Remembering Mike Gunter
The Arkansas film community has lost another titan of local filmmaking. Mike Gunter was a film professor at the University of Central Arkansas. He taught well over a thousand students during the course of his tenure as a professor, educating fresh-faced film novices on the importance of cinematography and introducing them to movies from Bergman, Godard, and the silent era.
He was the first film professor I ever had. He taught my Digital Filmmaking 1 course at UCA back in 2006. I remember he would take each student into the studio and quiz us on all the equipment the school had to offer — we were shooting on MiniDV back then — forcing us to set up and take down every camera, tripod and dolly. When I finally made it to grad school, Gunter was the chair of my graduate thesis committee. He oversaw and guided me throughout the process of making my thesis film. The editing bay I frequently occupied was right across the hall from his office. There were some late nights where we would yell at each other, from our respective rooms, about movies, music and filmmaking.
I remember one night while I was editing my film, Gunter walked into the editing bay, making fun of my choice in music — I was listening to some pretty synth heavy noise back then. I asked him to give me some notes on the scene I was editing, and he said “You stole that from Bergman.”
Now, being someone who is never abashed at claiming that I steal things from other movies, I was still confused at what he was referring to and said, “What did I steal?”
“That right there, the character
with the melted face, you got it from ‘Wild Strawberries.’”
I responded that I didn’t. So we put in a copy of “Wild Strawberries” and I’ll be damned if I somehow subconsciously ripped off the Bergman film. Gunter just stood over me, jovially laughing. The master had once again outsmarted the student.
That’s the kind of guy Gunter was. He knew all the movie references, he knew how to solve all your problems on set, and he knew how to be a generous and kind human being. I could probably write a thick chapter or two about Gunter, but I’ll reserve the rest of this column to just a small portion of the many thoughts and memories I received from other filmmakers he has affected over the years.
“I was a fresh-faced film student when he asked me to work on his short film. He only asked a couple of other people so I felt honored. However, call time was 3 a.m. on a very brisk November morning and we were shooting out of a very slow-moving van with the sliding doors open. We almost went until sunrise and it was miserable — but in the best way. It became a bonding experience between us all. Most importantly it taught me how to embrace the hardships of this craft.”
— Michael Ferrara, Filmmaker
“I knew fairly quickly that there was something about Mike that was different from the other professors at UCA. I don’t know if it was from our love of films or shared music interests, but Mike and I would have some pretty meaningful conversations. He gave me my first opportunity as an AD on his film ‘Souvenirs.’ It was Mike’s DF1 class in which I was able to make ‘Sheol’ and he knew the issues I had with the sound and was able to see a cut of it back in 2015, but I’m thankful he got a chance to see the final version of the film, and he congratulated me on it. I have so many stories I could share but he’s someone I bonded with and he was more than a teacher and mentor … he was a friend and I’m deeply saddened that he’s gone … but I can promise he’ll never be forgotten.”
— Johnnie Brannon, Filmmaker (Made In Arkansas)
“Mike was a very warm and welcoming guy. I had him for Cinema History … during my time at UCA. A lot of people would groan about having to learn about the history, but being the nerd I am, I always loved it. Mike made that class even more fun and interesting than it could have been. He’d pick films he felt were relevant to the studies and would go on little diatribes about why and then he’d relate the films to himself personally from its impact on him or how it inspired his own work. So while we were learning about the films and history of cinema, we were also, in ways, learning more about Mike as well.
“One memory that stands out to me … is the time Tanner Smith and myself were hanging out in the editing suites near the professor’s offices. It was around the end of the semester. With all of our projects having been wrapped up, we were watching music videos for fun. And that’s when Tanner put on the song ‘Man in Motion’ from the film ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’ (it’s a guilty pleasure favorite of mine). So there Tanner and I were, watching the music video and singing out loud in the empty editing suite — and then, in walks Mike. He stops, shakes his head in his dry sort of way, and chuckles.
“‘You know I can hear you guys down the hall, right?,’ he said. He then shook his head some more and continued with, ‘All the songs you could be listening to and singing with and this is the one you chose?’ More words were exchanged about the movie and song — about how Tanner and I enjoyed them for their unabashedly cheesy ’80’s elements and Mike just indulging us while shaking his head. After it was over, he laughed again and went off to his office. It’s one of those fun, random moments I’ll never forget.”
— Jordan Mears, Filmmaker (“New West”)
“I’ve known Mike for 30 years. We started in the graduate film program at the University of Kansas together in 1993, and shared the next five years before I graduated in 1998. During that time, we obviously spent a lot of time together. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of movies of the ’70s and ’80s, and we went to tons of movies together, and always discussed the ones we saw separately. I remember going to the premiere of Robert Altman’s ‘Kansas City’ with him, as well as other classics like ‘Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control’ (Errol Morris) and ‘The Sweet Hereafter’ (Atom Egoyan). While we didn’t go see von Trier’s ‘Breaking the Waves’ together, I remember walking into his office after I’d seen it (he’d seen it first), and we both just started repeating together, ‘The bells! The bells!’ I also remember driving to Kansas City from Lawrence to see the Coen Brothers movie ‘Fargo’ on opening night, and coming outside afterward to a raging blizzard, and trying to drive home together. The wind was whipping snow across the road so hard and fast, you couldn’t see where the road was. But we somehow made it back. Mike became the facilities manager there, and after he left they named their annual service award after him, which was given to the graduate student who best served the program.”
— Bruce Hutchinson, Filmmaker/UCA Film Professor
“One of best things about attending the film program at the University of Central Arkansas was the unwavering luxury of having Mr. Gunter as a professor. I first met Mr. Gunter on one of UCA’s Bear Facts Days, where he gave my father and I a solo tour of the facility. That tour would fundamentally change my life as I finally felt like I had found a place with like-minded individuals. A place that would entertain my grand notions of heart, humor and spectacle. Over the next decade, I would spend countless hours as his student, his teacher assistant, his equipment room worker and his Bear Facts Day film tour guide. He would spend that decade as my teacher, my mentor, my boss and my friend. From the moment we first shook hands, to later our final hug, Mr. Gunter showed me nothing but warmth, kindness and a love for cinema.
“I will forever miss us both procrastinating at his office desk, talking about random niche films when we both had plenty of work to be doing. I will forever miss the inescapable well of film knowledge that he provided me and countless others at every turn. I will forever miss my friend, who introduced a boy and his dad to a life full of possibilities.”
— Donavon Thompson, Filmmaker (241 Studios)