"When aging Grandpa Bill backs his old pickup right through the garage door, he covers up the accident with a spontaneous project: He razes the old shed and the entire family gets in on the haphazard demolition derby." (—Sean Axmaker, Seattle P-I)

75-Word Synopsis

Can Bill tear down his garage with a winch and 100' of cable? And if so, will it make a big crash? Can Grandson Dave butcher a road kill with a pocketknife? Will Grandson Wiley get busted for planting a seed in Bill’s ear? Can Granddaughter Suzanne clean interior latex paint off her boyfriend without waking him up? Will Bill get hurt trying to tear down his garage, and if so, how bad?

150-Word Synopsis

Buffalo Bill rallies his sissy-fied clan to the old-fashioned task of pulling down their dilapidated shed with a winch and 100' of cable— a half-baked decision influenced heavily by the fact that he accidentally blasted through the garage door with his truck. As Bill's daughter and grandchildren prepare the shed for razing, they excavate rusted family artifacts, uncovering interfamilial tensions. In their own words, Bill's ensemble gossips about each other, most of the time revealing more about the person talking than the subject. The film spills the guts of this American family through stories of Bill's seeds floating through the world on their own unique, but parallel narratives. "Buffalo Bill's Defunct" is a poem to the entanglement of family, casting a vigil light on inheritance. The relationships are cluttered, muddled and imperfect, but perfectly functional.

250-Word Synopsis

The film’s title alludes to an e.e. cummings poem about the Buffalo Bill from the old west— a man, like Grandfather Bill, who used to ‘ride a watersmooth-silver stallion and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat’ but whose vigorous youth is now in the past. With $17,000 in public art funding from organizations like The Northwest Film Forum, The King County Arts Commission, The Allen Foundation for the Arts, and Artist Trust, Buffalo Bill’s Defunct pushes independent filmmaking into the realm of art. Improvised from a detailed treatment, the film weaves a tapestry of authentic human interactions. Presented is the story of a modern family deconstructing the generational barriers that keep them from fully connecting, for better and for worse. For instance, what happens to a father/daughter relationship when they get drunk and play a childish prank together? Or what does a grandson say to his grandfather after he attempts to butcher a deer, but finds that living off the land is a skill lost to his generation?

In the end the characters and the audience are left on the verge of answering the question with which the Cummings poem concludes:

                                                                 Jesus
he was a handsome man
                                     and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death


-e.e. cummings, 1917

500-Word Synopsis:

Ornery Bill-"Buffalo" Bill to his army buddies and late wife "Calamity" Jane-rallies what's left of his sissy-fied clan to the old-fashioned task of pulling down their dilapidated shed with a winch and 100' of cable—a half-baked decision influenced heavily by the fact that he accidentally blasted through the garage door with his truck. As Bill's daughter and grandchildren prepare the shed for razing, they excavate dust-covered board games and rusted family artifacts, sparking interfamilial gossip and tensions. In their own words, Bill's ensemble gossips about each other, the slovenly blue-collar faction ridiculing the snobbish white-collar faction and vice versa, most of the time revealing more about the person talking than the subject. In doing so, the film spills the guts of this American family through stories of its members trying to understand each other and their lineage.

Bill's seeds float and drift through the world on their own unique, but parallel narratives. For instance, when Suzanne takes her boyfriend to meet her Dad, Jack, a strange incident occurs involving alcohol and interior latex paint, that questions why we do hurtful things to each other, and how the affects of our actions can be so different from our intentions. When Buffalo Bill tries to party with his family, and drinks a few beers against doctor's orders, things get a little graphic. A surprising member of the family, due to step up to the plate, helps clean up the mess in a humorous and touching scene that questions why we do hurtful things to ourselves.

Possibly the most disturbing moment of the film depicts Bill's teenage grandkids witnessing the hit and run death of a young fawn. In a misguided attempt to deal with the death, and their own morbid curiosity about it, the teenagers try to re-awaken dormant survival skills by salvaging the meat dropped into their laps, aided only by a dull Swiss Army knife. Their ineptitude exposes how far removed this generation is from Buffalo Bill's, but also how similar their desires are.

When 10-year-old Wiley "accidentally" spits a watermelon seed in grandpa's ear while he's passed out on the sofa, the boy gets his pocketknife, puts on his coat of responsibility, and tries to take matters into his own hands to set things right.

"Buffalo Bill's Defunct" is a poem to the entanglement of our ancestry, casting a vigil light on inheritance. The film is filled with the clutter of family, slowly deconstructed to reveal the essence of each relationship. The relationships are muddled and imperfect, but perfectly functional.

With a directorial vision that evokes the raw humanity of Cassavetes (A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, FACES, SHADOWS), the absurdist humor of Werner Herzog (AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD, WOYZECK, NOSFERATU), and the subtlety of Raymond Carver’s short fiction, BUFFALO BILL'S DEFUNCT tells startlingly unique stories with a rough-aroundthe- edges style that perfectly matches the homespun content.