And here we are, once again, to partake in another fresh installment of Indie Beat. Yes, that’s right, your favorite independent filmmaker podcast is back. What a treat. This time we stuck our microphone in the face of Kansas-native Christopher Good.
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Good has been at it for a while. His first short film “Return of the Gumshoe Kids” took him over nine years to finish and acted as a sort of film school for the director. Usually, that type of descriptor doesn’t paint the movie itself is such a great light. To be clear, that isn’t the case with ‘Gumshoe Kids’ — though it is essentially a dry-run for Good’s later, more polished films, it still stands on its own as a manic, exciting, and aching tale of a detective who can’t let his past go. Funny and bursting at the seams with creativity (with a gut-punch of an ending), “Return of the Gumshoe Kids” is worth a spin on its own merit.
Good followed up that film with “Holy Moly,” a short that chronicles the life of a dumpee who decides to win back his ex by hiring a “life-enhancement” coach. Weird hilarity ensues. Not too long after that did the filmmaker took a dip in feature-length water, coming out with “Mudjackin,” a movie following two siblings that happen to be in a mudjacking business, a nu-metal band, and maybe (accidentally) involved with a group of neo-nazis. With this, Good proved he could employ his vision and sensibilities to a longer form story while still packing in all the fevered zaniness and dark foreboding.
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https://vimeo.com/76638080
And all of these went under the radar. When your film is “Kiarostami meets Oshima plus Chantal Akerman and vague notions of John Krish,” and it doesn’t get a lot of play, I get it. But Good’s work is not only impressive, no-budget be damned, but it’s also immensely pleasing. This devaluing of Good’s career all came to an end, though, with the release of “Brad Cuts Loose” which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and this year’s “Crude Oil” which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. The latter film is one of the few shorts Sundance picked up for its tour around the country — check and see if the program is coming to your neck of the woods.
You also may know Good from his work in the music video world as he’s been making a ton of videos throughout the years, the most notable being the video for indie artist Mitski’s banger ‘Nobody.’ Check it out here.
With his star steadily rising, we cornered the filmmaker and got him to speak about his current ascendance, his start as an illustrator, good and bad advice and more!
As always, IndieBeat is part of The Playlist Podcast Network—which includes The 4th Wall, Be Reel, The Discourse, and more – and can be heard on iTunes, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and now on Spotify. To listen on this page, you can stream the podcast via the AnchorFM embed below or up top. Follow us on iTunes, and you’ll get this podcast as well as our other shows regularly. Be sure to subscribe, and drop us a comment or a rating as we do appreciate it. Thanks for listening and check out Indie Beat on Facebook.
