BRANDY MCDONNELL

Tulsa artist Joe Cappa brings creepy cartoon 'Ghost Dogs' to hometown for Sundance Film Festival showcase

Brandy McDonnell
Joe Cappa, who grew up in Tulsa, is the director of the animated horror short film "Ghost Dogs," an official selection of the Shorts Program at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. [Sundance Institute photo]

A version of this story appears in the Sunday Life section of The Oklahoman.

Cinematic full circle

Tulsa artist Joe Cappa brings creepy cartoon 'Ghost Dogs' to hometown for Sundance Film Festival showcase

Fueled by recurring dreams of being trapped in a haunted house, Joe Cappa had an idea for a short film so compelling he actually learned traditional cel animation to create it.

"I've never been so sure about an idea in my life," said the Denver-based artist and filmmaker. "I was amazed that it hadn't been done yet, the idea of a dog being haunted by other dogs. I was just, 'Oh my God, that's a million-dollar idea right there,' and I knew if I didn't do it, somebody else was going to do it. ... That idea needed to be done correctly, and I knew I could do it. So, that's when I started the process of making 'Ghost Dogs.'"

But he never could have dreamed that having his eerie almost 11-minute short film accepted into the prestigious Sundance Film Festival would lead him back to his hometown of Tulsa.

"It's so bizarre. We had heard rumblings of Sundance having satellite screenings, and then we saw the list and Denver was on there and L.A. and New York. But Tulsa had the most screening locations of any city. ... Tulsa was in it to win it," Cappa said.

"It was so amazing to see Tulsa really caring that much about having Sundance in town ... and Circle Cinema was so open to the idea of screening 'Ghost Dogs' there. ... There's just been so much support."

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's Sundance Film Festival - which usually takes place in Park City, Utah - is not only going digital at festival.sundance.org but also is offering in-person socially distanced screenings and events at drive-in theaters, independent arthouses and other venues around the country. Tulsa's Circle Cinema has been selected as the official Satellite Screen for Oklahoma.

The only Sundance venue in several surrounding states, the nonprofit theater will show "Ghost Dogs" and other official selections from one of the world's top film fests Thursday-Feb. 2.

"It is an unprecedented year, and it's an exciting opportunity to partner with Sundance to co-create a slate of events and offerings for people. It's a great opportunity for anybody - for curious-minded audiences - to gain access to Sundance. A lot of people are interested but don't get a chance to actually be in Park City. It's expensive to be there," said Circle Cinema film programmer Chuck Foxen.

"Sundance is the leader in our industry. ... A lot of the stuff that when we go to Sundance to watch (films), we bring back; it's just six months to a year later. So, this is a great opportunity to see these world-premiere films before anybody else can see them."

Tulsa's Circle Cinema will be an official Satellite Screen for 2021 Sundance Film Festival. [Photo provided]

Cinematic showcase

Along with showing Sundance films in-house, Circle Cinema has partnered with Tulsa's Admiral Twin Drive-In to screen its portion of the festival slate.

"Safety is the No. 1 priority with doing this because of COVID. So for us, we reached out to the community and looked around to some of our partners to (see) like, 'How can we show these safely and what's the best way that we can still do social distance seating and still accommodate people?' ... Through COVID, the Admiral Twin Drive-In has been a pretty popular place and an outlet for people to go to events and have some sense of normalcy," Foxen said.

"The connection between the Circle and the Admiral goes back in film for quite a while: The opening scene of 'The Outsiders' was filmed at Circle, and then there's the scene of 'The Outsiders' with them sitting in the drive-in. So, there's some film history there, but we've also partnered with them for a lot of other events."

Sundance films coming soon to Tulsa include expected Oscar contender "Judas and the Black Messiah," a fact-based film about an FBI informant who infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther party starring Lakeith Stanfield and Academy Award nominee Daniel Kaluuya; "Life in a Day 2020," a global portrait of life on Earth, as filmed by thousands of people across the world on July 25, 2020; and "Mass," a drama about the parents of the victim and perpetrator of a shooting who meet years after the tragedy starring Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd and Martha Plimpton.

"There are some great films in there," Foxen said. "When we were able to start looking through and working with the programmers at Sundance, that was the first thing we were looking at: What is relevant to Oklahoma? What is relevant with tribes and Native American storytellers? Also, is there any kind of thing touching on stuff that's relevant to the Black Wall Street massacre in Tulsa? So, those were kind of the big things we were looking for."

Marilyn Artus speakes before the debut of the documentary "Her Flag," which chronicles the creation of Artus' cross-country collaborative art project of the same name, at Scissortail Park's Love's Travel Stops Stage and Great Lawn Saturday, October 3, 2020. [Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman Archives]

Local flavor

Circle Cinema staffers also seized the chance to give the Sundance satellite experience local flavor with its Beyond Film offerings, a series of free short film screenings, music performances and panel discussions that will be presented in-person and streamed via Youtube.com/CircleCinema and Facebook.com/CircleCinema.

"We wanted to kind of create the Sundance vibe ... so a lot of the talks and music and different things. That's what really makes Sundance special - not only the films but the Beyond Film events," Foxen said.

"I want people to know around the world that we do make films in Oklahoma, and we do have conversations and we have a diverse representation here."

