“Poison Oaks” an Eccentric Local Film with a Great Spirit
When you watch “Poison Oaks,” you might respond in a variety of different ways. Perhaps you’ll be puzzled. Maybe surprised. Definitely amused and entertained. I guarantee you that you’ll get a smirk on your face at least once, simply because you can tell the spirit in which this little film was made. An effort by friends Sid Deluca and KD Kibbe, the locally produced short film (about 22 minutes) is described as a "true fictional" dark comedy about an eccentric Alamo Heights mother and daughter living in a condemned house filled with "garbage, cats, and broken dreams.”
The film is clearly a sendup of “Grey Gardens” but here the main characters are named Big Debbie and Little Debbie. Acknowledging the similarity of one character’s name with a dessert treat, KD describes Little Debbie as “a snack cake that’s way past her expiration date.” The movie is clearly a character piece--its (intentional) lack of continuity is all the proof you need of that. The cinema verite documentary feel is supposed to account for the lack of a plot, but I must admit that some connection to the ladies’ eviction notice at the beginning of the film might have made it all gel for me a bit more.
Sid and KD are a disarming couple of guys--easy to talk with and mellow as they come. But despite their laid-back demeanor, I have to admire Sid’s tenacity. He is a one-man PR and promotions army! He and KD are both passionate about their project, perhaps mostly because the idea for the film just fell into their lap. “One day I visited KD’s house and said, ‘Incredible! Your house is a mess!’ When you see the house in the film, it really IS that ugly. We didn’t change a thing inside.” From there, they just assembled friends to help act out some of the roles, got musicians to record music for the soundtrack, and even formed Rusty Apache Studios through the venture. The music, by the way, is a lot of fun to listen to throuhout the film, and it matches the feel of the movie perfectly.
Sid tells me, “Look. We’re not fooling ourselves. We know the technical limitations of what we made, but it’s all about taking chances. We did it for under $200. Anybody can do what we did. You don’t have to wait for anyone to ‘tell’ you you’re a filmmaker.” In a world of super-slick Hollywood productions that often have plenty of style but sometimes little substance, it’s nice to remember that truly anybody can try their hand at it. And that is the spirit makes “Poison Oaks” a film worth checking out.
Sept. 13 - “Poison Oaks” Soundtrack Release Party. The Cove,
7-10pm
Sept. 24 - South Texas Underground LGBT FilmFestival, TAMU-Corpus
Christi. 2pm-onward.
Sept. 27 - “Poison Oaks” Screening. Domy Books. Houston
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