Balloon documentary in Indy puts ‘twist’ on latex art

The last time you saw someone twisting a balloon into a dog or sword, you probably thought it was an impressive party trick. Maybe you were about 8 years old. But the documentary “TWISTED: A Balloonamentary” shows balloon artists invest a whole lot more than childish amusement into those fancy pieces of latex.\nThe feature-length documentary, which came Friday to Key Cinemas in Indianapolis, has the tagline “Once You Can Make a Balloon Dog, You Can Do Anything.” The film chronicles the lives of eight individuals whose lives were transformed by careers in balloon-twisting, ranging from the man who started twisting to show kids in his community that they could find careers apart from the drug trade to the woman who twists “adult” sculptures and appeared as a “balloon dominatrix” at Hugh Hefner’s birthday party.\n“TWISTED” shows the balloon-twisting community rife with quirky, passionate people. They gather at large balloon-twisting conventions, where they compete in building large, complex sculptures. Some of the sculptures shown included a Trojan horse, a haunted house and a man deep-sea diving with a shark.\n“It’s not just the three-twist dog your grandmother used to see,” balloon twister John Holmes said in the movie. “It’s gone to a whole new level.”\nConventions also include 24-hour “jamming” rooms, where twisters gather with other balloon artists and share how they achieve their handiwork. \nTwo such convention-goers attended the Friday opening, having stuck around for demonstrations after decorating the lobby with balloon sculptures of hot-air balloons and a large monkey. One of the balloon artists, Frank Bunton, who was wearing a pin that read “SUGGESTED TIP $219,497” and was once almost kicked out of Disney World for illegal balloon-twisting, confirmed the passion of convention-goers like those in the movie.\n“There’ll be more people in the ‘jam’ room at 4 in the morning than were sitting at the bar at 11:30, 12 o’clock at night,” Bunton said. “They’re up all night long.”\nThe documentary’s co-director and co-producer Sarah Taksler, who learned to twist as a child, said the inspiration for the movie came when a fellow balloon twister she met in college told her about a balloon-twisting convention in Boston. The two decided to scope it out.\n“The stories were really colorful, the fact that there were balloon conventions – I was blown away,” Taksler said.\n“TWISTED” is the first feature-length documentary for both Taksler and her college friend, the movie’s other co-director and co-producer Naomi Greenfield. \n“The first convention ... was more of a scalping mission,” Taksler said. “Neither of us had gone to film school.”\nBut as they discovered more and more about the colorful balloon-twister crowd, they realized they wanted to spread the word.\nMuch like the balloon-twisters in the movie said they love making balloons because giving them away makes someone else’s day, Taksler said she loves seeing other people’s reactions to her film.\n“I don’t know that I have favorite parts of the movie,” Taksler said, “but I have favorite parts to watch for the audience to respond to.”\nThe audience Friday responded actively the entire movie, from the animated segment narrated by Jon Stewart about balloon-twisting’s history – starting when the Aztecs twisted shapes out of cat bowels – to the ending when two conventioneers tied the knot, so to speak, with the bride in a balloon wedding dress.\n“TWISTED” will be showing at Key Cinemas in Indianapolis, 4044 S. Keystone Ave., for at least two weeks, according to the theater’s Web site. Information about show times can be found at www.keycinemas.com.