"Jimmy Tupper VS. The Goatman of Bowie"

This Summer I embarked on an experimental film project that would dabble in the genre of “found footage horror”. The inspiration for this film came after I watched the film “Fireproof”. It takes a lot to offend me, but “Fireproof” did it, and in a big way. Most people I know who have viewed the film say the same thing “Well it was cheesy, but its heart was in the right place”. I would agree that it was “cheesy” but I’m not so convinced the filmmakers' hearts were in the right place. I believe that the Gospel is true. It’s the most important truth I know. Jesus Christ came and died for our sins. He is Lord and Savior. What offended me was that these filmmakers decided to take the most “true” thing about this existence and wrap it in a story that felt manipulated and false. The world reflected in “Fireproof” felt staged to me. The fights didn’t hit the way fights hit in real life, the angst didn’t have the depth angst truly has, and even the friendships shown seemed very superficial.
Throwing your computer out the window doesn’t free you from demonic bondage. When a man confronts another man who he assumes has been having a relationship with his wife- it doesn’t normally end so calmly. It would be one thing if the filmmakers were making a fantasy film that used metaphor and allegory- but for all intents and purposes “Fireproof” is attempting to reflect the world we live in.
Unfortunately, when you take the genuine emotion out of these “real world” experiences, you dehumanize them until the entire message of the film seems like propaganda. The last thing I want the world to see the Gospel as is propaganda. God moves in miraculous and mysterious ways. I’m not saying he can’t snug everything in your life together with supernatural quickness. The Lord can redeem anything, and bring victory into everything. That being said, the filmmakers went one step beyond showing the Lord’s wonder and sovereignty. They made the mistake of moving their characters in such a way that would please our will and our want, not encourage our trust in the Lord. What if his buddy died on the tracks that day? What if the love dare book didn’t work? What if even after getting saved the relationship between the Mother and Caleb still needed years of restoration and healing? What if it was months before Catherine heard from the Lord? Or, if it was immediate, show me how that happened. Show me the Holy Spirit knocking her off her horse on Damascus road. Show me, don’t just stitch it together and tell me it’s somewhere between the cuts. It doesn’t come across as reality to me. It doesn’t seem wise to me to insert the Gospel into a film that appears to have such a facade. I thought about the film for days before forming an opinion on it, and then it dawned on me. As Christians we’ve become so obsessed with sterilizing what we view and what we emote, that we’ve (as artists, specifically filmmakers) lost touch with even the conflict within ourselves. We don’t know how to write about the human condition anymore. It’s like these filmmakers are afraid to say the truth, that even as Christians we have flaws. We struggle and we break down, and we mess up. In almost every Christian film I’ve seen, everything is just a little too perfect. As soon as a character becomes saved not only do they get eternal life, but all of their problems in this life are eradicated. That’s dangerous business, and it’s not even biblical. By the end of the film every problem Caleb had has been solved. Even problems we don’t really see addressed somehow get ironed out. I expected Caleb to walk out of his house at the end of the film and exclaim “Woah! My car’s been repainted too!!” Why do Christians feel the need to polish their art this way? Why can’t our art be an honest expression of who we are and where we are and not a “prettied up” version of what we all would like the world to look like? This kind of reaction doesn’t even come from a “hardened cynic”. Again, I know first hand that the Lord can do anything. He healed me from a mental illness I had struggled with since I was a child, and he did it in one night. My issue is with the lack of freedom “Christian Artists” are given, and the lack of freedom they exercise. Oddly enough, I don’t like an excess of “F” bombs and foul language in the movies I watch. As a director I will never show nudity in a film, and I hesitate to show explicit violence even in an historical context.
Which leads us to ”Jimmy Tupper vs. the Goatman of Bowie”, my tiny entry into the “horror” genre. After viewing “Fireproof” I realized that “Christian Film” needs a shot in the arm. The idea wasn’t meant to simply titillate a conservative audience, but rather to investigate. What’s better, making a film that is devoid of intimacy and knowledge of the human condition? Or a film that expresses what it is truly like to be lost and without spiritual anchor or guidance. How does the world sound? How does the world feel? What does anger look like? What does fear look like? “JTVSTGMOB” is an extreme example that will hopefully lead other Christian filmmakers to meet somewhere in the middle. Is it intentionally off base? No, not intentionally. Is it off base? I’m not sure. That’s what I am investigating, and here’s the most important thing- I am more than willing to be wrong. As an actor I will portray characters that are not believers. They have no grounding in a faith or a moral code. The characters in “JTVSTGMOB” are just these types of people. It’s important for me to attempt to understand people unlike myself. It helps breed compassion and understanding for me. As an actor, stepping into their shoes is one way I do that. Is it right? Again, I am investigating that. That is the exact purpose of this film, I am looking into a part of myself. It is an angry part of myself, a scared part, an ugly part, but it is an honest part. It uses metaphor and a monster as a symbol, but there is no lie in this film, and I'm proud of that. It is a sacrifice of sorts in the Christian art world. I don’t believe every film needs 300 “F” words, but we certainly do need a more realistic approach to how dialogue is written. A lot of my films may go the “Lost” route and choose to abide by a “PG-13” code without compromising the tangibility of raw emotion, however “JTVSTGMOB” is not one of those films. It is meant to be messy, and real, and sit at the other end of the spectrum, far far away from “Fireproof”. If the Holy Spirit is on something, people will be touched. I believe the Lord has used “Fireproof” to bring healing and newness to couples worldwide. Has it reached the mainstream? Arguably, no. My films are meant for everyone but especially those who won’t be stepping foot willingly into a Christian bookstore any time soon. My heart is to serve the Lord, and I believe in a weird way (and again, quite possibly ill-informed way) that “JTVSTGMOB” serves him. It is me trying to make sense of what I am doing here on earth as a Christian and a filmmaker. It is me crying out with characters full of torment that need purpose and direction and life. It is me saying there is something else we need from our Christians in the art world. It is me attempting to bring a level of vulnerability onto the screen so that others could match that vulnerability (and even surpass me). It’s much deeper than what it seems. I hope any viewers we may have will see its heart and have grace on me as I learn and grow as an artist.

