Aspenite Charles Agar takes long way to making short films

ASPEN ” Having grown up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Charles Agar’s move to Greenwich Village, to begin college, was an eye-opening experience. And after two years studying film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Agar had another head-turning realization: being a college student might not be the best way to become a filmmaker.

After spending a summer working for a production company, where his activities ranged from painting the Ed Sullivan Theater to working on the set as films were being made, Agar says he learned “that film school is not a prerequisite. For anything. It seemed like there were different ways to get into film.”

Agar took a series of sharp turns. The first was transferring from NYU to Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y., and switching to a liberal arts program. He traveled to Alaska, ski-bummed near Vail, got a graduate degree in English from the University of Rochester, taught English in Japan, practiced Buddhism and worked as a carpenter in Massachusetts. All the while, he focused on writing, keeping journals of his experiences and working as a travel writer for a company that published guidebooks. In 2006, Agar took a position as a reporter for The Aspen Times, where he currently is employed.

The 36-year-old Agar doesn’t see any of these pursuits as having distracted him from filmmaking, a hobby since he was a teenager.

“I always thought that was the way to do what I wanted to do,” he said of his writing and traveling. “Film is writing.”

Agar’s circuitous path was validated when his film, “The Last American Ski Bum ” Bumps Jackson,” was selected for the Aspen Shortsfest International Competition. The nine-minute film shows in the screening program at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Wheeler Opera House, alongside films from Latvia, the U.K. and South Korea. The 17th annual Aspen Shortsfest opens Wednesday and runs through Sunday, April 6.

“The Last American Ski Bum” tells a story most familiar to local audiences. The mockumentary stars local actor Kim Nuzzo as the mythical Bumps, an aging guy who will do whatever it takes to preserve his way of life at 7,908 feet above sea level. Real-life local figures ” Mayor Mick Ireland, Sheriff Bob Braudis ” appear to comment on Bumps, who is as much a part of the landscape as Aspen Mountain. For all the brevity, the improvised segments, Agar says crafting the script was a major task.

“That short film ” you look at it and say it’s just a little one-off,” he said. “But it’s written to the hilt. I’ve never been so anal about anything as about this little documentary.”

Agar believes “The Last American Ski Bum” not only captures an icon of Colorado’s mountain towns, but also comments on a peculiarly Aspen pastime ” lamenting change.

“People have been talking about the death of the ski bum a long time,” said Agar, who shot the bulk of the film in one day last fall. “That’s a popular discussion. People in Aspen mourn the loss of Aspen all the time, in a lot of ways.”

Agar has embraced the changes that continue to roil the filmmaking world, especially the low-budget, short-format end of it. While he, like most independent filmmakers, wrestles with the new distribution realities that evolve almost weekly, he loves how quickly and cheaply a sharp-looking film can be produced these days. It was only last summer that Agar began buying the necessary gear: camera, computer, Final Cut software. Last fall, he took an Aspen Film workshop, led by Hollywood director Lewis Teague, and learned the importance of production notes. He gave himself on-the-job training in editing techniques as he was making “The Last American Ski Bum.”

Agar isn’t ready to make any drastic career changes yet. But the title of part-time filmmaker is one he’s going to hold onto awhile.

“I’ve got my gear, and I’m ready to make more films,” he said.

Shortsfest opens Wednesday with two programs at Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House ” at 5:30 and 8:15 p.m. ” in the International Competition.

Shortsfest special presentations include a master class with two-time Academy Award nominee Bill Plympton; the Real Shorts program, featuring screenings of recent Oscar winner “Freeheld” and recent Oscar nominee “La Corona (The Crown)”; Lights, Camera, Kids, a program of shorts suitable for viewers age 11 and older; and British Shorts Panorama, a series of films presented by Simona Marchegiani, film program manager of the British Council.

Among the films to be screened in the International Competition are “Alagados,” set in Brazil and directed by Carbondalian Sylvia Johnson; “Cutlass,” directed by former Roaring Fork Valley resident Kate Hudson and starring Virginia Madsen, Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning; “X,” directed by “No Country for Old Men” star Josh Brolin; and “Drowning River,” a documentary about former Aspenite Katie Lee and her fight to prevent the damming of the Colorado River in Glen Canyon.

stewart@aspentimes.com