| 
Northeast natives Paul South, left, and Bill Taft founded the Northeast Film Group. Their first film, “Berdella,” recently showed at Screenland. Their next project will be Northeast centered. Photo by Emily Randall
Two Northeast-raised men are soaking up a bit of local fame after the recent release of their first movie.
Bill Taft and Paul South comprise the production company Northeast Film Group. The 23-year-old recent college graduates are the minds behind the recent film “Berdella” and have their sights on Historic Northeast for their next production.
Taft and South have such Historic Northeast pride that they named their film group after the neighborhood where they grew up, became friends at Holy Cross Catholic School, and where South still resides.
The guys recently premiered the first Northeast Film Group production, “Berdella,” a fictional movie based on the 1980s Kansas City serial killer, Bob Berdella.
Although neither Taft nor South had experience making films — Taft has a business management degree from Rockhurst University, and South has a civil engineering degree from UMKC — they set out on the endeavor in May 2008.
“At first I wanted to do it for fun,” Taft said, “but then I saw the profit potential. As a business major, you see things like that.”
The men chose Berdella as a subject because his gruesome story was local but not well known.
“Anybody could make a movie, but I figured if you want to get people interested, you have to involve controversy,” Taft said.
Taft wrote the script in May, and they filmed throughout July and August of last year. Although Northeast wasn’t a prominent backdrop in the real killings, Taft and South filmed several scenes in the neighborhood. They rented a booth at Super Flea for filming scenes that took place at Berdella’s Westport Flea Market booth, and they shot some outdoor scenes at the reservoir and the Concourse.
South, whose hobby in college was reading about filmmaking whenever he needed a break from the engineering textbooks, then took over the nine-month editing process.
Meanwhile, Taft marketed “Berdella.” Online networks like Twitter and Facebook came in handy, and Taft said Facebook alone helped him sell out the premier this past month at Screenland in the Crossroads.
The guys also used guerrilla marketing to create buzz about the movie. They distributed stickers that read “Bobey,” a parody of the “Obey” street art campaign featuring the face of wrestler Andre the Giant in 1989. It’s hard to avoid the red and black playing-card sized stickers across Kansas City stuck on newspaper racks, light poles and other surfaces.
“A lot of people get the gimmick,” Taft said.
The filmmakers managed to name drop Northeast at least twice in the movie’s dialogue. South said it’s kind of an inside joke for them.
“Filmmakers always like to shout out their own neighborhoods and stuff,” South said.
Feedback on “Berdella” has been mixed. Although the guys said many people have enjoyed it, a recent review in The Pitch was not so kind. South and Taft said the bad review hurt, but they took it in stride.
“I was like, this is how the mayor must feel every day,” South said.
For their next film, they plan on going a less controversial route. They will attempt a documentary for the first time — this time centering on Historic Northeast. Their idea is to chronicle the history of the Italian community in Northeast while focusing on the American Sons of Columbus bocce league. Bocce is an Italian game similar to lawn bowling.
Both half Italian, South and Taft chose this concept after recalling time they spent at the Sons of Columbus as children through Boy Scouts.
“We’re going to cover the culture of the neighborhood, put an emphasis on how it’s always been immigrants,” Taft said. “[It’s] a story a lot of people want to tell but haven’t done yet.”
Taft and South are looking for community support by way of personal stories and photographs to include in the movie. Contact them at NEfilmgroup@gmail.com.
As for the future beyond the documentary, South hopes to attend law school, and Taft plans to attend graduate school. If the duo continues to make movies, Kansas City themes might become their M.O.
“In terms of doing this as a long-term plan, who knows?” Taft said. “I’m going into this as whatever happens, happens, and I’m having fun doing it.” |
