Shot in the Lehigh Valley, the film Killian and the Comeback Kids opens at the ArtsQuest Center's cinema on Thursday, September 24 and runs until Sunday, September 27. Bethlehem's shuttered steel factory is a backdrop not just for the first showing but for the story Killian tells: When traditional economic opportunities falter, the arts are both a refuge and fertile ground for new growth.
The eponymous lead has just graduated, and he and his student debt are back in his hometown ready to set off on a modest musical tour when his bandmate bails to get a “real job.” Killian turns his attention to a big music festival held on the outskirts of town. It has finally deigned to offer a slot for a local band. He's got to round up his fellow failure-to-launch peers and get an act together to give their town a voice at the festival.
Original music runs throughout Killian, folk rock written by Easton native Taylor A. Purdee and his childhood best friend. “Folk has a tradition of community and do-it-yourself,” writer/actor/director Purdee says. “Folk comes out of having nothing.”
For Purdee, Bethlehem no longer quite fits the depressed town in which Killian is set. Since the time Purdee graduated from the Lehigh Valley Charter School for the Arts, the community has evolved economically and culturally from the run-down role it plays. “We got more support than we thought we would,” he says. The project galvanized the Valley's loose-knit film community into focused action with a largely local crew and draws on both imported actors and Lehigh Valley legends like folk singer Dave Fry.
You can find Killian playing at ArtsQuest and other area theaters in the coming months. All too many millennials will relate to the post-graduation struggle; all generations will enjoy some good old folk rock.