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55 Hours on an Amtrak.

About two weeks ago, I took an Amtrak train from Arkansas to Los Angeles.

This is kind of a running log of what I experienced.

I boarded the train at 7:06 am out of Texarkana AR. I said goodbye to my mother and grandmother and plopped my bags down on a big blue chair.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of young children on this car. A couple of 3 year olds, a couple of infant twins, and a handful of 8-10 year olds.

The twins belonged to a young woman with a shaved head. She was big, but looked to have only gained the weight recently. She had a swastika tattoo on her right shoulder which she wasn’t making any attempt to hide, and a tattoo on her scalp too blurred to make out. She was pretty but seemed angry and sad.

Her kids were cute, they each sported little Mohawks and camouflage pajamas.

The loudest child was a kid whose name (as near as I can figure) was Andre. He would yell just for yelling’s sake and kept our whole car awake all night with screams and cries. He would run around in his diaper and yell at other passengers, and try to climb up onto the overhead luggage rack. “I want my daddy, I want my daddy” he’d scream on a constant loop. He'd also steal your food.

The skinhead mom loses her temper every 5 seconds. Screaming F words and GD’s at her kids as if they were teenagers. At numerous points over the ride other passengers told her to get ahold of her kids and get ahold of her temper. She didn’t take too well to either suggestions.

At one point when I was neary asleep. Someone was yelling at the skinhead mom- “This train is supposed to be relaxing and joyous” to which she replied “I don’t know where you’ve been, Amtrak is miserable it’s always been miserable”. I couldn't agree more.

Now the mom of Andre is saying “I smell sh*t”. Awesome. So do I.

Most of the trip had just been loud kids, angry moms, angry passengers, and a couple of semi-crazy people talking to themselves. One guy in particular kept alternating between saying “Otis Spunkmeyer has too many calories” and singing Rihanna’s “Take a Bow”.

Early last night the train came to a stop in Temple Texas.

The routine stop soon grew longer and passengers started to wonder what was delaying us. I started to overhear murmurs that a woman was raped on board and that the train had to wait for police to arrive. Sure enough, a group of teenagers who had been riding the train since NY (and had been drinking on the train since NY also) had been involved in an assault downstairs in a dressing room.

A young woman was accusing one of the youn men of rape and the train had to stay in the station until FBI could arrive as Amtrak is federally owned and operated. This caused both excitement and unrest amongst the passengers. People were thrilled by the fact that a crime had been committed in their train (the teenagers were actually passengers on my car) but also incredibly perturbed at the delay. No one seemed concerned about the crime or the victim. Many people had heard that the woman had been assaulted by her boyfriend and they deemed that somehow less deplorable. Otis Spunkmeyer had heard they were looking for a lost cell phone that the woman had in her possession at the time of the attack- so he went searching throughout the train explaining to everyone what he was doing and how he was helping the police investigation.

Earlier that day I had struck up a nice conversation with a gentleman from Illinois in the dining car. For parties smaller than 4 they seat you with other passengers, so I ate my veggie burger with him and an older gentlemant from New England. The older man had to wait until the next station stop just to get up and move back to his seat, the rocking of the train had knocked him down one too many times earlier in the trip.

The middle aged man had just left Illinois where his mother had passed away. He had promised himself that after his Mother was dead he would move to be closer to his two daughters in Texas.

He used to work for Universal in Hollywood and dealt in guest relations. He told me a story about driving Richard Dreyfuss around because his daughter was having a birthday party on one of the soundstages. He said he was on coke for most of his films in the 70's.

He also told me about a phonecall he received once from Eva Marie Saint. Oh man. His roommate in Hollywood was a sound guy who went on to work on "Goodfellas" and numerous Clint Eastwood films. He Told him once that he worked on a picture with Faye Dunaway and Jon Voight and couldn’t decide who the bigger Diva was.

