Ebullient
Ebullient is a short documentary about a broken bull-rider from West Texas who must find sobriety to save himself and his son.
Interview with Director/Producer/Editor Autie Carlisle
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Ross Edmonds was difficult to be friends with. I met Ross, the cowboy and main character in this documentary, while in an overly-trendy town in West Texas in 2014. I thought he was just styled like an eccentric cowboy, clicking along in his silver spurs, but I was wrong, he is a real cowboy. One who has broken his neck twice riding bulls. But his drunkenness was also real and was not something I wanted to highlight or be around. I never felt like he could tell me his story because it was something he couldn't quite tell himself.
I was visiting Texas again in 2019 and found out that Ross was sober. He had taken up surfing on the west coast of Ireland when retracing his Irish and Native American heritage. I found out that he had a son, and that he was someone who now wanted to own his own story. He still had his broken past, but he was trying to rebuild his life. Learning to be a father and learning to deal with loss and pain instead of running from it. And that felt like something worth telling.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I lived in New York City for ten years and San Francisco for five before that, and getting to story travel into the rural world of a cowboy is refreshing. If you are not around people like Ross, you think they might not exist. And if you live the cowboy life, it’s nice to feel that connection to a fellow cowboy. But beyond the dusty scenes and subtle twang is the encouragement of hearing someone else’s story of struggle and perseverance (or stubbornness…) and seeing yourself in it.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
We all struggle. That is very personal and very universal. This film is about the preservation and the choice to keep afloat. To be a good parent, to not give up, to take each day as it comes, to admit failure and feed the desire to overcome.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
When I started filming, we were in Lahinch, Ireland. And none of that footage made it into the final film. I thought I was going to build a parallel between the individual sport of riding a wild bucking bull and riding a powerful wave on a surfboard, but it was forced. In the end, there is something very simple about Ross Edmonds, and I wanted the film to reflect that. To show his environment, the ‘day in, day out,’ to taste a bit more of that struggle in one’s own home, one’s own mind, the story was cut to show Ross over a week of work on the Stringfellow Ranch.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Feedback has overall been good. From those who are familiar with my work, they observe that there is less humor and playfulness in this documentary than in my other documentaries, not a critique but just an observation.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Yes and no. I started this film a long time ago and I have grown a lot as a filmmaker since then. So there is an element of things that I would do differently if I was filming this story from scratch again. And with that realization must come an acceptance of what this film is, what I saw was possible off camera, what I was able to capture, and what was strongest on camera, in editing. I wish I would have pushed for more playfulness and humor to come out from Ross and his dynamic with his cowboy friends because it exists. But in front of people, Ross got a bit shy and felt he was being prideful because he was being featured in a documentary. So I could say that the feedback confirms to me to follow my instincts when filming.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I think the core motivator underlying this story is to give people who are struggling with substance abuse some honest encouragement. And for those family members along the way, thick in pain, a little perspective from someone’s experience. So I would appreciate gaining more exposure and who knows, maybe meeting some people who can help further this, or other projects of mine, along to a wider audience.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Sales agents and distributors are more than welcome to come aboard! Anyone who feels a connection to my film style is welcome to reach out.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Warm and helpful, of course! Yet as always in my documentaries, it is to allow someone to story travel into someone else’s shoes. Especially in a time when people are so quick to judge others who have a different lifestyle than theirs. I want the viewer to feel that we have more in common than not. And those things boil down to shared humanity.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How far do you have to go before you realize you’ve gone too far?
Would you like to add anything else?
I was grateful to have the amazingly talented Parker Smith spearhead the soundtrack for Ebullient. Although Parker and Ross never met, I sense there is an unspoken understanding, which I believe informs the instrumentals in this film. However, unrelated to Ebullient, Parker writes in another song a few lines that sort of summarizes my film: ‘I still find solace in silence. I still don’t care for violence, even though I fight with myself every day. I still like seeing where an open road will take me when the sky is as wide as you can see.’ So I guess he was the right musician to score Ebullient.
And thank you to the team at We Are Moving Stories for all the work you do to help filmmakers, especially us ladies.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I have been working on new episodes for Shasta Stories, a docuseries about my mystic hometown of Mount Shasta in Northern California, as well as a documentary about a thriving rural town in Southern Oregon and how the local Library is central to the town’s life force. You can get updates about these projects on my website www.autiecarlisle.com
Interview: January 2023
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Ebullient
Ebullient is a short documentary about a broken bull-rider from West Texas who must find sobriety to save himself and his son.
Length: 19:23
Director: Autie Carlisle
Producer: Autie Carlisle
About the writer, director and producer:
AUTIE CARLISLE is a self-trained documentary filmmaker from Mount Shasta, California with an emphasis on short profile documentaries that help bring communities together. After a successful career as a fashion designer in New York City for a decade, she took up documentary filmmaking. Her short documentaries Eight Countries, Fire and Go, have been featured in multiple film festivals. Since 2021 Autie has created seventeen episodes of her docuseries, Shasta Stories, and is currently producing a second season.
Key cast: Ross Edmonds (main subject), Noah Wise, Will Hughs, Andrew Smith, Payton Hughs, Freemond Edmonds, and Uncle Johnny (other individuals featured in film), Parker Smith (composer),
Looking for: sales agents, journalists and buyers
Instagram: @autiecarlisle
Hashtags used: #Ebullient
Website: www.autiecarlisle.com/ebullient
Other: Vimeo
Funders: Self-funded
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
Big Sky Film Festival / Missoula, Montana - February 17 to 26th 2023; AmDocs Film Festival / Palm Springs, -March 30 to April 3, 2023; Independent Screening / Mount Shasta, California - March, 2023