- November 27, 2024
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Wolfe Productions LLC executives Kathie and Jim Barry used to work in sales and prisons, respectively.
Kathie and Jim Barry believe in time travel.
After their 25-year-old son, Kevin James Barry, graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, he wasn’t ready to turn in the movie he had been working on for his final portfolio piece, a sci-fi actioner called “Serena and the RATTS,” about fate and a female assassin.
So, inspired by his work, his parents came out of retirement from careers in criminal corrections and sales to become film producers.
“He was a kind of one-man show,” Kathie Barry said of her son. “He did it all: the writing, editing, the cinematography, directing — everything. And with an awesome crew.”
On the business end, Kathie and Jim took care of the rest. After Kevin finished filming in Boston, they did what any seasoned film execs would do with a new indie picture: They submitted it to festivals. For the past year, they’ve been promoting “Serena,” printing posters and press materials, trying to sell it to distributors. And recently, their belief in their son and his work was validated.
After “Serena” was chosen as an official selection to the Bare Bones International Film & Music Festival — a festival for low-budget movies, in Oklahoma — Wolfe Productions LLC was asked to present its first movie at Film-Com — a convention for distribution firms, marketers and financiers.
Then, on April 22, Barry’s film won two awards of four nominations from Bare Bones: Indie Auteur and Best Picture Action.
Evalena Marie, the movie’s lead, was also nominated for Best Actress. (Marie is a former architecture student whom Kevin Barry met as an extra on the set of Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island.”)
Currently, the Barrys say they are in negotiations with a company interested in purchasing their debut. On April 26, they were offered a “Serena” sequel. And work has already begun on their second feature film, “Among Them,” written by Marie and co-directed by Marie and Kevin James Barry.
“The whole film industry has been revolutionized,” Jim Barry said, clutching a “Serena” press packet. “In the old days, you’d have to go to (Hollywood) film studios to have the right equipment. … But with the new technologies out there, you don’t need that anymore.”
That means that he and his wife don’t feel being based in Palm Coast, where they have lived for the past six years, as necessarily an asset or a challenge for their company. They will film their movies wherever makes sense, both for their budget and their scripts. Then they will start the selling process.
“The challenge for us is learning the industry and figuring out how best to sell in it,” Jim Barry added. So far, they have learned from seminars and books that, just like the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns, the first step for most small-budget movies is breaking into foreign markets.
After that, the Barrys are thinking of maybe turning “Serena” into a graphic novel, working backward from the recent comic book-to-film adaptation trend. But they’re not stopping there.
Long-term, the couple would love to put Palm Coast on the map by creating a local volunteer-driven film festival, similar to the Bare Bones fest in Oklahoma.
“These festivals draw people from all over the world and are very beneficial to (the cities which host them),” Kathie Barry said.
But for now, after just two years of existence, Wolfe Productions will focus on finalizing a distribution deal for “Serena.” It will produce its second full-length film, scheduled for completion this year. And its owners will continue to adapt, not just waiting for change to happen but helping it along, one frame at a time.
“I never thought, after working almost 20 years in prisons, that I’d be in the movie business,” Jim Barry said. “But it just goes to show: You never know where life will take you.”
For more, search for “Serena and the RATTS” on Facebook.
