The Far Way is an upcoming Richmond based film that needs some help from the community to get this adventure to the screen.
There is a film in production about mind butterflies, a mysterious suitcase, the housing crisis, friendship and adventure, that explores the lines between reality and imagination and it is all set in the backdrop of Richmond, VA. And you can be a part of making this magic happen.
The Far Way is documentary filmmaker Bill Badgley’s first narrative feature film. Badgley, who founded the production company Molasses Manifesto, has a long history in documentary film making. He recently produced the docuseries Conversations With A Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes, which hit number one on Netflix. He has directed four feature documentaries including several music documentaries like Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits and Rebel Dread about Don Letts, the videographer for The Clash.
I went over to Badgley’s house to chat with him and producer John Reaves about the film, how they got here and their upcoming fundraiser. Bonus, I got a preview of some of the amazing props and costumes that will be on display at the benefit.
At its surface, the film tells the story of Jonathan and Wönderboots, two unhoused men who set off to deliver a mysterious suitcase across the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it is really about so much more.
As Badgley explains, “At its core, this is a film about hope, having or not having it, believing in something so much that it makes you feel crazy. I really wanted to write something about that, about choosing how to live. Are you gonna choose to live in a way where you believe in beauty so much that it becomes real? Or are you gonna allow the pressures and realities and the bullshit to get in the way.”
Badgley based both of the main characters on real people. The Johnathan character (who is going to be played by a yet undisclosed actor but word is he was in Reservation Dogs and Parks and Rec and has a new film coming out with Theo Von and David Spade this summer) is drawn from a guy that ran a punk house where he lived in 2000 between tours with his band Federation X.
He’d had a tough life and a drug problem, and one day his dad showed up, who he hadn’t seen since 1971. “His dad had essentially been on a day drink for 30 years, and he died two years after he came back. So it was very clear that he had come home to die,” Badgley recalls. “He hadn’t seen his wife and his child and came home 30 years later, and all of a sudden I was living with the two of them. And I thought, ‘I will write about this.’”
The other main character, Wönderboots (who was one of the characters from the mega-hit show Lost), is a bit of an amalgamation. Visually, he was based off an unhoused guy Badgley would see around Echo Park in LA, who he referred to as Endless Summer. “He looked like he just walked off a family vacation in 1975 and never went back.”
He combined that look with aspects of his own personality: “Emotionally, he is me, believing in projects and feeling crazy to believe in this thing because whenever you make art of any kind, you start out and it doesn’t exist. And then at some point, if you’re successful, there’s more of it that exists than doesn’t exist.”
Wönderboots sees these magical butterflies that no one else can see, and these butterflies are leading him to these special boots, and everyone thinks he is crazy until it becomes a reality, or what Badgley refers to as “reality plus.” Badgley explains the connection between his emotional experience with his projects and the meaning behind the magical mind butterflies: “The way he sees these butterflies and believes that even though he’s standing in a world of garbage, he sees beauty because that’s who he is.”
The duo find a mysterious suitcase, which they decide to return to the owner, and that becomes the catalyst for their adventure. The suitcase itself is packed with meaning. “I like to call it an intelligent McGuffin. It’s a character in the story that basically picks them and then torments them for the entire movie with its silence. The Jonathan character, who’s basically living in denial of everything, he leaves his family for a reason and he’s denying all this stuff. He slowly, over the course of the movie, realizes that it’s his baggage. It’s a story about how you can’t outrun your own baggage. It will follow you wherever you go. And so it becomes a story about him interacting with the items in here and discovering that they’re his.”
When Badgley originally wrote the script, the film was based in LA, where he had been living at the time. He eventually moved to Richmond and decided RVA made a much better backdrop for the film.
“As an artist, especially as a filmmaker, you have to check two boxes, right? There’s a practicality box and a content box. And so the practicality box was ticked the minute that I stepped out of the airport. I was like, well, I’m here, and it’s a lot easier to make movies here than it is in LA.”
