Alexander Jeffery based his short film “The Old Man at the Bar” on his grandfather, who traveled the world, often alone, well into his 80s. Wondering what that was like for him helped Jeffery envision his utterly charming film about wait staff at a French bistro who agree to stay open for a tourist. Everyone benefits from the decision.
Jeffery is an incredibly prolific filmmaker, and one of the most open-hearted collaborators we’ve ever meet in our travels with MovieMaker. Born in Calgary and based in Shreveport, Louisiana, he’s done everything from winning the Louisiana Film Prize to creating the independent TV pilot Fixation to shooting one of our favorite new films, the insane stalker musical Peeping Todd.
He’s also the co-owner of the production company Bespoke Works, and runs Arkansas’ El Dorado Film Festival with Tamra Corley-Davis. He often meets filmmaking partners through the festival, including Abby Tozer, who stars in “The Old Man at the Bar” with Noah Silver and Stan Brown.
The short is very loosely inspired by the Hemingway short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and inspired by Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy. As Linklater did on last year’s Nouvelle Vague, Jeffery directed “The Old Man at the Bar” primarily in French, a language he barely speaks.
The film plays Friday at the Waco Independent Film Festival as part of the Crowd Pleasers block. We talked with Jeffery about his very Louisiana story, building a film community, and what running a festival has made him appreciate about Waco Indie.
Alexander Jeffery on ‘The Old Man at the Bar’
A prolific filmmaker,MovieMaker: You filmed this in the only American city that could pass for Paris — New Orleans. How’d you pull it off?
Alexander Jeffery: My wonderful producing partner on this project, Brittany Fallow, lives in New Orleans and has an amazing group of humans she works with down there. We got very lucky that, within the past few years, Le Moyne Bistro opened up and the interior of that restaurant was almost a turnkey solution for our set.
I went and scouted the restaurant, re-tooled the script a little bit to fit the layout and exterior portions of the film, and they were generous enough to let us take over their spot for two overnight shoots.
MovieMaker: The cast chemistry is phenomenal. How did you bring everyone together?
Alexander Jeffery: Stan Brown, who plays the “old man” in the film, was finishing his Broadway debut in Water for Elephants when I first sent him the script. Stan has been the most generous mentor to me for years, he was a hugely influential college acting professor to me, and he and I made another short film together back in 2015 called “The Bespoke Tailoring of Mister Bellamy,” which won the $50,000 Louisiana Film Prize.
I was a little shy to send him this script. I was like, “Just so you know, I definitely don’t think of you as an old man,” but he read it and immediately became the biggest supporter in getting this film made and became a producer on the project.
The next person I sent the script to was Abby Tozer who I had recently formed a friendship with through the El Dorado Film Festival and who I knew spoke French fluently. Spoiler alert: my entire draft of the script was written in English and my French is… extremely limited. Abby became another huge advocate for getting the film made. She helped me translate the script to French, she found Noah who played our other French waiter, and she hosted a rehearsal at her house in Los Angeles when I was out there for work.
But as far as the chemistry goes, I can’t take any credit… Abby and Noah are both phenomenal actors and really elevated the writing and the flirting. We worked with a fabulous intimacy coordinator in New Orleans who really helped make the actors feel safe and created an atmosphere for all of that to flourish.
MovieMaker: Can you talk about the unique challenges of directing scenes in French?
Alexander Jeffery: Yes! As previously mentioned, “I don’t speak French real good” (said with the thickest Southern accent that I can muster for a Canadian). Directing the actors during the French-speaking scenes actually became a really interesting exercise in directing physicality and focusing less on the words and more on the visual storytelling… the body language. It was really fun and refreshing way to approach the work.
MovieMaker: You’re known for collaborating with other Film Prize and El Dorado veterans, and it seems like a model for anyone working outside Hollywood. Am I romanticizing it too much to imagine you and a lot of other filmmakers, from Shreveport to El Dorado, pitching in on each other’s projects, year after year? What advice do you have for anyone who wants a de facto collective like this?
Alexander Jeffery: The Shreveport film community is absolutely awesome and the Film Prize has really fostered and nourished that. A lot of people think that because our local festival has $50,000 on the line that it must be cut-throat and really competitive, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Shreveport is uniquely positioned because, post Katrina, we had a real Hollywood presence for many years and the infrastructure and, more importantly, understanding of the film industry exists here. All of the local filmmakers want to see each other succeed and want to help each other elevate the work and make cool stuff.
Over the past few years, I’ve helped bring several films to Shreveport from out of town: some to compete in Film Prize, some feature films, and I continue to foster collaborations with filmmakers I meet at other festivals, like Waco Indie.
MovieMaker: Any thoughts on playing Waco? How do has running your own excellent festival affected your wants and expectations of other festivals?
Alexander Jeffery: I just love this festival. I’ve met so many cool people and seen some absolutely amazing films at Waco over the past few years. I think running my own festival has really helped me hone in on finding those like-minded regional, community-driven festivals like Waco that put the filmmakers first and foster an amazing environment for true connection.
Main image: Noah Silver and Abby Tozer in “The Old Man at the Bar.”