Local filmmaker Neil Gowan along with his father and directing partner, John Gowan, recently screened his latest short film, Who Followed Us Home, at several prestigious film festivals throughout the United States. The 28-minute film tells the story of Mel, an eccentric hermit who is followed to her remote home in the Andean highlands. Her mysterious stalker appears to have been raised from the dead, and together the two must figure out how to co-exist.
This past spring, the film was selected for inclusion in the Beloit International Film Festival, the New Hope Film Festival in New Hope, Penn., and the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, where it received the top honors of “Best Indie Short” and “Best First-Time Male Directors” for the Gowans. The film also received a nomination for best actress.
“It’s so encouraging to know that the project is having an impact on audiences around the world,” Neil Gowan says. “What I have found to be most rewarding, though, are the relationships we’ve been able to form as a result of being on the circuit with other filmmakers. I’ve always felt rather isolated as a filmmaker here in Lake Geneva, and the more our short gets out there, the more I’m able to meet like-minded professionals — even right here in southeast Wisconsin.”
Director Neil Gowan graduated with a degree in digital cinema from John Brown University. He began his professional career at Big Idea Studios, before cutting his teeth in the live-action world under the mentorship of highly successful documentarians including Barry Poltermann. Director John Gowan studied acting at Biola University, Cal State Sacramento and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts West. He led the theater program at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California for five years before he and his wife Sharon moved to Ecuador, where John serves as a missionary specializing in TV and film production.
Neil Gowan says that their short film was produced as a proof-of-concept project for a larger, independent feature film. After their festival success, they are now discussing partnerships with producers, financiers and actors. “While we are likely going to be partnering with folks from more cinema-driven communities like Hollywood and Atlanta, I also love the idea of wrangling up a team of southeastern Wisconsinites to participate in the excitement of the motion picture industry,” Gowan says. “So while the festival run is winding down for the short film, our journey is just getting started.”