But it wasn’t just about practicality. The location change added much-needed depth to the film: “Because one of the characters wears flip-flops, the thought became, the minute the flip-flop hit the cobblestone, it became a story about America. Because this place is so old and it’s at the heart of so many issues, both positive and negative, about where we are as a country. Having this basic conversation between optimism and pessimism in this place is a whole different conversation than having it in LA, which was much more about glitz and glamour. It really grounded [the film] to bring it here.”
Having worked in documentaries for so long, the switch to narrative was not easy, but it was something Badgley always wanted to do. He worked on documentaries for 17 years, and at some point he made up a tradition where, when he finished a doc, he would write a screenplay immediately the next morning.
“Your freedom with docs is that you move around the pieces that you’re given with the heart that you have in terms of your ethics and staying true to the subject. And then when you move to narrative, you write whatever you want. So I would just enjoy that freedom,” and that is how The Far Way was born.
Well, not exactly born yet. Badgley and his team still need to raise about $40K more, and that is where you come in.
Reaves is spearheading the fundraiser not just because he believes in the film, but also because the housing crisis, specifically in Richmond, is an issue that is close to his heart. “I grew up in Richmond, and homelessness, the housing crisis, has always been an issue that my family has been aware of,” explains Reaves. “My mom is a social worker and she used to run food pantries in places where they don’t have a grocery store anywhere nearby, food deserts. I’ve always been very aware of what’s going on in Richmond. So what made me want to get involved with this story was the fact that we would be set in that world. I could see the movie being made in Richmond. And then the thing that was most important to me is to make it as authentic or true to the dignity of people as possible.”
He reached out to the community and met Maureen Neal. “She was on the board for several places that dealt with the housing crisis. So, basically, her whole deal is she’s a fundraiser. She knows how to get people together. And she’s been involved with Daily Planet.” They are donating 5% of the money from the fundraiser to Daily Planet Health Services, which is an organization that has been around since 1969 and provides health and social services to people experiencing homelessness, so the money will go straight back into the Richmond community to the people that need it most.
Now comes the fun part for the community to get involved. If you have a local company, any shop or restaurant, you can get your business featured as a location background. If you have a dope car, get that shit in the movie. The fundraiser donation incentives involve tiers like being able to name a character, walk-on roles as an extra, or producer credits. There are also so many other awesome incentives like VIP premiere tickets, a chance to attend a private screening with Badgley, or an invite to the wrap party.
And if you don’t have cash, think about what you do have that could help a local film production come to fruition. Aside from cars and locations, if you have access to a bus service or a casket, yes, a casket, they really need you. Dream it, be it, babies.
At the fundraiser, you will be able to see some of the handmade props like the butterfly, the magical boots, the characters’ outfits, and the suitcase. The magical boots are white alligator cowboy boots they found at a Mexican market in LA, which Richmond-based artist Kate Koyiades brought new life to by adding butterfly appliqués and wings.
Koyiades became integral to their props and costume department. As Badgley explains, “She’s got a great mind. No ego, no attitude. My total jam. She used to work on The Walking Dead and we initially hired her to age these costumes because they had to be aged, which is kind of tricky because they also have to be machine washable. So it’s an art form. She came in and did that and then she started working on props and our relationship with her just kind of grew. She’s all of this stuff.”
The distressed costumes and the boots will be on view at the fundraiser so you can see her detailed work firsthand.
The animated butterflies will be based off a prop created by an LA artist named Devin Flynn (who is also painting Wönderboots’ headwings). He had his own Adult Swim show called Ya’ll So Stupid and was the animation director for Wonder Showzen. The butterfly is absolutely insane, a vibrant mix of textures, mirrors, and colors that will be brought to life through the animation of Baltimore-based artist Mark Pottman.
There is a free table read, no RSVP needed, at Grace Street Theater (934 W. Grace Street) on Saturday, April 11th at 4 PM, where you can meet the cast. They will reveal the actors who play the two main characters, and you will get a baby taste of the magic they are brewing.
That will be followed by the launch party/fundraiser at Daily Planet Health Services, 24 E. Cary Street, Richmond, from 5:30–7:30 PM. Due to limited space, RSVP is required for that. Just shoot an email to Reaves at john@molassesmanifesto.net.
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