"Proud Citizen": Thom Southerland’s award-winning film employs all Lexington actors

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Making waves in the national festival circuit, the Lexington film “Proud Citizen” rejects traditional film-making notions – and calls into question preconceived notions of Southern hospitality.

When Lexington director Thom Southerland initially pitched the plot for his most recent film to his filmmaker friends in Los Angeles, their first reaction was “Don’t make this movie.”

Indeed, Southerland’s film “Proud Citizen” blatantly defies the traditional model of Hollywood filmmaking. Centering on the story of a middle-aged Bulgarian playwright who travels to Kentucky for the world premiere of her autobiographical, communist-era play, the film employs mostly amateur screen actors, a relatively anticlimactic plot line and no script to speak of. But despite any potential impediments, the film has been selected to screen in at least eight well-accredited film festivals across the country since its release earlier this year, garnering the “top narrative feature” prize in three of them, an “audience favorite” selection in another and a special jury award for acting for lead actress Katerina Stoykova-Klemer.

“It’s the most successful film I’ve ever made – I’m amazed, actually, that it’s as successful as it is,” said Southerland, a 20-year veteran filmmaker who also won a regional Emmy this year for “Body Maps,” a documentary he directed that follows the effects of art therapy on organ transplant patients.

Southerland directly attributes the success of “Proud Citizen” to its rejection of conventional notions of filmmaking, as well as to the collaborative attitude of his cast and crew, who he says were open to taking risks – such as acting without a script – and thinking outside the box.

“The beauty of film is that it’s like a house of cards,” he said. “It all falls apart if one card is taken out.”

One of the most important collaborations driving the film is that of Southerland and Stoykova-Klemer, a first-time actress who was integral in helping create the storyline. The duo, who barely knew each other before embarking on the project, loosely based the “Proud Citizen” on Stoykova-Klemer’s real-life experiences as an outsider traveling to a foreign place.

“I’m pretty believable in that role,” said Stoykova-Klemer, whose character, Krasimira Stanislava, appears in nearly every frame of the film. Much like the film’s protagonist, Stoykova-Klemer is a writer from Bulgaria; the play at the center of the film is an actual work of hers and her poetry is beautifully woven throughout the film.

The film follows five days in the life of Krasimira as she travels to America for the first time, for the world premiere of her deeply personal play, “Black Coat.” Taking place in a small community theater in Lexington, Kentucky, the debut of the play and the trip are the result of a second-place prize in a playwriting competition; as Krasi points out in a voice-over narration, “First place was a trip to New York ... There was no third place.”

The idea that Krasimira would be a second-place winner was Southerland’s idea, said Stoykova-Klemer, who added with a laugh that if it were up to her, her character would have been a first-place winner who realizes her dreams of fame and fortune.

“He wanted a completely ordinary person,” she said. “He wanted someone people can relate to, someone people can root for – someone more complex.”

Wide-eyed and earnest, Krasimira expects to be met with open arms and accolades for her first visit to America. Instead, she is greeted at the airport by the play’s stage manager, Debbie, who is running late and holding a greeting sign with Krasi’s name misspelled. Played by real-life Lexington stage manager Natalie Cummins, Debbie is too busy and preoccupied with her own goings-on to concern herself much with entertaining Krasimira, who continues seeking friendship – or any semblance of real human connection – with everyone she encounters in Lexington, from the receptionist at the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (whom she eagerly invites to attend her play), to Lucy, the leader of the tourist horse farm tour that Krasi books. At the heart of the story is the friendship that blossoms between Lucy (played by local stage actor and director Sami Allison) and Krasi, but their relationship is not without its own complications and strains.

“We wanted to play with that idea of ‘What’s it really like for a foreign tourist to come to any place – especially Kentucky?’” said Southerland, who works for the Lexington Public Library as the coordinator for its cable channel, as well as the coordinator for the Central Library’ branch’s Farish Theater. “I think we like to think that we’re more welcoming to a true fish-out-of water tourist than we are.”

Shot entirely in Lexington and named after the Thoroughbred who was the 2002 second-place Derby contender (and who appears in the film), “Proud Citizen” features a bevy of sights that local viewers will recognize, from the mostly empty Bluegrass airport lobby to children playing in the Robert Stephens Courthouse fountains.

In many ways, the film is a complex love story about the city.

“It is a loving, honest portrayal of our city's mixture of small-town charm and growing-city loneliness, as seen through the fresh perspective of an outsider,” said Leif Erickson, a longtime stage actor who portrays one of the actors in Krasimira’s play. According to Erickson, the film works mainly because Southerland shares the same respect and love for Lexington that he does for filmmaking and the people involved; the director’s “keen sense of storytelling” and authentic portrayal of complex characters trying to make sense of the world also resonate with viewers, he added.

“He wasn't afraid to let the story and characters drive the movie instead of fancy, arch film technique, which he is certainly capable of,” he said.

Southerland owns up to making a conscious decision not to mimic Hollywood, or even independent American filmmaking. He opted instead for a more European style of filmmaking, incorporating both documentary and narrative styles, and intertwining unscripted dialogue, actual poetry written by Stoykova-Klemer, and actual music performed by Erickson and fellow actor Blakely Burger, a young Lexington fiddle player.

Jarringly natural and realistic, the film has actually been mistaken for a documentary more than once – in Wisconsin’s Weyauwega International Film Festival, it was unwittingly slotted in the documentary category before it was pointed out to festival organizers that it was, in fact, a fictionalized story. (The film ended up taking home the “Top Narrative” prize.)

Part of Southerland’s approach to creating the film was to simply turn the camera on and start filming, letting the actors ad lib the dialogue for each scene and filming until the actors forgot the cameras were even on.

“I shot 50 hours of footage, which for low-budget film is a lot,” said Southerland, who admits that after enmeshing himself so deeply in it for over than a year, he had to step away from the film for a few months at one point before he could finish editing it. “For each scene in the movie, I shot 30 takes of it on average, which I had never done before.”

Though it was ultimately a positive experience for the actors, the process ranged from counterintuitive to grueling at times.

“They always said to me the same thing every time: ‘Isn’t this boring? You’re not getting anything good,’” Southerland said. “And I was just over the moon, because it sounded like real dialogue.”

The refreshing blend of exceedingly believable and complex characters interposed against a simple, relatable storyline are perhaps among the primary reasons the film has been so well received in the independent film arena, which Southerland pointed out can sometimes feel over-saturated by the perspective of 25-year-olds struggling to make it past college.

“We chose a view point that was a little more rare,” said Southerland, who has been humbled by the attention and accolades from the national festival circuit – particularly the “Top Narrative Feature” award that the film received from the New Orleans Film Festival, to which Southerland has submitted various films over the years.

“We hope to get into a few more, but if this is it, we’re happy.”

Lexington audiences will have the opportunity to screen the film at its Lexington premiere on Jan. 15 at the Kentucky Theater. Visit this article on our website to watch a trailer for the film. ss

Lexington premiere of “Proud Citizen”

Jan. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Kentucky Theater, 214 Main St.

www.proudcitizenthemovie.com

For more of Southerland’s films, visit his Vimeo page: www.vimeo.com/thomsouth/videos

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