Montgomery

DR 3-17-2008 During the editing of Kamp Katrina, Tim
Messler recommended that Ashley and I watch a
documentary titled Seventeen, a film made in Muncie,
Indiana for PBS that never actually premiered on TV
because of its controversial subject matter (nor was
it released - we were able to watch a bootleg copy in
NYC). Seventeen is the kind of film that I aspire to
make one day. After researching the filmmakers - Joel
DeMott and Jeff Kreines - I came across another
documentary they created titled Demon Lover Diary
(which I've never seen). Like Seventeen, Demon Lover
found its way into obscurity, never having a release
in the US for reasons unknown to me to this day. A few
months later, Jeff and Joel's name came up during a
film festival panel. Later that day I looked up their
names on google and found an article that explained
during the making of Demon Lover Diary, Ted Nugent
chased Joel and Jeff out of town at gunpoint, all
which was captured on film. The article ended by
saying that the couple had not made another film and
they were living somewhere outside of Montgomery, AL
inventing new cameras.

Jump ahead one year. Ashley and I are in Montgomery,
AL, getting ready to screen Kamp Katrina at the Capri
Theatre when Martin (formerly known as "Milton"), the programmer, was giving us a
tour of the town and mentioned Joel and Jeff in a
passing conversation. It turns out that Jeff and Joel
sometimes show up for screenings at the Capri. Low and
behold, two hours later a man with a greying beard
walks into the Capri and Martin (aka: Milton) leans over to me and
says, "That's Jeff." After the screening - which was
well attended by about 45-50 people - Jeff took three
hours of his time to sit and talk with us about his
years of filmmaking, the making of his and Joel's
films, and how they ended up in Montgomery. Indeed, it
was a major highlight of the Southern Film Circuit's
tour! Next, we're off to Mobile, AL for another
screening tonight.