First Project Together
Filmmakers Oliver Cooper and Joe Burke both grew up in Sylvania and were family friends. The first project they collaborated on was a short, black-and-white 1920’s mobster video for Oliver’s bar mitzvah. The film catalogued the final day of childhood for Cooper riding coin-operated horses and culminating in an arrest for attempting to access a bygone iteration of the sketchy adult bookstore on West Monroe St. For $100, the video was Burke’s first paid directing gig and immediately won the hearts of all who attended the premiere at the local reform synagogue.
Both moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and directing, respectively. Burke is a director, actor, and teacher at the American Film Institute. Cooper has landed a roles in the 2012 film Project X and on shows like Californication and Red Oaks. If nothing else, these acting credits have landed him on the Wikipedia list of notable Northview High School alumni, above former NASCAR driver Terry Cook, but below the founder of Mannheim Steamroller.
But the two friends have also joined forces on a few projects. The first feature Cooper and Burke shot together was Four Dogs (2013), “a voyeuristic dramedy” based on Cooper’s earliest days in LA. They’ve since partnered for shorter films, from manic comedy (Another Cancer Movie, 2018) to dark, pandemic-era thriller (Desert Quarantine, 2020) (dark thriller, 2020).
Far from the genesis of their partnership, the bar mitzvah video, Burke said, “Who knew all these years later we’d still be collaborating?”
Burt Movie
The second black-and-white film they made together came over 20 years later. Cooper and Burke shot Burt, a feature-length film about a musician navigating the return of a son he didn’t know he’d fathered. The eponymous main character is struggling with the onset of Parkinson’s Disease when Sammy, his son, played by Cooper, shows up to ask for money.
The choice to shoot in black-and-white was an unexpected balance of artistry and thrift. Burke admitted, “I am not one who normally gravitates towards black-and-white movies, but when we did the test shoot, we made that black and white. And because of how we shot this film, with a tiny budget in seven days, we didn’t have a lot of time to focus on lighting the film and color temperature, but this one really works.”
The two are in talks with the Parkinson’s Association to jointly market the film as a vehicle for spreading awareness of the neurodegenerative disease. That the film’s main character, Burt, continues to play guitar and sing his songs in the face of his diagnosis is a flickering candle, some warmth.
Intricacies of Producing a Film
Producing a film on a high four-figure budget is a remarkably resourceful achievement, especially for a union job. As film industry professionals, both Burke and Cooper are members of unions.
With the volume of films being made, and the longshot odds of getting wider distribution, Cooper said, “The union is actually really good about understanding the difference between a smaller indie like ours and a big studio film. They don’t hold us to all the same standards that, if they did, would make it financially impossible to make our film.”
Film Festival Circuit
The film has been accepted to be screened at several festivals, and is slated to premiere March 16 at Cinequest in San Jose, CA. After that, the film will run at the Phoenix Film Festival April 4, 5 and 6. And the Florida Film Festival in Orlando the third week of April, with the exact date yet to be announced. Visit BurtTheMovie.com for more details.
