Blake Hutchison
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| Blake Hutchison | |
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| Born | February 2, 1980 Columbus, Ohio USA |
Blake Hutchison (born Robert Ewing Hutchison II, February 2, 1980 in Franklinton, Columbus, Ohio, USA) is an American independent filmmaker, actor, writer, and children's rights activist. His mother was one of the Junior Kentucky Briarhopper Dancers on the television show Midwestern Hayride in the 1950s, and she appeared in his 2005 film Finding a Dream.[1] He legally changed his name to Blake Nicholas Hutchison in 1998.
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[edit] Early life
He was born February 2, 1980, at the Mount Carmel West medical center in the historic Franklinton district of Columbus, and his family lived near Orient, Ohio for the first few months of his life, but they moved to Logan County, Ohio when he was less than a year old. His parents published the now-defunct Indian Lake Chief newspaper that was in print from 1981 to 1992. He was a Bellefontaine Examiner newspaper carrier from 1991 to 1997, during the time that his mother operated a delivery agency which distributed the Examiner to the nearby villages of Belle Center and Rushsylvania, as well as much of northern Logan County.
[edit] Films
Hutchison has admitted that he first became interested in filmmaking after seeing several films in the mid-1990s, most notably The Paper. While he was growing up, he had dreamed of becoming a journalist for a big city newspaper. He has claimed that after watching the performances of some of the actors in The Paper, he realized he wanted to be a filmmaker instead. From 1999 to 2003, he was very interested in acting as well, and participated in several community theatre productions in his region.
In 2003 he began filming his first feature, Finding a Dream, which was filmed using regional non-union actors, and utilizing several pre-existing facilities to serve as settings, instead of the typical movie set favored by filmmakers in Hollywood. Finding a Dream was completed in 2005, and received a listing on the Internet Movie Database in 2007.
[edit] Involvement with Sansevieria Film Festival
In 2005 Hutchison launched the Sansevieria Film Festival, which first screened in East Liberty, Ohio, then in Toledo, Ohio. The Sansevieria Film Festival charges no entry fees, and to date, has screened films and videos from five of the world's six inhabitable continents. The festival was mentioned on Magyar Radio Online in Hungary in 2005, after several submissions from Kodolyani Janos University College in that country won several awards at the first festival.
[edit] Involvement with Eye Open Pictures
Blake Hutchison was involved with two productions for the now-defunct Eye Open Pictures in Toledo. Films he worked on were The Promise and R for Revenge.
[edit] Political views
He is strongly opposed to spanking; religious discrimination against agnostics and atheists; child abuse; incest; and occasionally the death penalty, though he has admitted he supports using it for murder, rape, and more controversially, for any death resulting from child abuse, even in cases when the death of the child was unintentional.
He was a Republican for four years, from 1998 to 2002, but says that Republicans like George W. Bush and Bob Taft caused him to register as a Democrat in 2002.[citation needed] He has also stated that another major reason he left the Republican Party was because they were largely incompatible with most of his beliefs, particularly his strong anti-spanking standpoint.[citation needed] He has claimed that he usually does not vote exclusively by political party. For example, he claims to have never voted for Bob Taft for governor even when he was a Republican, having supported Lee Fisher and Tim Hagan instead.
[edit] Anti-spanking views
Hutchison is against the practice of spanking as a disciplinary measure, and has been relentlessly critical of the practice for years. He developed his anti-spanking views from a multitude of factors. In interviews, he has claimed that the main reason he became anti-spanking was the fact that he was relentlessly ridicled, harassed, and sometimes even physically attacked by a number of bullies while growing up, all of whom he claims were spanked regularly. Hutchison claims that the writings of anti-spanking activist Jordan Riak[2] were very influential in helping him keep his anti-spanking beliefs despite coming from a part of the world where spanking is often considered normal and even necessary.
[edit] Religious views
Hutchison was raised outside the church, but with the influence of non-denominational Christianity until about age 12. Today, he considers himself to be an agnostic. One of his sisters is a practicing Wiccan, and Blake strongly supports the notion that freedom of religion means any religion, including none at all.
He has claimed in the past that agnosticism is too often confused with atheism when they are actually significantly different.
[edit] Controversies
Hutchison has recently faced some controversy for his short films and videos. He has also recently produced several controversial still-image videos on YouTube. One sharply criticizes Canadian comedian Russell Peters for his Beating Your Kids[3] comedy routine. Another targets the controversial Westboro Baptist Church.
[edit] Personal life
He is the youngest of six siblings from three different marriages. He has four sisters and one brother. Three of his sisters, and his only brother, have the same mother as him, and two of his sisters have the same father. Only one sibling, his slightly-older sister, has the same mother and father as him. Of his mother's children, he is the only one who wasn't conceived in Miami County, Ohio, and of his father's children, he is the only one to have an eye color other than brown (his are blue-grey).
[edit] Near arrest and legal name change
He was nearly arrested in July 1998 because of mistaken identity. His father, whom he was initially named after, allegedly evaded jury duty. Deputies for the Logan County, Ohio Sheriff had accidentally overlooked the birthdate on the warrant. The warrant was later settled without arrest of either person.
In September 1998, he legally changed his name from Robert Ewing Hutchison II to Blake Nicholas Hutchison. It is widely believed by locals in Logan County that he was attempting to separate his identity from that of his father, who had many enemies in the area.
[edit] Filmography
Completed projects
Finding A Dream - 2005 (director, actor)
Auditions from Hell - 2005 (director, actor)
Messing With Humans - 2006 (director, actor)
Greeting Card Conspiracy - 2005 (director, actor)
Messing With Humans 2 - 2006 (director, actor)
Secrets and Deceptions - 2007 (director, actor)
The Promise - 2007 (cinematographer, actor)
R for Revenge - 2007 (actor)
Westboro Baptist Church: Satanists in Disguise? - 2008 (writer, director)
Announced projects
Messing With Humans 3 - 2008 (director, actor)
Board of Education - 2009 (director)
Harvey and Kate - 2009 (director)
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ^ Finding a Dream (2005) (V)
- ^ Riak99.htm
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI Russell Peters "Beating Your Kids"
