Bolinas avant-garde filmmaker Jeff Warrin’s forthcoming film, “All the Branches in Me,” juxtaposes nature with the ephemeral qualities of human relationships against the backdrop of West Marin’s liminal spaces, timeworn forests and cascading bluffs. It premiers at the end of the month.
Loosely adapted from a short story by Anton
Chekhov, the film follows an itinerant pair of siblings, Danny and Fyona—played by real-life Bolinas siblings Lucian and Xanthe Patton. When the two find themselves at the mercy of a mystical old buckeye tree, they seek help from an elderly recluse named Terrance, played by Bolinas resident Jon Brunner, and their day takes a turn inward.
“In this time of ecological uncertainty, what would a tree have to say to someone it could have an extended moment with,” Mr. Warrin said. “That’s where my mind went. This was an opportunity for the tree.”
Much like the characters in the story, the low-budget film relied on its environment, from the groves of Roy’s Redwoods to the bluffs of Stinson Beach, Smiley’s Schooner Saloon and Black Mountain Ranch. Most of the production team was made up of Bolinas residents.
“This film was made with what amounts to a coffee budget on a regular film,” Mr. Warrin said. “I called in all my favors for this one and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. This kind of exchange is really so vital.”
When Mr. Warrin put out a casting call, he connected with dancer Lisa Townsend. In addition to working on the set, Ms. Townsend is the mother of the film’s main characters. Lucian described the experience as a blast, saying it felt more like an extended hike with intermittent acting sessions.
“It was a challenge but also a privilege to just slow down and listen to the environment each day on set for this character,” said Lucian, who is studying filmmaking at the University of California, Los Angeles. “[Mr. Warrin] was so dedicated to making it true to his experience in West Marin. Everyday we’d come to set and you could just tell he’d put so much thought into it since the day before.”
Xanthe plays the film’s angst-ridden teen. She’s also appearing in a production of “West Side Story” playing at the Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley through March 26.
While in search of an actor to play Terrance, Mr. Warrin met Mr. Brunner, who worked as a greensman in Hollywood in the 1970s. Mr. Brunner said that years earlier, a friend, director John Schlesinger, begged him to audition for Jon Voight’s character in “Midnight Cowboy.” Nostalgic over the memory, he decided to audition for the role. “Even with zero acting experience, he was so authentic and genuine,” Mr. Warrin said.
Mr. Warrin grew up in Castro Valley and attended San Francisco State University as a journalism student. He said the college’s dean kicked him out of the program because his work was too artistic, and he landed in the art program. Mr. Warrin made a handful of student films before meeting his soon-to-be collaborators, Christian Farrell and Keith Evans, in an avant-garde cinema class. At the end of the semester, the trio formed Silt, an experimental and sometimes interactive filmmaking group whose early Super 8 films were hailed at the 1994 San Francisco International Film Festival.
Filmmaking titan Brian L. Frye wrote that the group “brought the craft of filmmaking back to the movies and served as a touchstone for many other young Bay Area artists” in the 1990s. Their work was showcased at festivals and art museums, including Sundance, the Whitney Biennial, and the Los Angeles MOCA and New York MoMA.
The group stuck together for 15 years, their filmmaking evolving over time. Their methods were highly interactive; they buried, burned and soaked film to emphasize its materiality. A residency in the Headlands marked a turning point from more traditional films that showed in theaters to subversive pieces that were featured in galleries. “Field Studies #3,” shown at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, showed viewers blocks of ice and pools of water rearranged as projected images.
The Headlands residency was also an introduction to Bolinas, where Mr. Evans and Mr. Warrin still live. After Mr. Farrell moved to the Czech Republic in 2005, Silt disbanded. Mr. Warrin turned to photography, employing a long-exposure technique to capture West Marin’s landscape. In 2015, he founded a production company, Metabolic Films, and began his foray into narrative film. A 2017 narrative short, “The Far Near Shore,” explores the dichotomy between humankind and nature, much like “All the Branches in Me.”
The 50-minute film premiers in Bolinas at Calvary Presbyterian Church at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1. To purchase $10 tickets, go to www.JeffWarrin.com.