The Beyond Film slate includes panel discussions featuring Indigenous actors, such as Michael Greyeyes, star of the Oklahoma City-made Sundance selection "Wild Indian"; Oklahoma alumni of Sundance Institute Fellowship programs like Sterlin Harjo, Suzanne Kite and Jeffrey Palmer; and Sooner State LGBTQ+ filmmakers such as Lance McDaniel, Laron Chapman and Yousef Kazemi.

Oklahoma City artist Marilyn Artus will participate in a panel and screening of the documentary "Her Flag," which chronicles her multi-year cross-country collaborative art project that marked the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in 2020. Panelists for the "Her Flag" Sundance showcase include Artus, Oklahoma City Councilwoman Nikki Nice and artists Nicole LaRue and Higgins Bond. Jessica Wolfson, producer of the "Her Flag" documentary, will moderate.

"I keep going 'This isn't really happening.' So, I don't think it's really hit me yet," Artus said. "To be in that company is pretty fabulous. It feels weird because, with film, I'm not normally in that world."

Joe Cappa, who grew up in Tulsa, is the director of the animated horror short film "Ghost Dogs," an official selection of the Shorts Program at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. [Sundance Institute photo]

Oklahoma artist

A Jenks High School graduate and University of Oklahoma alumnus, Cappa will return to Oklahoma to participate in the Sundance festivities in his hometown. Although it was exciting to find a project by a Tulsa filmmaker on the Sundance slate and arrange to bring it to Circle Cinema, Foxen said it wasn't a huge surprise.

"That's a really cool thing ... but I will say this - and this is very cool, too: When we go to Sundance every year there's always Oklahoma filmmakers there. There's always an Oklahoma connection somehow out there," Foxen said.

Although he moved to Denver eight years ago to start his own freelance video production company, Cappa, 36, has maintained strong ties to Tulsa, where he grew up, and Oklahoma City, where he worked for three years at advertising agencies Ackerman McQueen and STAPLEGUN.  

"I wanted to make movies ever since I was little. I was artistically inclined. I was always the kid who could draw dinosaurs in elementary school. By middle school, I started picking up the camera and really focused on making movies with friends," Cappa said.

"I love film. I come from that lens - no pun intended - of wanting to make a narrative and then realized I was kind of an introvert and a little bit lazy in that I didn't want to corral a bunch of people together. ... So, I realized animating could allow me to make stories that I wanted to tell without really relying on anybody else."

Joe Cappa, who grew up in Tulsa, is the director of the animated horror short film "Ghost Dogs," an official selection of the Shorts Program at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. [Sundance Institute photo]

Eerie animation

Cappa has created music videos for Sooner State musicians like Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Husbands and Annie Ellicott; worked as cinematographer on OKC filmmaker Mickey Reece's movies "Alien" and "Strike, Dear Mistress, and Cure His Heart"; and collaborated with fellow Jenks High School graduate J.W. Hallford on "Ghost Dogs."

"I have these recurring dreams - I've had them ever since I can remember - where I'm trapped in a haunted house. It's just a house that you feel a static electricity, you just know there's something evil in the house. I've had that my entire life, so I wanted to tell a story that kind of conveyed that emotion for me because it's so personal," Cappa said.

He worked with Hallford, who lives in Tulsa, in devising an animated tale about a rescue pup who is haunted by ghost dogs in his new home. To bring to life the humorous horror story, though, Cappa first had to learn how to create traditional cel animation.

An 11-minute animated film might seem short when you're watching it, but when you're hand-drawing 12 frames per second solo, it's a painstaking - and even painful - process.

"There's one scene that's like 24 frames per second ... so just to do one second is 24 individual drawings. And all the repetitive drawing motion gave me a frozen shoulder. I couldn't lift my shoulder for three months. I couldn't lift it over my belly button. It was insane. I went to therapy for that, and I couldn't draw and I couldn't animate for like three months," Cappa said.

His creepy cartoon made its world premiere last year at Austin, Texas' Fantastic Fest, but he said getting into Sundance was always his dream.

"Making 'Ghost Dogs' was definitely a risk. I basically lost business. I had to turn gigs just so I could make 'Ghost Dogs,' and that whole process took two years," Cappa said. "But then getting into Sundance, it just made it all worth it. I think 'Ghost Dogs' is amazing. I'm so proud of it. I'm so proud it's in Sundance, and I think opportunities will come from this. So, I'm really happy with the choice I've made."

GOING ON

Sundance Film Festival at Circle Cinema

When: Thursday-Feb. 2.

Where: At Youtube.com/CircleCinema, Facebook.com/CircleCinema and in-theater at Circle Cinema, 10 S Lewis Ave., Tulsa, and at Admiral Twin Drive-In, 355 E Easton St.

"Ghost Dogs" and "Mass" at Circle Cinema and Admiral Twin: 7 p.m. Jan. 30.

Tickets and information: CircleCinema.org/Sundance.

Features Writer Brandy "BAM" McDonnell covers Oklahoma's arts, entertainment and cultural sectors for The Oklahoman and Oklahoman.com. Reach her at bmcdonnell@oklahoman.com, www.facebook.com/brandybammcdonnell and twitter.com/BAMOK. Please support work by her and her colleagues by subscribing at oklahoman.com/subscribe 

-BAM