Want to go?

'Shades Of Gray'

Documentary by Bob Wilkinson

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: South Charleston Museum, 311 D St.

TICKETS: $4

INFO: 304-744-9711

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Filmmaker Bob Wilkinson isn't out to convince anyone there are such things as UFOs. The arguments for and against are well worn. Rather, Wilkinson is interested in one of the early voices of the UFO community: Gray Barker.

Braxton County native and later Clarksburg resident Barker, who died in 1984, wrote extensively about alien encounters during the height of the UFO paranoia in the 1950s and '60s. Among other highlights of his life as a UFO writer, Barker introduced the idea of the "Men in Black," those reportedly government agents sent to harass or threaten UFO witnesses into silence.

Wilkinson will premiere his new documentary, "Shades Of Gray," at 7 p.m. Saturday at the South Charleston Museum.

Wilkinson doesn't say for sure whether he believes in UFOs. The 34-year-old shrugs when asked. Over the past three years, Wilkinson has heard lots of stories about flying saucers and men from outer space. He collected about 50 hours of video footage, and many of the people were fervent believers.  

"It got pretty tough keeping them on task," he acknowledged, "but I wanted to keep this about Gray."

Wilkinson came upon the idea to look into Gray's life while reading Jeanne Mozier's book "Way Out in West Virginia." The book has a short write-up about Barker and mentions that his papers are kept at the Waldomore in Clarksburg, a historic house that's been converted into a culture and history repository.

"I drove up and spent a couple of days reading what he was all about," he said.

Wilkinson found him fascinating and a far more complex a character than he expected. There was a good story there and they weren't all about little green men.

For three years, Wilkinson juggled the documentary with his day job as a videographer and editor at West Virginia Public Television. Some of the people he talked to were skittish. Occasionally, interviews arranged in advance folded when Wilkinson showed up.

"What sort of surprised me is how very intelligent some of these people really are," he said. "I spoke with a guy who was just another kind of smart. He quoted Yeats and Voltaire."

For parts of his project, Wilkinson got off-the-clock help from friends and production associates at WVPBS. Jim Lange of West Virginia Public Radio's "Music In The Afternoon" contributed voice work. Michael Lipton of "Mountain Stage" created the music.

However, in the field, the crew was largely just Wilkinson. It helped him keep his production costs low. In the beginning, it was less than a shoestring budget. He took inspiration from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez's book, "Rebel Without A Crew" and B-movie institution Roger Corman's "How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime."

"Not having a crew would never stop me," he said.

For several out-of-state interviews, though, Wilkinson needed an extra set of hands to carry gear. He enlisted the help of Brandon Mauser, a man his sister had just started dating.

"I told him I couldn't pay him, but I could cover his room and things," Wilkinson said.

Mauser went along with it. The two traveled to Key West, toughed out a blizzard on a trip back from Minnesota and eventually became brothers-in-law.

Wilkinson also found support for his film through Robert and Jeffrey Tinnell's Allegheny Image Factory. They have credits as producers and are helping find distribution. He says he's been signed to a three-film deal with them, and "Shades Of Gray" has been submitted to several film festivals. Wilkinson doesn't even want to guess where any of this could lead.

"That's the thing about documentaries," he said. "Nobody has to buy it."

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.