There's a bar of average expectations for low-budget genre films, and it's one filmmaker Kely McClung had no intention of noting. Shot between the States and Thailand, Blood Ties, McClung's feature debut, is easily one wildly ambitious indie action film. After four years, four trips to Thailand, all done on the work of a limited budget, Blood Ties wrapped to hit the festival circuit this year. Told in distinct stylistic chapters, the story follows Jack Davis (Kely McClung), a former federal agent turned rogue, who fights his way into and around Thailand to rescue his brother Jim (Robert Pralgo), kidnapped on behalf of the burgeoning International Security Federation. One part socio-political, the other experimental and emotional, the film at times seems to seek its voice, as if it's playing with many different ideas and refusing to settle on one thematic chord. The trial, however, rarely amounts to error for McClung and only sometimes displays a lack of consistent narrative beat. Rather, the strengths of the film are noteworthy--it's almost anal attention to precise editing, its unflappable dedication to big-budget stunts in a no-budget setting and it's narrative intricacy, if at times this intricacy passes by so quickly that it's lost in its rapid dialogue exchanges. Behind what amounts to several back-to-back intense fight scenes, McClung also layers an underlying story of love and guilt, which could perhaps seem hackneyed were it not for its incidental nature in the larger framework of the film.

In the following two-part interview, McClung speaks about various aspects of the film production: the coffee craze in Thailand, his on-the-cheap rig for a dolly and the late night diner expedition to find one Thai woman to pose nude on film.

Interview Part One.

Interview Part Two.

www.bloodtiesmovie.com.

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