IMPRESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND -- PART III -- Bill Kersey, Talented Filmmaker

O.K. -- here's something to ponder... Name a car, any domestic car in the automotive history of America. Old, not-so-old or new. I will bet that none of you blurted out "Mercury Topaz!" I know I sure as heck wouldn't think of that model -- it just might be one of the all-time "ho-hummers" (pun intended) ever to be dumped on an always unsuspecting American car-buying public. Since the turn of the century the Big Three Detroit automakers have introduced more trash than Jerry Springer; the not-so-gemlike Topaz ranks right up there with the Chevy Vega as one of the more likely vehicles you will see mounted on concrete blocks in front of a house trailer in De Queen, Arkansas. (An aside, did you know that the local newspaper there is called De Queen Bee?).

I prefaced this Crested Butte Reel Fest article with the preceding automotive comments because when I first saw that one of Bill Kersey's short films programmed at this year's event was titled 87 TOPAZ I never, ever thought it was in reference to the Mercury sedan. Not in a million years. This documentary utilizes Bill's grandfather's diaries as the source for this excellent 7 1/2 minute reflective and heartwarming look back at what was a very different time in America. What is probably not all that surprising is that the diaries are dominated by entries referring to work, family, religion and the family car. What is surprising is that this "family documentary" does not come across as self-serving or limited in its appeal. Only a skilled filmmaker can pull this off, and Bill Kersey succeeds where so many others have failed miserably.

87 TOPAZ is the fourth short film selected for screening at the Reel Fest within the past three years. Each of these productions share two things in common, they are each "gems" and they are each quite different -- SOLACE is a drama, GARPENFARGLE is a comedy, PERMIAN FLOW is basically experimental (and a very accessible one at that) and, of course, 87 TOPAZ is a documentary. In automotive parlance -- Bill Kersey's body of work is like a plethora of Panhards.