Loyola alumnus Mike Miley, A ’01, is in town doing research for his first feature film that will be set in New Orleans, but has traveled around the globe to various film festivals to screen “The Bug Man.” Based upon the short story by Tim Gautreaux, the film adaptation is a 25-minute short about an exterminator’s relationship with his clients.
Funded in part by the American Film Institute as well as private donations, the film was Miley’s master’s thesis in film. The work has won various awards and accolades, including the Best Student Film award at the Tampa Bay Film Festival and the Berkeley International Video and Film Festival’s Grand Festival Award.
Last Friday and Sunday, Miley returned to campus to screen his two latest film projects to a mixed audience of students and professors. He graduated from AFI and projected his two short films “The Red Bow” and “The Bug Man” in Bobet Hall.
“The Red Bow” was a semi-finalist in Esquire’s Celluloid Style competition. The film is a five-minute short about a family dealing with the loss of their daughter to an attack by an infected dog.
Harrowing in its brutality, it plays similar to a horror film, yet confined to the domestic space.
This theme of domestic disturbance is similar in Miley’s films, especially the violence that erupts within homes. Both “The Bug Man” and “The Red Bow” contain sudden bursts of violent behavior that, while shocking in its own right, are also poignant moments of intense emotion.
Miley’s senior thesis at Loyola, “Surface Calm,” incorporates similar themes, extending the violence to masochistic tendencies as opposed to sadistic outbursts.
All of the films mentioned are adaptations of short stories, some with connections to Loyola – like the author of “Surface Calm,” who was also a visiting lecturer, and to Louisiana in general – Gautreaux, for instance.
Flirting with original material for a while, Miley prefers, at this stage in his career, to adapt other authors’ works into film.
“It’s just better when I’m working with other people,” Miley said. “When having a book to work with, there’s more to fall back on.”
The feature film he is planning is based on a book set in New Orleans.
“The Bug Man” is still playing at festivals around the nation.
Miley will return home to continue work on his feature after his stint shooting locally.
Jason Bolte can be reached at [email protected].
Loyola alumnus Mike Miley returned to Loyola to present two of his films, “The Bug Man” and “The Red Bow.” Miley, a graduate of the American Film Institute, talked to packed audiences in Bobet Hall last Friday and Sunday. (Photo Courtesy of Loyola)
