Writer-Director Phil Chambliss in person!

"Phil was born, raised, and has lived his entire life in Calhoun County, Arkansas. He never went to film school or college, never took a class or read a book on filmmaking, and, as far as I can tell, saw very few movies. But the ones he did see – Sergio Leone’s “For a Few Dollars More,” the entire Peyton Place television special, and a particular episode of The Rifleman in which Lee Van Cleef plays Johnny Drago – led him to take the ninety-five dollars his then-wife had saved for a new icebox and purchase a video camera. With that one camera, and using a few guys from work whom he managed to talk into becoming actors, Phil went on the make twenty-six films.

Phil Chambliss is America’s first folk-art filmmaker.

Phil's films are a revelation, full of unexpected humor, complex social commentary, and a strong, almost suspended, sense of time and place.

Phil is simply a person who needs to create. He could have just as likely picked up a knife and whittled a wooden pig, or painted the Rapture on the side of a barn. Instead, he sat in the guard shack at the gravel pit every night, writing and planning his movies. His fellow workers probably thought he was nuts, but that can be a reliable indicator of artistic genius." Dub Cornett, Oxford American

“An Arkansas auteur...imagine if Fellini had lived in a trailer in Arkansas instead of Rome.” - The London Times

It's likely that mankind is not prepared for the inimitable genius Chambliss has harnessed, working entirely without -- and beyond the limits of -- conventional actors, storylines or even formal training. The results are a dizzyingly unique and entertaining concoction of Southern tall tales, nightmare visions, voyeuristic fantasies and undefinable revelations. While the uninitiated might be tempted to dismiss Chambliss as another homebaked filmmaker, a single viewing of any of his shorts is guaranteed to change this perception, as well as the very idea of what a lone visionary is capable of...both in the field of art and in spite of it. (Zack, Fantastic Fest)

This program contains the following shorts from the filmmaker's diverse but consistently bizarre and brilliant body of work:

THE DEVILS HELPER (1995, 15 min) - Two mischievous hunters on their way to pull some lowdown pranks encounter a mysterious supernatural figure known as the Devils Helper.

SHADOWS OF THE HATCHET-MAN (1982, 26 min) - A bloodthirsty killer must be stopped. Only a few know his identity, and most who see him don't live to tell about it. Will shirtless Sheriff Dumpling solve the crime before the hatchet falls again?

THE MR. VISIT SHOW (2002, 15 min) - Roving rural reporter Mr. Visit and his one-man crew Stretch unlock the seedy secrets of Bird Mart proprietor Mr. Candy Farmall.

FREE (1999, 5 min) - A woman in lingerie is handcuffed and held hostage as punishment for stealing a sixty dollar check.

The screenings will be introduced by Phil Chambliss, and followed by a Q&A.