Who is Kelley Baker?

I am the poster boy for bad decision making in the Independent Film World.

I’ve written five books, written and directed three features, eight short films, some documentaries, and a ton of corporate videos and commercials. I’ve worked on other people’s films as an editor and sound designer for the last 40+ years. There are certain truths I have learned, and certain things and people I shouldn’t have listened to. I have messed up my life financially, emotionally, and probably physically, and it’s all been for the love of movies. My movies.

I was named the Angry Filmmaker by others. They watched my films and listened to me speak about the realities of independent film. They came up with that name and I’ve embraced it. 

My films have screened in theaters and on television in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. They’ve also been featured at film festivals including London, Sydney, Annecy, Sao Paulo, Sundance, Chicago, Aspen, Mill Valley, and Edinburgh.

And yet, I was never able to get a distribution deal. There were always excuses why distributors wouldn’t sign my films, but none of them had to do with the quality or the storytelling. It was because no one “famous” was in them.

So I said, “fuck you” to the business and ripped a page out of the punk rock handbook. I took my movies out on tour in a used minivan with my faithful dog Moses, a 120-pound Chocolate Lab, looking for my audience. Every fall and spring we traveled the country showing my films at art house theaters, film festivals, colleges, and even biker bars.

Logging over two hundred thousand miles we encountered an assortment of characters including, a lying desk clerk at a Chicago hotel that lead to the loss of my home, two professional wrestlers in West Virginia, a group of civil rights workers drinking rum at Hank Williams grave in Montgomery, and an overzealous drug sniffing border patrol dog in Texas.

People liked my films and my attitude towards filmmaking and the business of filmmaking.

I’m outspoken and I don’t care if people like it or not. My logo is a finger with sprocket holes running down it.

If you don’t like me, or what I have to say then move on. I don’t have time to deal with your crap. I have too much work to do and I’m having too much fun doing it.