Screen Test

Ever since the Monday after Thanksgiving, when Sundance Film Festival organizers called to say they wanted to show his 20-minute movie along with work by directors Gwyneth Paltrow and Bob Odenkirk (of HBO's Mr. Show), Gary Huggins has been puzzled.

"How did I get in?" asks the 38-year-old part-time librarian. "I like my short. It's good. But I can't believe there wasn't anything better than that. It doesn't make any sense."

Kansas City film enthusiasts know Huggins as the man behind the Chucky Lou A/V Club, the name he gives his monthly screenings of offbeat gems such as Devil Fetusand Cannibal Holocaust at Screenland. In 1997, he discovered that the National Screen Service (a company that produced and distributed movie trailers and used a warehouse in Kansas City) had tossed out its collection of vintage trailers, movie previews for everything from Elvis vehicles to Star Wars to horror flicks to James Bond movies. Huggins dug them out of a garbage bin and compiled a DVD he called Trailer Trash.

A couple of years ago, his girlfriend, burlesque performer Rita Brinkerhoff, encouraged him to quit his job at the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library and make a film. Huggins followed her advice and took a part-time job with the Kansas City, Missouri, Public Library. He shot the film cheaply, and the actors worked for free. The movie wrapped last August, and Huggins scrambled to get First Date ready for this year's festivals.

Since getting the Sundance nod, he has spent every waking moment trying to figure out how he's going to pay $4,000 for a week at a condo in Park City, Utah, at the end of this month. He used eBay to sell the Evel Knievel toys he had collected since he was 7 years old. And he started planning fund-raisers.

Then, in mid-December, he learned that First Date — a film about a desperate ex-con obsessed with a 16-year-old boy he meets in an online chat room — was one of only five U.S. films selected for the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival the week after Sundance; the French confab is second in prestige only to Cannes.

Huggins may be baffled by the response to his film, but the Pitch has a theory about what's driving the interest.

Santiago Vasquez.

"I look evil, but I'm evil," the star said recently when he saw his character's image on a promotional postcard for the movie.

Vasquez was a strange man with a Fu Manchu mustache and long hair who hung around the KCK library. Huggins thought he was a drug dealer with an odd affection for Akira Kurosawa and Miyamoto Musashi films. The first time they talked martial-arts movies, Vasquez freaked out.

"You have Miyamoto Musashi?" Vasquez asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, we have all of his movies," Huggins told him.

"Ah, man. Ah, man," Vasquez yelled.

"It was, like, really scary," Huggins recalls.

After a big drug bust, Vasquez vanished. Later, though, he returned and revealed his true identity to Huggins. Vasquez had been working undercover as a drug dealer for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.

"He's got all of these acting chops from working undercover," Huggins says. "The stakes there are really high. If you're a bad actor there, you'd get your head blown off. So he can act without a sweat now because what's the worst that can happen?"

Huggins wrote First Date with Vasquez in mind as his lead character. The film begins with the chime of a newly received instant message. A conversation unfolds on the screen. Kcmuscle, a 38-year-old man, and LuvOlder, his newly found 16-year-old friend (played by Tian Wei) make a date.

LuvOlder: top or btm?

kcmuscle: latin top

kcmuscle: ready 2 pop

LuvOlder: um

LuvOlder: what r u doing right now?

kcmuscle: paper work

LuvOlder: cum over

kcmuscle: tonight?

LuvOlder: yeah

kcmuscle: ok

LuvOlder: kewl

First Date was partly inspired by Huggins' library duties, which involved watching over patrons' shoulders to make sure they weren't abusing their computer privileges. Another inspiration was KCTV Channel 5's notorious sexual predator sting in February 2004.

"That was great," Huggins says of Steve Chamraz's perv-exposing series. "Terrible journalism, but what great television."

First Date is realistic — mostly because of Vasquez's acting. Huggins sent him into laundromats and bridal shops to play off everyday people. And the people went with it.

"They're interacting with him as the character, and they're brilliant," Huggins says. "They're not even looking at the camera."

The highlight, for Huggins, didn't make it into the movie. But he recalls Vasquez talking with a man running a taco stand in downtown KCK. Vasquez approached the stand's owner and asked to borrow his car.

"Naturally, they're like, 'No, you can't borrow my car,'" Huggins says. "He's like, 'But look, man, we've got the same color skin.' He's like, 'We probably have the same last name, too, but I'm not letting you have my car.... Take the Metro.' 'Ah, man, I'm not taking the fucking Metro.' 'I'll give you a quarter.' 'I don't want your fucking quarter. I want your car.'

"Wow," Huggins continues. "This is like the best improv ever, and these dudes work at a taco stand. It's like there's a whole city ready, just burning to be in a movie."