When Costa Karalis was growing up in Florida, there was one animal that seemed to be everywhere you turned: the mighty, majestic frog.
“When I was growing up, there were frogs hopping around all the time,” the Atlanta-based director said. “I lived by a little swampy area. You just get used to them there.”
Frogs – or, one particular frog – play a big part in Karalis’ new film “Frogtown,” which is playing at this year’s Atlanta Film Festival on April 25. Set in the small town of Marianna, Florida, “Frogtown” draws from the aesthetics of Karalis’ childhood, blending aspects of narrative and nonfiction filmmaking to create something truly unique.
Karalis moved to Atlanta after studying film at Florida State University and got a job on the TV show “Atlanta.” Afterwards, he worked in the visual effects world and began working on “Frogtown” on the side. The initial spark for wanting to make the film came from Karalis’ love for people.
“My favorite thing to do is to talk to people, and I love meeting new people,” he said. “I wanted to do a movie where I could meet as many people as possible. I don’t typically work in the documentary space, and ‘Frogtown’ is –” he paused here. “I’m still trying to decide what we’re calling it.”
“Frogtown” is a difficult movie to talk about if you haven’t seen it. The Atlanta Film Festival has slotted it in the narrative feature category, but “Frogtown” is a strange mix of documentary and narrative filmmaking, blending truth and fiction. It’s better to go in knowing as little as possible, but I’ll let slide that the central story follows a woman who believes in the existence of a swamp creature called the Frog King.
With “Frogtown,” Karalis aims to keep the audience guessing. “Mockumentary” might be the word that comes to mind when you first start to consider the film, but there are a couple of problems with that designation. One, the film never aims to mock or poke fun at any of its characters. Two, Karalis and his crew interviewed over 60 real people in Marianna, Florida, many of whom are included in the film.
“The goal is to get people to question what’s real and what’s not, and hopefully they take that out of the movie into their real life and start thinking, what’s possible?” Karalis said. “Is that going to change your day to day? I don’t think so. But I like this idea of being more open minded as a person. We’re trying to promote that.”
“Frogtown” grew out of a love of talking with people, but it also grew out of Karalis’ personal crisis with a loss of imagination – that childlike sense of wonder that we all lose when we become adults. As children, we’re told that anything is possible and encouraged to dream big. Karalis considers himself lucky to work in an industry where creativity still reigns supreme, but over the course of his career, he’s watched friends lose the passion that made them start making films in the first place.
“As a kid, I used to believe, if I can think hard enough, I can probably fly,” he said. “At a certain point, you move out, you have rent, you have car insurance bills – it just occupies more of your brain. You start to think about what you’re cooking for dinner that night. There’s nothing wrong with any of that. It makes sense. But at a certain point, you do stop concentrating on trying to fly.”
The crew intentionally interviewed people of a wide range of ages, and Karalis found the way the younger participants’ minds worked to be fascinating. In one early arresting moment, a young girl talks confidently about her belief that clouds can turn into dragons. That freedom reminded Karalis of a time when he was younger and could think without restriction.
“It’s funny, because the parents are usually right off screen right behind me when we would talk to kids,” he said. “The parents are like, ‘Why is that interesting to you? They always talk nonsense. I’m like, no! What does that mean? Where does that come from?”
“Frogtown” rides the line of encouraging its audience to continue to believe in the things that defy reason and logic, and understanding that our mindsets necessarily evolve as we grow older.
“While I think it is really important to still have a childlike approach to life, I think it has to change when we get older,” Karalis said. “I think it has to be intentional, but I think it can’t be one for one. Because we’re not kids, and sometimes it’s our role to raise the next generation.”
“Frogtown” played at the Florida Film Festival on April 18 and 19 and will play at Atlanta on April 25, but Karalis said that although he’s received letters from other festival programmers telling him how much they enjoyed the film, it hasn’t been accepted at many other places. It’s a difficult movie to categorize – not quite narrative, not quite documentary – and for a programmer filling out a slate, that can be a bit challenging.
“I’m really grateful to Florida and Atlanta for sort of taking the risk with the movie,” Karalis said. “I’m proud of it. I think it’s pretty solid, and I think people need to watch it.
