Las Cruces filmmaker turns personal struggles into short film 'Fowl'

As Covid-19 forced a worldwide shutdown in early 2020, New Mexico State University Creative Media Institute (CMI) assistant professor and professional film director Ross Kagan Marks was “feeling particularly stifled creatively and isolated.” And he was still reeling from the April 2019 death of his close friend, mentor and father-in-law, Mark Medoff.

With time on his hands because of the forced isolation of the pandemic, Marks began turning his memories of Medoff into a “little piece” he was writing for himself.

The “little piece” became a screenplay, which Marks shared with fellow CMI assistant professor and long-time filmmaking partner Mitch Fowler.

“Fowl’s” main characters are Stiff Miller, who is bitter and angry because he is suffering from kidney failure and is on oxygen and in a wheelchair, and Louie Hernandez, who is sweet and innocent and suffers from the onset of dementia, Marks said.

Stiff and Louie are “the two sides of Mark (Medoff): ‘I can’t believe I’m dying,’ and ‘OK, I guess I’m coming to the end,’” Marks said.

Along with Medoff, Marks said he was thinking about NMSU professor and long-time Las Cruces actor Dick Rundell as he was writing the script. Rundell, who died in May 2018, had was a close friend of Medoff. They had worked together on many plays and films, including Rio Grande Theatre’s 2015 production of “Waiting for Godot,” in which they both starred.

“I heard their voices very clearly in my head,” Marks said.

He cast Christopher James Hagen of Santa Fe as Stiff and Bruce Klefstad of Phoenix as Louie, Marks said, because the two professional actors came as close as he could get to his memories of Medoff and Rundell.

Marks said he saw birds “as a third character in the film” because he remembered seeing birds at Mesilla Valley Hospice feeders when he visited Medoff, and because they represent the transition from life to death.

In the film, Stiff and Louie are together in an assisted-living facility in the time of Covid. Their only visitor is a nurse, played by Marissa Bond, who has acted in other local plays and films, including “I, Custer,” a one-person show which Medoff directed at Las Cruces Community Theatre in 2016.

The film’s title is also a play on the word “foul,” reflective of Stiff Miller’s foul mouth and bad temper, Marks said.

In one scene, Louie finds eggs in a bird’s nest that has fallen to the ground. He is “overtaken with rage,” Marks said, and destroys the eggs, thinking, “If I can’t live, nothing should.”

In addition to writing the script, Marks directed “Fowl,” with Fowler serving as director of photography. They enlisted Los Angeles-based filmmaker Brian Espinosa as executive producer, Las Cruces artist Tiffany Del Guidice as scenic designer and CMI graduate and Albuquerque filmmaker Keagan Karnes and CMI student and Las Cruces filmmaker Kyle Ivy (who also served as Covid compliance officer) as co-producers. CMI student Angel Sanchez is the film’s editor and Savannah Willingham, who has collaborated with Marks and Fowler on other films, is costumer designer. The crew also includes CMI students Nathan Lefever, key grip; Luis Gutierrez, gaffer; Mario Martinez, swing; and Ralph Diaz, sound mixer/boom operator. CMI graduate Orlando Martos is the film’s first assistant camera operator.

“Fowl” was shot over two days last November inside St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (a hallway was converted into a bedroom) and the courtyard of Jud Wright’s Las Cruces home, Marks said.

“It was totally worth it,” Fowler said about making the movie during a pandemic and having to follow strict safety protocol.

Hiring crew members who are NMSU film students made the film “an extension of the classroom,” Fowler said.

For many of the students, he said, it was their first real job on a film set, and they were treated as professionals.

“It was an accelerated learning experience,” Fowler said.

The 21-minute, 16-second dark comedy was released earlier this year and has already won several awards, including taking top spot in the Studio City Film Festival in Hollywood, California. It will be featured in the 2022 Las Cruces International Film.

Marks, whose other directing credits include “Walking With Herb,” “The Twilight of the Golds,” “Homage” and “Princess,” said he is in discussions with a Los Angeles producer about turning the film into a television series.

Since completing the film, Marks has joined the Mesilla Valley Hospice board of directors.