ANNISTON STAR | ESCAPES
Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Who needs Hollywood when you've got Anniston?

Plenty of eager college and high school graduates with fame on the brain jet out west in pursuit of big dreams in the film industry. More than likely, though, they find themselves at the bottom of an astronomically tall ladder, and lucky to pull a week's job on a low-budget reality television show.

Their dreams to make the films they want to make will be put on hold until they work their way up, and sometimes that means bringing the higher-ups refills of coffee.

But that's not a problem for Anniston resident Jason LaRay Keener. He makes his own films his own way, with as much artistic freedom he grants himself. He will screen his recently produced DVD of short films, Catfish with Falcon Wings, this Friday at the Bottletree Café in Birmingham at 8 p.m.

Keener said he loves shooting in Alabama and has not felt compelled to rush to a larger metropolitan area to explore professional filmmaking options.

"I never want to leave Alabama," he said. "I think it'd be a big mistake to leave here. When I was young, like every whiny artsy kid, I couldn't wait to escape to Seattle or somewhere. Now, there's no way I'd move."

Keener does not criticize young artists for moving to big cities to catch a big break at a major Hollywood studio or theater company, but he prefers the Anniston atmosphere, where he feels he can best tell his personal stories.

"I think it's healthy to be interested in places outside of your home, but I think people who run to New York and California solely because other filmmakers have made those places established film communities is a mistake," Keener said. "Some people need to be in big cities to be happy, so I guess it depends on the person. I like the potential of a small town."

Keener, a Centre native, is the head of Reigning Nails, a production company that develops local films. He said that the Dada and surrealist artistic movements have had a major influence on his particular style of filmmaking that embodies an abstract, dreamlike atmosphere found in nearly every piece on the DVD.

The films often feature an unsettling theme of difficult relationships between children and their overbearing parents, but Keener said that only bits and pieces of the work are autobiographical.

"Some of these scenarios are deliberate satires of other situations that in no way involve family, but I wouldn't ever dare to reveal my motivations for a particular scene," he said. "I much prefer an audience to take away his or her own interpretation, even if that interpretation is simply 'This is funny' or, more likely, 'This is disturbing.'

"I don't think anyone is interested in the Jason LaRay Keener story, but I do believe a lot of people can relate to some of my personal situations and enjoy seeing them completely shown for their core absurdity."

Keener said he wanted to reassure his potential audience about the abstract nature of his films that might leave people scratching their heads.

"A lot of people do tell me they don't understand the films," he said. "It's an understandable reaction, but the films were never intended for anyone who can walk away from one of these films and say something like that. On the other hand, most of my friends are people who saw the films, loved them and bothered to get in touch with me."

He attended Cherokee County High School and Jacksonville State University as he developed his broad interest in film, which stretches across a broad range of artists, including well-respected directors like David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Derek Jarman and Harmony Korine.

Keener has screened his short films at the Nashville Film Festival and Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, where he won several awards at that festival's film scramble contests. He said the Bottletree felt like a natural venue to feature his style of storytelling.

"Bottletree was easily my first choice," he said. "They book the kind of bands and screen the kind of films that I like. I think their demographic is essentially my demographic."

The screening begins at 8 p.m. and will feature the short films The Man with Apple-Shaped Boxing Gloves, Hail Cracking Cobra Eggs, Hallelujah! Gorilla Revival and Hollow Porcelain Fish Chamber. Admission is free, and there will be drink and appetizer specials.

In addition to four films, Keener will screen a program of bizarre Dadaist, surrealist and absurdist short films from his favorite artists who directly influenced his work on the DVD.