Duane Graves - The Wild Man of Navidad

There are a just a few filmmaker friends here in town that I can say, "We go way back." Duane Graves and I go "way back". Kind of like with David Lowery, the Zellners, Bob Ray. We've got history together. We've really grown up together. As filmmakers.

I met Duane in 2000 when both our first features were on the festival circuit. I was out with cicadas and he was out with Up Syndrome. If you haven't seen Up Syndrome, I'm telling you, i's a must see. It's a wonderful documentary portrait of his best friend who has down syndrome. It's as genuine and honest as you get. I'd loan you my copy, but it's pretty scratched and ragged from making other friends watch it. Luckily if you're in Austin you can rent it at your local mom and pop's video store. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for me to convince Duane to take his rights back from his current distributor and put it in the hands of someone that's gonna do something with it. Typical distribution bullshit.

So now Duane's heading to Tribeca at the end of the month with his latest film The Wild Man of Navidad. I haven't seen it yet, but I totally dig the trailer. I know old 70s horror is Duane's thing, so I'm anxious to see his own take on it. I'll be thinking really good thoughts as him and Justin head to NYC. If you're up there next week and the week after, go check it out.