As the train was stopped in Temple I went down to the café to get a hot dog. The middle aged gentleman was there and was himself enjoying a drink and a snack.

I sat down with him and we talked more about other celebrity encounters of his. The café attendant was asking that everyone remain in the café car who had alcohol since she was in trouble for allowing alcohol to somehow get into the hands of minors earlier than night (the kids involved in the assault).

I looked around the cafe, a couple of hispanic men with beers in hand, and another young white guy with a Heineken. In a few moments a young black man came down and ordered a beer. The café attendant wouldn’t serve him and claimed it was because she saw him with the party earlier who was now under investigation.

He called "bullsh*t" on that reasoning and kept saying “I aint with them, I aint with them, it says Samuel Brown on my ticket and that’s all I’m with, Samuel Brown is all I am, I aint them, why aint there names on my ticket?”

He went and got an Amtrak attendant. She came down to the café. The café worker and Amtrak worker explained to the gentleman that they were only serving passengers who were old enough to not be carded. Men and women that were clearly of age.

Samuel Brown was 28, there was a young white guy (no older than 25) nearby sipping a Heineken. The last thing I wanted was for Samuel Brown to see that and freak out. The café worker was white, but the Amtrak lady was black.

He stormed off one last time yelling "bullsh*t" and went back to his seat. I returned to mine and listened in on the woman two seats back explaining what she heard happened concerning the attack. The rape, the teenagers, the alcohol, the missing cell phone, the boyfriend, the rapist, all involved were now in the custody of the Temple police. One woman exclaimed “This is a movie, we must be on film right now, somebody make a movie of this!”.

I thought about it.

The woman who was doing the explaining was a redhead with two redhead toddler daughters who made far less noise than the skinhead babies and Andre. There was also a group of young Hispanic kids who were insanely well behaved. One of them, a 3 year old girl, had to be the prettiest child I had ever seen.

The only thing weird about those kids, was the fact that they sat all three in a row (ages 3, 5, and 10) watching “The Last King of Scoltland” on a portable DVD player.

After 3 hours of waiting in Temple, we started to move again. The train had been investiagated as a crime scene and people were talking about men walking around in blue gloves, digging through dressing rooms and bathrooms.

We stopped a while later and they added cars to the train. It was loud, clanking and clunking for at least an hour. In the morning we were headed in the opposite direction. This meant to the skinhead mom- that we were no longer headed toward Los Angeles. She flipped out, yelled for an attendant and started screaming "I have to get to LA!! I HAVE TO!!". The attendant explained that we were still on track in the right direction, cars were added to the train and we were about to turn our chairs around so we'd be facing the direction we were headed.

Over the course of that day- I started noticing a big man who was becoming more and more intoxicated as he would move about the cars. He said a couple of weird things to me and other passengers and at one point asked if I grabbed a dude's butt that I had just walked by. I hadn't, he didn't believe me.

Late that night we stopped again, more cops came on board. The big man was arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct. He was escorted out of the train kicking and screaming. Teenagers on board were laughing at how "Ghetto" this train had become.

The next morning a black woman stood up and said "I don't know if yall white folk have heard yet, but now that Obama's President- yall need to report to the cotton fields for orientation"

Yikes, I turned behind me to see if the skinhead had heard- she wasn't there. Phew, I guess she ran to the cafe for a bit.

When she did return, someone accused her of mistreating her kids. She started yelling "You don't know me, you don't know us- you're a thief! I'll tell everyone you've been stealing from them!" I have no idea what she was talking about. Neither did anyone else on the train. I kept worrying, is this gonna amount to some race riot on the train? So many arguments, nobody getting sleep, so much anxiety and social tension. I contemplated getting off the train in El Paso- 10 hours from LA. I thought I could rent a car and get there without the freakouts and arrests.

I decided to stick it out, and finally- 55 hours later we arrived. Back in Los Angeles.

I can safely say I will never ride Amtrak again for longer than 10 hours at a time, unless I'm armed- then I'll consider getting on for longer.

Zeppo Jonas 1 and 2

Zeppo Jonas Introduction from Andrew Bowser on Vimeo.


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I thought I'd post some videos we've been working on lately.

Justine and Gary (Shot by Michael Eller and Andrew Bowser, Edited by Andrew Bowser)


Justine and Gary from Andrew Bowser on Vimeo.

"The Medicine Man" by The Hush Sound (Shot by David Larkins, Directed and Edited by Andrew Bowser)


"Medicine Man" by The Hush Sound from Andrew Bowser on Vimeo.

"The Grey Man" by Copeland (Shot, Directed, and Edited by Andrew Bowser)


"The Grey Man" by Copeland from Andrew Bowser on Vimeo.

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The Mother of Invention Trailer from Lawnmower Sounds on Vimeo.

A Smattering of videos...

I wanted to post some of my videos here on my blog. Some are older, some newer...all enjoyable?


Brink Wedding from Andrew Bowser on Vimeo.


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