“Great art comes from great pain,” utters
cult film legend Lloyd Kaufman halfway through The
Art of Pain, which won Best Comedy in last
month’s Route 66 Film Festival. The feature-length, low-budget comedy was produced in
Illinois by local filmmaker Matt Brookens. Ten years ago, Brookens, was
running around Springfield shooting scenes with his brother, Greg.
Growing up in Springfield provided many opportunities
for Matt and Greg to hone their acting and directing skills at places like
Sacred Heart-Griffin, The Muni, and The Springfield Theater Center.
Although Matt now lives in California while Greg has stayed in Chicago, the
two remain a team. Greg, one of the movie’s co-stars, is studying
visual effects at DePaul while Matt works the phones in an effort to sell
their first feature film.
“I know there’s an audience for this
movie out there, a place for it,” says Brookens, who made the movie
last year in Chicago during weekend and evening hours away from his day job
as a graphic designer.Now on the west coast, he’s still paying the bills as a
designer while hoping for that first big break. In Hollywood, it seems
everyone has a script and a movie to sell. Brookens believes The Art of Pain has some
advantages.
First, a stamp of approval from Troma Entertainment (The Toxic Adventure) legend
Lloyd Kaufman, who agreed to appear in a cameo after Brookens’ short
film, Skunk Ape!?,
debuted at Tromadance in 2004. Kaufman’s appearance does many things
for Brookens’ film. It not only lends credibility, but also gives the
audience an instant frame of reference. Suddenly, The Art of Pain, a zany mash-up of
ninjas, zombies, marijuana, and art, makes perfect sense. It’s a cult
film. Complete with what Brookens calls a “rad zombie dream
sequence.”
The film was made in part, Brookens says, as an
alternative to the stale formulas Hollywood is recycling. The dream
sequences and the zombie makeup were part of the fun, but Brookens also
hopes the underlying message about following dreams and overcoming
obstacles comes through.
In today’s world of independent filmmaking, a
young director must take risks. “It’s hard to get noticed
unless you win or at least show at Sundance,” he laments, but
Brookens’ film is enjoying some success. He’s won Best Comedy
at The Route 66 Fest (which Matt calls Springfield’s “cultural
gem”), the Audience Choice award at Florida’s Sunscreen Film
Festival, and enjoyed a sold-out premiere in Chicago last May. These
milestones are nice, but have done little to recoup the film’s
expenses. And in Hollywood, you’ve got to make money in order to keep
making art. Brookens says that the struggles are worthwhile; he’s
completed a feature film that’s ready to hit the marketplace,
he’s worked with one of his heroes (Kaufman), and he’s made
some good friends in the process.
Like his protagonist, Matt Brookens just wants to
create art and have fun doing it, which is the advice he offers to other
aspiring directors: to make movies without striving for total perfection at
first. “Just have fun doing it,” he says, “and without
realizing it, you will have trained yourself to do everything you need to
do in the film world.”
Life is fun for the Brookens brothers, and Matt is
dreaming of his next movie. He won’t say much about it, only that
there will be animation, machine guns, unicorns, and a powerful female
lead. Eat your heart out, Hollywood. Or have zombies do it for you.
Check out the movie at www.artofpainmovie.com
(DVDs available).
Zach Baliva left Warner Brothers after four years to
produce the feature film My Name Is Jerry, and return to central Illinois.
He now lives in Springfield.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2008.
