When he’s not out shooting footage for his movies, Chris Bower spends his time editing video in his downtown studio and promoting his films around the country. Bower recently returned from the IFP Emerging Narrative Film Program in New York City, where he was pitching a horror-movie screenplay he wrote with Xpress contributor Whitney Shroyer. “I’m working all the damn time,” he says.
The Asheville native has become known for his collaborations with local creatives to produce such movies as Solatrium — a short science-fiction movie that will play at a South Korean international film fest later this year, and Moon Europa, a full-length feature that he hopes to finish filming in November. “What’s good about Asheville is that people give you respect if you’re living your vision and doing your work,” says Bower, “and it’s cool that nobody looks down on you if you’re broke.”
Currently Bower is working on the final edit of We Won’t Bow Down, a documentary of the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans that he filmed with the help of local photographer Steve Mann. “I think I’ve been able to do a lot just from community support,” says Bower. “It seems like really it’s the artists who help other artists in this town.”
— Ursula Gullow
