MAISY’S GARDEN (87 min., ©1998) – Next posted flicks are part of "John Balquist's double trilogy"–(includes already-shared Loneliness Is Soul, & The 5th Wall). https://vimeo.com/ondemand/maisysgarden

Rick Schmidt

Jan 06, 2024

Loneliness is Soul ©1998

Maisy’s Garden ©1998

Crash My Funeral ©1999

Sun and Moon ©1999

The fifth Wall ©2000

It’s Not About the Shawerma ©2003

John Balquist, Mike Bolgatz, in the garden.

Official Selection: FIGUEIRA DA FOZ INTL. FILM FESTIVAL, Portugal.

SYNOPSIS: In MAISY’S GARDEN a human BAD DOG (played by John Balquist) disrupts a marriage that’s on its way to breaking apart over money issues, convincing a high-powered lawyer to trade in his firm’s partnership for gardening tools, Real-life stories abound, people talking about everything from shark attacks in supposedly calm waters to the residue of marriages that really never ended except on paper. Spiritual growth seems inevitable when the true fragility of life and love are revealed.

Mike Bolgatz

MAISY’S GARDEN

(Statement about the making of the Collaborative Pro-DVCAM DIGITAL VIDEO FEATURE MAISY’S GARDEN, by Rick Schmidt, Co-Writer, Co-Director, Co-Producer, Executive Producer and founder of FEATURE WORKSHOPS).

In August, 1998, as I was working with my son, Morgan Schmidt-Feng, to organize the FEATURE WORKSHOPS shoot that produced MAISY’S GARDEN, I heard from him that he had a lawyer friend, Michael Bolgatz, who had recently separated from his wife and that it appeared we could use his house as a location. Morgan had met this guy at the little shared kid’s park that was set in a central courtyard-like area between both Morgan’s apartment building and Mike’s house. Their little daughters had become friends and over time Morgan had learned about Mike’s aspirations to write, direct, and act in movies. Feature Workshops, where we make a movie start to finish in 10 days, seemed like a perfect answer to Mike’s dream.

When I heard about the location I felt that not only did we have a good location (old house centrally located in Berkeley, California), but also the potential of building our improvisational story around the disintegration of a marriage. After all, Mike wanted to act. He was a lawyer in real life so he could play a lawyer better than any actor (especially when having to make up his own lines, thought patterns, and specific references to the job). And his marriage had fallen apart in real life, supplying our production with the kind of emotional fallout that accompanies that kind of tragedy. Mike was moody, questioning his life, responsible at times for the sole care of his young children (his daughter Maisy was around 6, plus there was a younger baby only about a year old). This was ample grist for the mill of moviemaking.

While Mike’s breakup was very amicable, his ex-wife occasionally visiting our set from her second house across town, it was a reminder that not everybody who begins a marriage with high hopes for a long-lasting love is fortunate enough to be given that wonderful gift of continuity. I thought it would be a good use of the Feature Workshops process to investigate the mysteries of love and marriage, the unheralded shift that lives take after a divorce. Keep in mind that my son Morgan (Director of Photography, Co-Writer, Co-Director, and Co-Producer) was a product of my first marriage, both of us experiencing the difficulties of a broken home. Our motivation for digging into this subject matter was obvious.

For the other participants/Co-Writers/Co-Directors, it was obvious that Mike and his small redwood house (a cabin-like structure surrounded by trees and dense foliage) would offer them a hook upon which to hang their ideas as we progressed through the shoot. The group of perspective filmmakers who joined our DIGITAL VIDEO Pro-DVCAM shoot were as varied as most other FEATURE WORKSHOPS. Peter Aris, a scriptwriter who flew in from London, England, was eager to break the ice and learn my “no-budget” techniques (he tells the real-life story of a shark attack). Carlos R. Acuna, from the hot central California town of El Centro, wanted to test his scriptwriting abilities, to get inspired (he explained) to make his own indie feature up the road. Grace Eng (she told the real-life story “Marked “B” For Betrayal”), wrote in her application that she wanted to “look beneath the buried secrets and tales” to make her own features. From Los Angeles we were joined by Whit Wagner (“Bret”), an actor with extensive experience who wanted to break into making his own scripted movies (he got the role of Mike’s law firm partner). Jon Jennings (“If My Father Ever Sees This Movie” story), a filmmaking student from Montana, where it still actually feels like the wild west of cowboy and Indian lore, wanted a taste of filmmaking outside of the classroom.

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We were also fortunate to be joined again by cast members from our previous feature LONELINESS IS SOUL (FIGUEIRA DA FOZ ,1998) , including yahn soon (credited as “John Balquist” for his amazing “Magic Mushroom” Story) and lead Jessica Heidt, as Mike’s wife’s best friend. Jill Pixley, who plays Mike’s soon-to-be ex-wife, starred in the feature DAUGHTERS (1997) by writer/director Chris Brown of San Francisco. As soon as Jill arrived on the set we had the ability to start building her movie-relationship with Mike and “movie daughter” Maisy, shooting intimate scenes between the happy couple, shots of her puttering around the house (of course wives don’t “putter”...they work long hours to keep a household together, taking care of their young kids and sometimes even working a full-time job in addition). This, of course, became a topic of concern in our “MAISy” movie (importantly, who holds the “purse-strings” in a marriage?).

There seem to be a lot of people in the world who are/have been making a lot of money, but aren’t really very happy. What is the problem here? A lawyer who has a lot of responsibilities toward his career may think he’s also a good husband and father, but without putting in the time how good can he really be? There are many jobs in the modern world that require tremendous commitment, extra hours, weekends of work, early commute departure and late arrivals home, all in the name of obtaining those dangling stock options and advancement. These kinds of out-of-balance situations continue to undermine home life, freeze out the children, deny them the real parenting they deserve. These kids become the rampaging youths of tomorrow, seemingly without morals, ideals, or aspirations. Is it right to pick our own careers over parenting? Where do we find the balance? Perhaps in the sunlit garden, where light reflects off of wet tree bark, fresh air nudges leaves to shudder in the wind, flowers spring up though ground cover, their buds opening with offers of bright laughing colors and intricate design. That’s what Mike seems to have discovered. In MAISY’S GARDEN our over-achieving lawyer was given the opportunity to retreat to his small garden and take a pause...examine his hectic life and the collapse of his real marriage.

During the six-day shoot Mike had the opportunity to replay his breakup (not exactly the same, of course, and not with the same precise marital issues, but perhaps with similar feelings of anger and frustration), and exorcise some of the anger and confusion. Jill was able to stand up to her movie-husband Mike, help create scenes where her rights as a modern woman and mother (she’s not a mother in real-life) were infringed upon. Mike’s lawyerly abilities only put more pressure on the personal confrontations—on the improv dialogue––making him seem colder, too rational, distanced from the situation where all that was required was some softness and the ability to express love.

Morgan Schmidt-Feng’s perceptive camera, and the addition of our mini-crane FLY-CAM (operated by Todd Horrisberger and Kira Stoll), were painfully accurate at catching the story between the lines, finding Mike’s real pain around his real-life divorce. He said he learned a lot about himself from seeing the finished movie, how he acted somewhat distant when dealing with confrontation. Perhaps this movie can offer a cautionary note, to those of us who lose sight of the garden.

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