Jim Jacka
Impose Magazine

In hindsight, when experiences have run their full course, it's challenging to remain objective.  Possibly you're looking back at a job or sporting event or personal relationship, but what you've absorbed through the process can taint your post-vision.  Wamego Strikes Back is the second journey through independent filmmaking struggles from Director Steve Balderson.  It's not a revenge flick slandering those who have slighted, but a mature look at creativity versus big business.  In Eric Sherman's words "...there are no rules.  It's a strange game.”

Listening to Balderson and his father Clark recant their hassles with studio execs, producers and sales reps I couldn't help but think 'Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game.’  Big budget movies are made to make money, simple and to the point.  Clark says it best: "Hollywood is out to line the pockets of the middleman.”  What drives Wamego Strikes Back and its predecessor Wamego: Making Movies Anywhere, is how the Balderson's react to major studio aloofness.  Steve and Clark are their own salesmen and innovative marketers, pitching the product they know best.  I found it funny that the producer's rep they hired for a sizable amount of cash actually forgot their film's title.

In the movie biz, the window of time for relevance after a film's completion is short and to push one sometimes requires speaking with tongue in cheek.  I scribbled diligently taking notes on each roadblock the Balderson's reach during Wamego Strikes Back, but it boils down to their initiative and convictions to have things on their own terms.  Young filmmakers dream of making that one picture that will mark them forever, just that one break that their life will culminate in.  The Balderson's, at their current pace, do it every 8 years.  How they find the fortitude to strain time and again is found within Wamego Strikes Back.  Whether you call yourself an aspiring auteur or are simply worried about next month's rent, you'll find inspiration in Wamego, Kansas. - JJ

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