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Blake Eckard’s Coyotes Kill For Fun screens Saturday, November 4th at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here.

In “Coyotes Kill for Fun,” the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and Sliff favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and La, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost — passed the baton behind the camera. Despite the prolonged production, “Coyotes” maintains a totally consistent — and utterly original — vision. The film features such Eckard regulars as Tyler Messner,...

Blake Eckard’s Coyotes Kill For Fun screens Saturday, November 4th at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here.

Blake Eckard’s Backroad Blues screens Sunday, November 5th at 1:30pm at the .Zack (3224 Locust St.). The Backroad Blues screening is a free event.

In Coyotes Kill For Fun, the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and Sliff favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and La, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost...

Blake Eckard is what you’d call a “micro-budget” filmmaker. This means precisely how it sounds. Movies made on little to no budget, independent fare created by artists driven to have their visions come to fruition, regardless of any financial obstacles that would otherwise restrict such an endeavor. Eckard’s newest film is titled Bubba Moon Face, which he wrote and directed. With a title as odd as Bubba Moon Face, you may imagine the film being equally strange. On some level, this is certainly true, but its a subtle quirkiness that underlies the entire film, primarily a drama about a drifter named Horton (Tyler Messner) that returns to his rural roots for his mother’s funeral. While back home, his car breaks down and is forced to stay with his brother Stanton (Joe Hammerstone).

Horton is a reserved man, not an entirely happy man, and clearly removed from his...