by: Anghus Houvouras

AMERICATOWN
Length: 77 minutes
Director: Kenneth Price
Friday, November 12, 4:30pm-6pm
City Stage

Wilmington’s very own Superkiiids! have been a creative cyclone over the past handful of years. There have produced a comedy album, inspired stage shows and, of course, filmed their first major motion picture, Lightning Salad Moving Picture.

The kids upped the creative ante earlier this year with their second production, Americatown. Much like Lightning Salad, Americatown is a labor of love, created by Kenneth Price, Jonathan Guggenheim and Cory Howard, with the help of local art director Chad Keith, who have a passion for getting their wacky on at every monument, historical site and national relic across our nation.

I had a chance to talk the director, Kenneth Price, about the Work-in-Progress screening at this year’s Cucalorus.

encore: So it hasn’t even been a year since the premiere of Lightning Salad. Catch us up on what has happened since the first screening.
Kenneth Price: It’s really hard to believe it was just one year ago that we had Lightning Salad Moving Picture at Cucalorus. We screened the film at six festivals and won Best Narrative Feature Film at the East Carolina Film Festival. We had a blast going up to the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore in May and going to the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham back in September. We have the entire film up on www.americatownthemovie.com for free, so hopefully it will reach even more people.

e: Creatively speaking, what’s the biggest difference between Americatown and Lightning Salad?
KP: Well, I think the three of us have changed a lot since Lightning Salad, and Americatown reflects those changes. We never wanted to make a Lightning Salad Part 2. In Americatown, characters actually have names, and there are even a few dramatic moments here and there. It feels a little bit more like a “real” movie, but I think we kept just enough of the improvised, fun, no-budget feel of Lighting Salad.

e: No budget and a much greater scope from what I understand...
KP: We were on the road for 30 days and covered over 9,000 miles [across the states]. We camped and slept on our friend’s floors around the country. Wilmington film guru Chad Keith came on the trip with us to keep us sane, and I think it really helped having four people on the trip.

My favorite memory from the trip was the day we shot at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We wanted to go as a homage to the Boyz II Men video “Water Runs Dry,” but it really was an amazing place that makes you feel like you are on another planet while you’re there.

We wanted to do a film on the road that wasn’t a road-trip movie. So back in January we got together for a few weekends, and started bouncing around ideas and came to the premise of what if all the amazing things America has to offer exist in this one, tiny fictional town of 1,000 people. And Americatown was born.

e: Is there a potential for a third film in the series? Can we expect the inevitable trilogy?
KP: I think we all want to do another project next summer. Whatever it ends up being, I think it will be a departure from the previous two films.

e: As a filmmaker, where do you see yourself heading next?
KP: Well, being in grad school has given me a lot of time to work on bunch of different stuff. I don’t think I’ve really found a niche, and I’m not sure I really want to. I’m starting on a documentary about Grammy award-winning hip-hop producer 9th Wonder next month, and am planning a trip to Japan in January to do a new-wave styled short about a girl’s journey to see the first sunrise of the year.

Price will do a Q&A following the screening of the WiP film.