Chris Bagley and Kim Shively have been partners in crime since 2001, creating Eyeosaur Productions (www.eyeosaur.com) to explore their mutual interest in fringe culture and engage in fearless film and video experimentation. Embracing the “do-it-yourself” aesthetic, they have created numerous music videos, documentaries and experimental pieces. Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides is their first feature-length film.
Directors’ Statement
Wesley Willis’s life was extraordinary and chaotic – an artist, rock ‘n’ roll star and schizophrenic, he was the most complex person we have met. Being a fan of his music and wanting to know more about him, we were determined to make a film about Wesley.
The Wesley we knew was a rock ‘n’ roll machine. When he wasn’t touring he would be at the recording studio or selling CDs to local music stores. Wesley wrote new songs every day, ending each song with a commercial slogan like “Petco, it’s where pets go.” He would always be on the lookout for a new slogan whether it was a billboard on the side of the highway or on a ketchup bottle. His pockets were filled with ads he had written down throughout the day. But there was more to his story than being a rock star (as if that wasn’t enough).
Unfortunately, Wesley wasn’t able to share the rest of his story with us; he passed away in 2003. By the time of his death at the age of 40, Wesley had produced over 50 albums and thousands of drawings – more than most of us could hope to achieve in a lifetime. The decision to continue with the film was difficult. Wesley had become a great friend to us over the years. It was too painful to tackle right away, but slowly we began working on the film again, the many unanswered questions about Wesley’s life and his art motivating us to persist.
Telling Wesley’s story has been like deconstructing one of his expressway drawings – layers of buildings, countless lanes of traffic, billboards and advertisements dotting the landscape. The drawings themselves pointed us to his past. The places he drew contained the stories of his development as an artist. Through interviews with friends and footage from the last four years of Wesley’s life, a portrait emerges, one filled with violence and joy and beauty where you’d least expect it.
- Chris Bagley and Kim Shively, directors of Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides
Welcome to the homepage for Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides, a documentary film from Chris Bagley and Kim Shively celebrating the life and phenomenon of the legendary Wesley Willis: cult rock-and-roll icon and prolific artist.