Jason LaRay Keener


Jason LaRay Keener is an American filmmaker from Alabama. He is best known for his stream-of-conscious, non-linear shorts. He is related to serial killer Nannie Doss. In 2006, he founded the Jacksonville State University Film Society. In 2012, he married frequent collaborator Diane Rose.

Reining Nails & ''Catfish with Falcon Wings''

In 2006, Keener founded his production company, Reining Nails. From 2006 to 2009, he directed several Southern Gothic-inspired surrealistic short films. His film Hallelujah! Gorilla Revival featured guest voice-overs from filmmakers Cory McAbee, Damon Packard, Todd Rohal and Jamie Stewart of the bands Ten in the Swear Jar, Xiu Xiu and Former Ghosts. The film won Best Experimental Short at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival, as well as Best Alabama Short Film and the Kathryn Tucker Windham Storytelling Award at the 11th annual Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.
In 2009, Keener released a DVD+R EP of his short films entitled Catfish with Falcon Wings. Catfish with Falcon Wings has been remixed by Brighter Death Now as projection for live shows.
In 2011, the short films of Catfish with Falcon Wings were curated alongside films by Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard, Harmony Korine, and David Lynch as part of a film series on problems in contemporary society. The series was programmed by the Pavilion Unicredit Art Gallery in Bucharest, Romania.
In 2010, Keener directed the music video for Xiu Xiu's song, "House Sparrow," from the album Dear God, I Hate Myself. The video stars Sandi Hanson and Lane Hughes.

''The Unreinable Compulsion''

The Unreinable Compulsion, described as a psychological drama about an irrational murder, is Keener's first feature-length film. The film stars Jarrod Cuthrell and features actor/dentist Dr. George Hardy as himself.
Keener cites Robert Bresson, John Carpenter, Unsolved Mysteries'', Flannery O'Connor, and Edward Hopper as the primary influences for the style and tone of the film, in which a young man in a small town gives in to his irrational desire to recreationally murder a stranger.

Synopsis

After loner Dewayne Sykes decides to give in to his irrational desire to recreationally murder a stranger, he begins his search for a random victim and finds one in “Miss Fit”, a young jogger he spies at a park. After briefly familiarizing himself with her neighborhood and schedule, he puts his plan into action and commits a murder that will haunt him in ways he could not anticipate.

''Collinsville Trade Day, 1988''

Collinsville Trade Day, 1988 is an upcoming short documentary co-directed and edited by Jason LaRay Keener. It's a found-footage collaboration with his grandfather, Charles Keener, based on footage Charles shot in 1988 of a popular outdoor market in the Northeast Alabama town of Collinsville. The film will debut at the 2015 Nashville Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.

Synopsis

In 1988, Charles Keener took a video camera to Collinsville, AL to document the town's outdoor market for his young grandson. 26 years later, this newly discovered footage has been edited by the grandson into a short documentary.

Filmography

Feature films