Visions of movie scenes danced in Michael Lee’s head.
Not quite sugarplums, these glimpses were of the whimsical variety: three friends, ala Moe, Curly and Larry, take a psychedelic and carry a couch across town; two dying poets try to write their masterpieces; clowns in a pie eating contest; a chicken crossing a road set to Richard Wagner’s classical music piece “Ride of the Valkyries.”
But what to do with them?
It was 2021, the middle of the pandemic, and Lee, a Manitou Springs High School graduate and lifelong actor who’s performed with Theatreworks and Fine Arts Center Theatre Company, among others, decided to quilt together those disparate ideas into his first feature-length film, “Duck Rabbit.”
Set on one beautiful day in the Pikes Peak region, four primary stories interconnect: a play in rehearsal, a writer trying to decipher what she wants to say, three friends carrying a couch across town, and a kid putting up posters looking for a missing chicken.
“There are adult themes, but it’s supposed to be reminiscent of Charlie Brown and The Little Rascals,” Lee said in a Go Fund Me video. “Nostalgia is a key thing. It’s like one of those ‘90s movies where there’s a million characters and all their storylines are happening in one day.”
He wasn’t sure what to do with the finished script, but after reaching out to actor friends and doing some readings for the “kids movie for grown-ups,” he moved forward with the project. As a first-time film director, Lee began to raise money for the project produced by Grown Up Costume Party, the film company he started in 2019 with Christian O’Shaughnessy and Bob Morsch.
“Duck Rabbit” will debut Friday at Millibo Art Theatre. Screenings will be held throughout October at several venues with the hopes of raising enough money to send the film to festivals, including Slamdance, an annual film festival in Park City, Utah, that focuses on emerging artists.
“I’m excited to sit with audiences to see what they laugh at. It’s pretty silly,” Lee said. “But for all the pretentious and philosophical conversations, I love the very dumb humor in it and silly moments and the actor moments.”
The homegrown movie stars almost 20 local actors, including Kala Roquemore, Harlan Huckaby, Omid Dastán Harrison, Anne Stewart, Rachel Fey, Brooke Callahan and O’Shaughnessy. Crew members are all local, including director of photography Travis Eckland, and all scenes were shot within 10 minutes of Lee’s downtown home. About two-thirds of the movie was shot outside: “When God is your set designer, a real key way of making the most of zero money is a cool bridge or tree we can sit under.”
Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize a host of locations, including the former Lulu’s Downstairs in Manitou Springs, Millibo Art Theatre, Monument Valley Park, Martin Drake Power Plant and the downtown train tracks.
“We paid everyone — cast and crew,” Lee said. “The goal was to raise $10,000 and spend a third on the production budget — feeding people, costumes, props. Then a third to paying everyone — actors made $300-$400 or $20 if they were just a day player. Now we’re raising the last third to send it to festivals.”
And the entirely public domain soundtrack is filled with much of the aforementioned classical music, all available for free.
“One of my goals is that people will watch and be inspired,” Lee said. “It’s about a character saying what do I want to say and write, what’s my voice? Everyone deals with that — having a desire to express yourself and be understood and heard. I felt very misunderstood last few years. I felt like a lunatic making this. I didn’t expect this to be so personal when I wrote it. There’s something about finally being able to show it to people that’s very baring my soul a little bit.”
