On Set: A Conversation with Tim Kirkman

By Kevin Murphy Wilson Photos Provided 

Tim Kirkman is best known for his work as a screenwriter, director, professor, and co-founder of T42 Entertainment— a company whose mission is to amplify LGBTQ and other marginalized stories and voices across media platforms. At the moment, that group has a new feature film coming out called THE GROTTO, which was written and directed by Tony-winner Joanna Gleason. T42 is also producing Kirkman’s adaptation of Silas House’s acclaimed novel SOUTHERNMOST. We recently caught up with the master storyteller to hear all about his professional journey and his reasons for basing himself in the Bluegrass.

VOICE-TRIBUNE: What sort of educational background do you have?

Tim Kirkman: “I graduated from NC State University’s College of Design with a degree in graphic design and a minor in Journalism, then went on to get an M.A. in Media Studies at The New School in New York City. I’ve discovered that design and journalism and media studies have been incredibly useful foundations for filmmaking.”

VT: When did you become interested in a film-focused career? 

TK: “My interest in film started at an early age, but in my undergraduate years I started to see more adventurous films that took risks or challenged the form in some way. Once I started to learn more about directing, I realized it was a way to combine so many of the things I was already interested in and had some capacity for doing — acting, drawing and painting, photography, writing, editing sound, music — into one job. Directors don’t have to be great at any of those things, and I’m not! But they have to be able to recognize talent in all of those areas, which I can do.” 

VT: Are there any specific movies that inspired you or folks who encouraged you along the way?

TK: “Nonfiction and fictional narrative filmmaking both inspired me in college. A few in particular helped me start to see cinema storytelling in new ways: David Lynch’s ERASERHEAD blew my mind. Steven Soderbergh’s SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE showed me new ideas about pace, subject matter and performance. Ross McElwee’s SHERMAN’S MARCH was transformative in terms of embracing my own voice. Spike Lee’s DO THE RIGHT THING had a major impact on how a film could weave the personal and political into a visually stunning film.”

VT: Is there a genre/area of research that excites you? Have your tastes or interests evolved over the years?

TK: “The longer I work in film, the more I realize I am not interested in only film; I think in the last few months I have had a revelation about myself and that it’s not that I’m obsessed with film or that I must make films. I am interested in stories. They don’t all need to be films. Maybe they’re a podcast or an audio project, or a painting or a piece of short fiction. I just finished a documentary short about a North Carolina artist named Freeman Vines who made guitars using wood from trees used to lynch Black men. I want to explore all kinds of forms and formats. I am starting to think of myself less as a filmmaker and more as someone who wants to share stories.”

VT: What did your decade long stint at Miramax Films look like?

TK: “I was an art director at Miramax, which meant I helped design posters and ad campaigns for lots of movies. I was heavily involved in their infamous Oscar campaigns. Some of the more prominent titles I worked on include SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, CHOCOLAT, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, CHICAGO, GANGS OF NEW YORK, and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. I always joke that I was there from RESERVOIR DOGS to COLD MOUNTAIN. Everyone at the company seemed young, and we were. It was a magical time in NYC to be working at a company that was truly helping American audiences learn to embrace independent and foreign cinema.”

VT: Although you are a North Carolina native, you had been based out on the West Coast for a while. What led you back to this part of the country?

TK: “I moved to NYC two weeks after graduating from NC State and lived there for twenty years, then moved to Los Angeles for eleven. My husband, Drew Barr, is a theater director with family in Lexington, so we’d been coming to Kentucky for holidays for over twenty years and fell in love with the city. I also work often with Louisville-based producer Gill Holland, whom I had met in NYC a long time ago, and we’ve made five features together, including one in Louisville. So my ties here are strong. These days you don’t need to live in Los Angeles or New York to work in the industry, so we finally decided it was time for a new pace for our life, and we wanted to be closer to family.”

VT: You taught directing at the University of Southern California’s School for Cinematic Arts, and screenwriting at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. And since you landed in this region, you’ve done some adjunct work at Kentucky College of Art + Design. What is the overlap between teaching and professional practice, and do you think that time spent in the classroom further enhances your craft?

TK: “Every time I teach, I learn something new - either through the process of explaining or demonstrating in the classroom or from the students who do the work. Students are so often the best teachers. The ones who treat the work with respect - who show up for class and do the assignments and put an effort into trying to discover something - they’re the ones who inspire me. KyCAD is such a rich environment. It’s like a laboratory for students to discover. It reminded me so much of my design education at NCSU that I jumped at the chance to teach there. I’m so inspired by the faculty and the students and impressed with the values President Moira Scott Payne has brought to KyCAD.” 

VT: What is special to you about the current project with Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House? 

TK: “There’s never been a more important time to tell a story about a person whose religious beliefs are in direct conflict with their life experiences. It’s a story that bridges differences, that starts conversations. We need that. Silas House is a brilliant writer, and this novel is a faith-based, family film — but from a progressive stance, if you can call treating people with respect and decency a progressive stance! I can’t wait to bring this production to Kentucky and into the world. We need it now and we need people in Kentucky to help us build an audience.” 

VT: Looking back, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

TK: “That is a hard question. I think it changes, depending on my state of mind, but right now I take great pride in the fact that I am not afraid to be moved by art. I cry easily when I watch a film or hear a song or see a play or read a story. I can be in the middle of teaching HAROLD AND MAUDE in the classroom and my eyes will well. I’m proud to have grown up with parents who did not hide their emotions and taught me that being emotional was not just okay, but necessary. Nothing to be ashamed of. If in my work I can make people feel something, give them space to feel something, I have done good work.”

For more information, visit www.timkirkman.com.