Keith Alan Morris
Encyclopedia
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer. His most notable films include Gutter King, Flying Tiger, and The Clinic, all of which screened at the Cannes Film Fest Market
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. He also wrote and directed the documentary R.U.B.s in the Guggenheim Museum's
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
"Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit. His next film is an adventure about a robot, currently untitled.
Early life
Morris was born in South Bend, IndianaSouth Bend, Indiana
The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
, the son of Ronald and Susan Morris. He grew up in Indiana, where he attended Adams High School and Niles First Assembly High School in Niles, Michigan
Niles, Michigan
Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. The population was 11,600 at the 2010 census. It is the greater populated of two principal cities of and included in the Niles-Benton Harbor, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a...
, where he was salutatorian
Salutatorian
Salutatorian is an academic title given, in the United States and Canada, to the second highest graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is traditionally based on grade point average and number of credits taken, but...
. He won a scholarship to Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo College, also known as K College or simply K, is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1833, the college is among the 100 oldest in the country. Today, it produces more Peace Corps volunteers per capita than any other U.S...
to study political science and theater communications, where he made numerous short films and two feature films, The Outside Man and The In Crowd, which won him the Cooper Award and Schneider Prize before graduating in 1994.
Film career and controversy
Gutter King was his first breakthrough feature internationally and nominated for 3 awards in 2010. It has been compared to the early films of Martin Scorsese in that "the violence is dealt with extreme care and respect, as opposed to the superficiality with which we are used to seeing from directors like Guy Ritchie, Danny Boyle or David Fincher." The film later reached #159 on IMDB's MOVIEmeter rankings in June 2010, behind ZombielandZombieland
Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse...
but ahead of Back to The Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
.
Morris has written numerous scripts that haven't been produced yet, most famous of which is about a robot living during the apocalypse. After an early makeup test was posted on YouTube without the director's approval, he rewrote the movie's concept entirely, taking out all mention of zombies. Sample approved artwork is available on an unofficial Keith Alan Morris website of his films, ufo-tech.com.
After his latest movie Gutter King, reached 2.2 million torrents and many more million downloads, he is currently working on the untitled CGI project, set in New Orleans in the not-to-distant future.
Early Work
Flying Tiger screened at the Cannes Film Festival Market and won Best Feature at the Arizona Film and TV Fest, 2008. It was shot in Stockton, MissouriStockton, Missouri
Stockton is a city in Cedar County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,960 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cedar County.-Geography:Stockton is located at ....
, with a student crew from Indiana (where he trained the students in the classroom for one year prior). Flying Tiger is about a senior in high school who can fly. The film’s success helped him secure funding for his next feature.
Morris' first feature, The Clinic won Best Screenplay for a Feature Film (out of 180 films) at the New York International Independent Film Fest, and received representation at the Cannes Film Fest Market.
Themes and Style
Although Keith Alan Morris' films differ considerably in setting and characters (Gutter King is about a suburban teenager, his next film is a robot epic), they share similar themes of existentialismExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, and spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
.
Keith Alan Morris' style is composed of handheld based tracking shots and camera movement in general, and he uses his scenes to convey ideas with images, rather than with dialogue. Some have compared him with Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
because of his foreboding, ominous style and his approach to violence comes from a prudent and responsible perspective of trying to understand the characters and the motives for their behavior. Music also plays a large role in Morris' films and he works closely with Michael Kauffmann and the Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by a community of musicians from Holland, Michigan led by musician Sufjan Stevens and his stepfather Lowell Brams. Some were Holland natives, and others had come to attend local colleges and universities...
label and Jeb Banner of Musical Family Tree, both located in his birth state of Indiana.
Films
- Gutter King (2010) distributed by Multivisionnaire, Metrodome, Rialto, Lizard, Front Row
(United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, Middle East); Nominations at the Action On Film Fest 2010: Best Picture, Best Breakout Action Star, Best Supporting Actor
- Otis Gibbs LIVE (2009)
- R.U.B.s (2006)
- Flying Tiger (2004) - Won Best Feature Film at the AZ Film & Television Festival, 2008 http://www.azfilmandtvfest.com.
- The Clinic (2001) - Won Best Screenplay for a Feature Film at the New York International Independent Film and Video FestivalNew York International Independent Film and Video FestivalNew York International Independent Film and Video Festival is a film screening event in various American cities. It was founded in 1993, and its website claims it has been recognized by the film and entertainment industry as one of the leading film events on the independent festival circuit...
.
Artwork
- Illustrator of over 60 album covers
- Written and illustrated numerous comics and graphic novels
- Won the NACE award for Excellence in Advertising
Future projects
- "Driving the Dead" original title before being completely revamped
- "The Bohemian"
Education
- Kalamazoo CollegeKalamazoo CollegeKalamazoo College, also known as K College or simply K, is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1833, the college is among the 100 oldest in the country. Today, it produces more Peace Corps volunteers per capita than any other U.S...
- B.A. with Honors, 1994. - Instituto Internacional, Madrid, Spain, 1993.
- University of Central FloridaUniversity of Central FloridaThe University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as UCF, is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States...
- MFA, Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema Track