Posted: 11/21/2004

Brushfires

(2004)

by Gary Schultz

Jason Stephens’ Split Pillow continues their tradition of improv filmmaking with a collection of stories by and about women.

Split Pillow returns with their unique style of improv filmmaking with Brushfires, the follow up to their feature film debut The Cliffhanger that came out last year. The style of Split Pillow is similar to that of playing Chinese telephone. The idea is improv filmmaking where a story is broken into chapters and a different director films each chapter with a different crew allowing complete spontaneity for better or worse. Things were done a bit differently than their last feature where this time around the script has been roughly flushed out in preproduction giving the later chapters at least an idea of what is to come where as in The Cliffhanger, they literally went week to week trying to piece together a story waiting to see the outcome of the previous.

Brushfires goes something like this… when a shy girl, secretly in love with her rocker-girl housemate, meets an unbalanced heiress on the run, anything could (and does) happen in Brushfires. As the three women negotiate the dangerous relationships among them, the seven women directors weave a sensual tale of suspense. Drawing inspiration from the poem by Jessica Wilbur and the surrealist parlor game, The Exquisite Corpse, each director selected a word or phrase on which to base her segment, and the seven chapters of the film bear their individual marks.

In my opinion girls do it better, this time around. Brushfires much like a turbo charged engine versus a four cylinder, is even better than the previous feature release The Cliffhanger. This time around the movie was broken into seven chapters each conceived by a different female director. It’s the woman’s turn to direct this time and it looks like the girls beat up on the boys, referring to Split Pillow’s previous feature The Cliffhanger that was directed by all male directors. The narrative is stronger in Brushfires, which is probably due to careful planning during the story stages. The story does fluctuate in tone and the film has minor flaws and like many independent films some characters are just more interesting than others. Brushfires was shot on DV, on basically no budget and was made by true independent filmmakers and actors working for nothing more than the pleasure of making independent films. Split Pillow further asserts themselves as an independent force in the Chicago filmmaking community. They embark on several outreach programs and I think really encompass what indie film is supposed to be about, getting back to story and character. Brushfires comes one step closer to this. I can’t wait to see the next project from Split Pillow. I think things will continue to progress.

Here’s what we have learned so far—improv filmmaking isn’t a perfect science. Brushfires was written and directed by seven remarkable women. Brushfires is on tour being screened at several of the International Lesbian and Gay film festivals throughout the country. Check out dates at www.splitpillow.com.

Gary Schultz is an indie filmmaker in Chicago, IL.

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