Said Mike Plante, programmer at Sundance: “The do-it-yourself ethics that Brent Green and Donna K. use to make films are inspiring and a great thing to show to students of any art form. They didn’t just make a film, they invented a way to make it, with sets, a type of storytelling and personal style. The film’s success is just as encouraging.”

Driving directions and a campus map are available at csumb.edu/map. While the event is free, visitors will have to purchase a parking pass from machines located on the parking lots.

“A tinkerer’s ode to a tinkerer, and a romantic’s tribute to a romantic.” – The New York Times