Fall From Grace director Ryan Jones, finding being in Austin mercifully different to hanging around with homophobe preacher Fred Phelps. Credit: Richard Whittaker

While filming his documentary about professional homophobe Fred Phelps, Fall From Grace (which had its festival premier at SXSW), director K. Ryan Jones ended up getting close to his subject. Not that he sympathized in any way with the fundamentalist bigot – Ryan describes the only way of getting through the interviews was to ask the question, then “just kind of turn off while they were talking.”

No, as he explained after last night’s screening at Alamo Lamar, he meant literally close. One day, while Jones was shooting one of the Phelps’ clan’s infamous graveside blockades (yeah, -that- Fred Phelps), a car mounted the sidewalk, seemingly to scare Fred’s followers. Unfortunately, Jones was so caught up in his filming he didn’t see it coming. He only narrowly avoided being mowed down when one of Fred’s daughters shoved him out of the way. “Now they treat it like it’s our little joke,” groaned Jones.

This article appears in March 9 • 2007.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.