T/F film makes public debut on MU campus

By Lindsay Eanet

Published Feb. 27, 2008

When filmmaker Owen Lowery introduced his film to a packed classroom of students at Middlebush Hall Wednesday, he had trouble speaking from nerves.

This was to be expected, as this was the first time the film, "An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrist," had been shown in public.

"Alternative" chronicles Lowery's yearlong journey following a breakdown and stay in the psych ward--he comprises a list of 52 things he has always meant to do and sets out to make each of them a reality as a means for his own survival.

The film, including festival submissions, cost about $10,000 to make, saving on editing costs because Lowery shot the film himself.

"It was all basically on borrowed time and borrowed stuff," Lowery says.

Lowery added that part of the reason the film was so successful was the dedication and involvement of his friends, including producer Chris Leeson and his friend Mitch, who had attended the screening and was the one responsible for shooting him with the tazer in one scene.

"I had a lot of friends pulling favors for me and helping me out because everybody kind of believed in it and they all loved the idea and they all loved doing things in it so I mean, you kind of learn how many people really give a shit about you when you do something like this," Lowery says.

One audience member asked Lowery if the film was anything like he had imagined it would have been at the beginning of the filming process. Lowery says the finished product was nothing like the original vision.

"I had all these melodramatic fantasies," Lowery says. "Like, 'Oh, we're gonna do these representations set to poetry by T.S. Eliot and I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I guess I was just stuck in Pretension Land."

The title of the film, Lowery says, was actually borrowed from the name of a zine that his friend Joanne published, called "Deciding Where the Walls Go, Or, An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrist."

Many of the questions dealt with the actual items on the list. Since two of the items were "Get Married" and "Get Divorced," one audience member asked who he married. Lowery says he was married to his friend Rhys Miller for three days, adding that Leeson is an ordained minister and that he wasn't sure if the marriage would be considered legal in the state of Illinois.

"Son of a bitch just took my heart and ran with it," Lowery says.

Another member asked if he ever was able to slap the President's ass. The film shows Lowery standing outside the White House with a sign asking permission to do so.

Another viewer complimented Lowery on the film before asking what he was planning on doing next with it.

"If someone wanted to by it, they'd be more than welcome to do so," Lowery says. "'Hey, here's a pack of cigarettes.' I do what I can, but it's hard. I have no idea. Right now, we're just trying to do the whole festival thing."

Near the end, he was asked about the idea of change and how the importance of "the list" changed.

"The idea of change is really weird," Lowery says. "I guess I talk about it a little in the end. I was expecting some kind of epiphany where I come out all shiny with glistening teeth and whatever. Change doesn't really kind of come quickly. You're constantly, slowly changing and hopefully in a good way. When it comes down to it, there's some things on the list I would never do again, mainly getting tazered."