Growing up in Moscow, Luke Gresback watched movies with his friends in his parents’ basement, picking apart each scene. He wasn’t just seeing the actors or the incredible cinematography; he was studying his future craft.
Gresback, who now lives in Los Angeles, returns to Moscow on Sunday with his debut short film, “Clyde Petri is in Trouble,” a story about confronting the bad habits we try to ignore. Gresback, who wrote, directed and edited the film, will present it along with works from his Los Angeles-based cast and crew starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre.
The free event is part of Gresback’s first major road trip as a filmmaker. Other stops include screenings at two Northwest film festivals: Boise’s FilmFort and Seattle’s National Film Festival for Talented Youth. Getting into the Seattle festival was a significant achievement for Gresback and his team, he said, as many of their friends in the L.A. film scene have participated in it.
Gresback got the idea for “Clyde Petri is in Trouble” after a household disaster: A broken toilet flooded his home, forcing expensive repairs. The experience led him to reflect on how people ignore small problems until they spiral out of control — a theme central to the film and its main character.
“Clyde Petri is a fusion of what I see as the most troubling characteristics of modern masculinity, entirely informed by today’s toxic media and consumer culture,” Gresback said.
The film, he said, explores what it takes for someone to acknowledge such issues.
Gresback, a 2017 graduate of Moscow High School, attributes his creative inclinations to growing up in Moscow. He and his friends made basketball videos in middle school and posted them on YouTube. He binged on vintage paranormal and horror films on CD that he repeatedly rented, at five for $5, from the now-defunct Howard Hughes Video along Main Street. Those experiences, he said, influenced the course of his life and marked the beginning of his adventure in filmmaking.
“Jason Huff, the professor at Moscow High School who ran the Business Professionals of America Club, was an early mentor,” Gresback recalled. “He definitely facilitated a creative sensibility. He was awesome. He was such an empowering, very dry-humored role model that I really appreciated.”
Huff said he remembers Gresback, even then, producing exceptional video projects that rivaled those seen in a college-level media landscape.
After high school, Gresback pursued his passion for filmmaking at Loyola Marymount University in L.A., where he switched from studying business to video production. During this time in L.A., he developed a distinctive video production style, blending humor with social commentary.
Gresback found opportunities to produce short experimental videos through friends he’d made at Loyola Marymount, and eventually L.A. graphic designer Nick Holiday saw his work and offered him the opportunity to direct a smoothie commercial.
“All you can do is keep doing the coolest stuff you can, putting it out and hoping as many people see it as possible,” Gresback said.
He summarized “Clyde Petri is in Trouble” as: “A terrible guy who lives to seek pleasure is forced to look inward when he smokes a moldy cigarette.” It’s “the sort of off-kilter and funny, humorous filmmaking, that is exactly the way that I want to continue to explore themes,” he said.
Gresback balances dark comedy with horror to make a profound social critique, so it’s no surprise David Lynch is his favorite artist and filmmaker.
“I try to recreate the feeling I experience from watching his movies in nearly everything I do,” he said.
Jacob Staudenmaier, the film’s producer, Chris Pickering, director of photography, and Rishabh Trivedi, the camera operator, will join Gresback for the screening, which includes short films by each of them as well.
A short question-and-answer panel discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by University of Idaho Professor Emeritus Kenton Bird, will follow the screenings.
In a nod to the opening scene of “Clyde Petri is in Trouble,” Gresback and his team will serve grilled hamburgers — wrapped in custom-designed paper inspired by the film — outside the Kenworthy.
Simpson, a senior scholar and lifelong learner at the University of Idaho in Moscow, enjoys writing. He can be reached at simp2973@vandals.uidaho.edu.
IF YOU GO
Luke Gresback presents: “Clyde Petri and Friends”
What: Screening of several short films, including “Clyde Petri is in Trouble,” by former Moscow resident Luke Gresback.
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 S. Main St.
Cost: Free.
