Malcolm Murray finds himself a tad bit apprehensive. The 27-year-old New Mexico native filmmaker is gearing up to premiere his movie “Bad Posture” in New Mexico.
But that’s not what has him nervous.
“My mom is going to be in the audience,” he says during a recent interview from Brooklyn, N.Y. “There are bad words, and I hope it’s not too offensive.”
Murray describes “Bad Posture” as a coming-of-age romance in which no one comes of age and the romance is doomed from the start.
“While we were filming, the crew just tried to shoot at all the places we used to hang out,” he says. “The characters in the film are a representation of people that I already knew.”
“Bad Posture” follows Flo, who is newly fired from his job, as he spends his summer wandering the Duke City aimlessly with his best friend, Trey. Together, they spend their days and nights pursuing Trey’s illicit moneymaking schemes.
The movie was written by another Albuquerque native, Florian Brozek.
In terms of making a movie, Murray and crew were on the fast track. Preproduction began in spring 2010, and, by July 1 of that year, the film was already being shot.
“It was a 39-day shoot, and we accomplished a lot,” he says. “With this film being independent, there was a tight budget, so my mom would come out and feed the cast and crew.”
Murray says by January the movie was ready to screen and was accepted into the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film was named as “one to watch” for 2011 at the festival. The festival is one of the larger film festivals in Europe, arguably in the Big Five, alongside Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Locarno, Switzerland.
“This was an honor to get accepted into this festival,” he says. “They don’t usually take a lot of American-made films, and this one showed really well.”
Murray says he was amazed at the reactions to the film.
“A lot enjoyed it, because it gave them a glimpse of Albuquerque, which most people haven’t visited,” he says. “It automatically became this international film where the audience was taken to another place. They could see a world different from theirs.”
Murray grew up in Tijeras and was home-schooled until middle school, when he attended and graduated from Albuquerque Academy. He went to Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he graduated with a degree in history and political science.
Upon graduating from college, he was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which took him to film and live in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Laos, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Mexico.
“I wanted to be a history teacher or make documentaries,” he explains. “After college, I just kind of started working in the industry, and it’s taken off from there.”
But that wasn’t Murray’s first foray into filmmaking. While growing up he made skateboarding films. He says he filmed his friends skateboarding and used the films to barter for things.
“No one really knew how to edit the film,” he says. “So I would edit the film and in exchange I would get shoes and skateboard decks.”
Murray says he’s excited to screen the film at the Guild Cinema, because he used to watch movies there growing up.
“I work abroad so much that it’ll be nice to come back home and screen the film in front of friends and family,” he says.
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