“I grew up in Lebanon, Missouri, then went to Mizzou for college. I spent the first 26 years of my life in Missouri,” said Barker. “I decided to change my life course, and Nashville felt just right.”
His film, “marigold,” is built from newly discovered family footage found by Barker, dating to 1959 and filmed in Missouri.
“A few years ago, my parents moved and, in doing so, you go through old boxes of stuff. I found this roll of 8mm film [from my grandfather] that had his handwriting on the box,” Barker said. “We didn't even know that they had an 8mm camera, I went and got it developed, and it was four minutes of color footage from 1959 that was shot on our family farm near Bennett Spring State Park.”
“It was kind of wild to see that because it's what me and my sister are both named after, so much family history there. I knew I needed to do something with all of that,” he said.
Barker decided to pair the footage with other digitized VHS footage of his family from the early 1990s.
“I wrote this poetic essay and called a composer I've worked with for years," he said.
Barker and the composer completed the project in about two weeks, making it ready for festival submissions.
“I think one thing that I learned out of this process is that I will travel back home now, and I'll sit down and turn the camera on with my parents, and I just start having conversations with them about their lives before I was around,” Barker said. “I want to know random little things. And with me, the stories influence everything that I do. So, that's something I've started to encourage people to do, is actually sit down and have these conversations.”
“This is a deeply personal film that, in so many ways, I made for myself and my family. I think it is so important for us to at least catalog memories for ourselves, which is what the whole point of the film was," he said. "It's me trying to encourage other people to recognize their own stories."
In addition to screenings at festivals across the country, Barker's film will also be screened in his hometown of Lebanon, though a date has not yet been announced.
To stay updated on the Lebanon screening and Barker’s work, check out his Instagram, Facebook and website.
