STORY ONE – THE BACK STORY (Part 1)

STORY ONE – THE BACK STORY (Part 1)
 
40 Plus years of life, smooshed into some paragraphs.

My love for photography/video & film started when I was 5 aka the 1980’s! My dad found out that JC Penny had released a video camera that connected to a VHS tape machine. JC Penny had their logo on the actual Camera.
 
Dad was semi-obsessed with capturing all kinds of randomness on video. Once he had the camera, he brought it everywhere. I might be one of the only kids on planet Earth who has soccer and baseball games from the early 80’s on VHS tape. I have re-found many of these old tapes and have begun to digitize them. Sedona was a very tiny place, tucked away from most of the world.
 
I plan to make a documentary about the camera and our little town that no one knew about back in the day. Sedona used to be a word of mouth place minus the photography of Bob Bradshaw via Arizona Highways Magazine. This place was quaint. This video camera was such an anomaly that when dad showed up to shoot a game or town meeting at the Masonic temple on Airport hill, many folks thought my dad worked for KUSK tv.
 
When the Holiman Family moved to Sedona in the 70’s, there were exactly zero stoplights, zero round abouts and no sidewalks on 89A. There were no leash laws, Starbucks or Range Rovers. It was pickup trucks and “Robert Begood” or “The Great Randoo” on KAZM AM radio. Robert was also our soccer coach and Randoo was my dad’s good buddy.  
 
Sedona was one step up from an old West cowboy movie set. Thanks to businesses like Basha’s, AJ Bayless, Yellow Front and Coronet, the Flicker Shack movie theater, we had just enough modern to stay fed, clothed and entertained. If we wanted to be fancy, we ventured to Flagstaff.
 
The Flicker Shack and the Holiman’s both started lives in Sedona in the same year. It might not mean much to you but it’s a big part of what I hold in my heart as the place I grew up. I am so honored to use this name for my business all of these years later. It is sacred to me like touching the old log at the Apollo or screaming “GO PACK!” at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
 
The theater (building) might be a Whole Foods now but it is forever in our hearts The Flicker Shack. Whole Foods just occupies the space now. Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I love the Whole Foods and you will find us in there 2-5 times a week. But it will never not be the sacred ground of the place all of us kids saw movies “Indiana Jones” and “Aliens” for the first time.  
 
I recently won the Ojai Film Festival for my second Feature “GOD SEND” available on Amazon. We also won the first annual Bill Paxton Award in honor of longtime resident of Ojai/legendary actor/director. As I kid, I knew him as “Hicks”. Winning that award which was presented by his son James, was such a huge honor. James’s dad was one of my biggest memories as a kid, watching Aliens and feeling just a bit less tense when he would yell things like: “That’s it. Game over man!”  
 
To Be Continued…