Documentaries making name for two local filmmakers

It started with an eager student helping her college instructor on a few film projects just to get experience.

It evolved into a professional partnership that is getting some serious buzz in the world of independent St. Louis filmmaking.

Ashley Seering, 24, and Cory Byers, 40, have co-produced three documentaries that have been screened at film festivals or widely used for educational purposes.

“Just getting accepted (by festivals) is an honor,” said Cory, a TV and advertising instructor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

“It means your piece has been judged by people who either know about filmmaking or the specific subject, and they have decided that it’s good enough to be shown.”

Beyond documentaries, Cory just learned that his SIUE-based production team, Untitled Sequence, beat 44 others to win this year’s St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project.

The highly competitive contest requires a movie to be written, shot and edited in two days. Cory’s team, including Ashley, produced a six-minute piece called “Cult Classic.”

“It will be shown at the world competition in 2017, along with other city winners,” Ashley said, referring to Filmapalooza.

Last year, Ashley and Cory placed in the Top 12 (out of about 60 entries) in the Fusion Doc Challenge, an international contest similar to the 48 Hour Film Project, except it allows five days for production.

Their entry, a seven-minute documentary called “Renewed,” premiered at Utah’s Slamdance Film Festival. It profiles Guy Long, a former prison inmate who got his life back on track with help from a St. Louis internship program.

“(Ashley and Cory) did a fantastic job,” Guy said in January after seeing the film. “The documentary they did ... It looks like something off TV. I cried when I saw it.”

“Renewed” and nine other documentary shorts will be screened at 4:15 p.m. Sunday at the Tivoli Theatre as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. Tickets cost $13.

One of Ashley and Cory’s biggest fans is Chris Clark, artistic director of Cinema St. Louis, which runs the Showcase and 48 Hour contest. He describes them as talented, hard-working and enthusiastic.

Chris noted that while most filmmakers wait until the last minute to submit Showcase entries, Ashley and Cory were first this year.

“They do everything well,” he said. “They are very good at the technical aspects, like the cinematography and editing, and they're very good at storytelling. They can tell a compelling story.”

Ashley is a Mascoutah native who graduated from SIUE with a mass communications degree in 2014. She lives in Edwardsville and works as a freelance videographer.

Ashley’s company, Night Owl Productions, tackles everything from corporate training materials to music videos.

Cory grew up in Effingham and earned a master’s degree in professional media practices at SIU Carbondale in 2005. He’s been making documentary and movie shorts ever since.

“I do it just to bring examples to the classroom,” he said. “I can relate what I do, not just things from 20 years ago, but something I did last week, something that’s more relevant.”

At SIUE, Cory serves as director of video services in addition to teaching. Ashley took his Introduction to Video and Audio class as a sophomore.

Cory was always asking for student volunteers to help with film projects, and Ashley wanted to get real-world experience using professional equipment.

Their first major collaboration was “Everything Will Be Forgotten” in 2013. The 10-minute documentary focuses on a skateboard park under the Kingshighway Bridge in St. Louis.

“I had seen a blip somewhere about how these skateboarders made this park with their own hands,” Ashley said. “I thought it sounded interesting.”

“Everything” was screened at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and film festivals in Carbondale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and even Australia.

Ashley and Cory then embarked on “The Heroin Project,” a 53-minute documentary that grew out of a video series produced for the state’s attorney’s office to educate youths and parents about the dangers of heroin.

They finished the piece in 2015, after raising $3,500 through Indiegogo for music and graphics. Since that time, they have shown it at conferences in Chicago and Las Vegas and sold DVDs to treatment centers.

“It really generates good conversation,” said Donna Nahlik, director of prevention services for Chestnut Health Systems in Maryville.

“And it shows the issue from a wide range of perspectives, including prevention specialists, parents who’ve lost a child or struggled with a child who’s addicted, the coroner’s office and law enforcement.”

Chestnut has used the film in its parents group, and the Madison County Superintendent of Schools office sponsored a free showing at the Edwardsville AMC theater.

Ashley and Cory consider “The Heroin Project” their most rewarding collaboration, noting it’s more about community service than entertainment.

“We’re not counselors or anything, but we have been able to make people aware of the problem,” Cory said. “That’s been the biggest impact.”

Ashley and Cory now are working on a short narrative film based on Ashley’s concept and written by Josh Bovinette, Cory’s former teaching assistant.

They wrapped up filming this week at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edwardsville with shots of SIUE student Justin Grimmer walking down the street and in the door. They’re not giving away too many details.

“It’s not a crime story in the traditional sense,” Ashley said. “It’s really a drama about how a tragedy can affect a family.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Documentaries making name for two local filmmakers."