From DIY Filmmaking to the Alamo Drafthouse: Director Zack Walsh Talks "Prosperity Creek"

Independent filmmaking is often built on persistence, resourcefulness, and a willingness to embrace the unexpected. For filmmaker Zack Walsh, that journey has helped bring Prosperity Creek from a pandemic-era work in progress to the big screen at one of Northern Virginia’s most recognizable destinations for film lovers.

Ahead of Prosperity Creek’s exclusive September 2 screening at Alamo Drafthouse, Walsh spoke with Reviews & Dunn about what the moment means to him, why the film works best with an audience, the movies that helped inspire it, and where viewers can follow his work.

Reviews & Dunn: What does it mean to have Prosperity Creek selected for Film Club at Alamo Drafthouse?

Zack Walsh: Over the past month, my boss at the theater finally gave in to their demands and asked if I would be interested in having the film programmed for Film Club on September 2. I, of course, said yes, and here we are. Even before I worked there, Alamo Drafthouse was my home away from home. It has been my first choice for seeing movies since the One Loudoun location opened when I was in high school, and I’ve been a Film Club regular since the program started in 2015.

Now, being a small part of that legacy is an honor beyond anything I could have dreamed of.

We’re certainly going to be one of the most DIY productions to have played at the theater, but I wear that badge with pride. Support your local independent filmmakers!

Reviews & Dunn: You’ve said that Prosperity Creek is a film that really needs to be experienced with a crowd. As a film fan yourself, is there a movie—or a particular moment in movie history—you wish you could have experienced on the big screen with an audience?

Zack Walsh: When our plans to complete reshoots were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, I was left with an unfinished movie and a lot of time on my hands. I spent the first month of the shutdown editing together a work-in-progress cut, with storyboards filling in the missing pieces. We actually had a lot of success submitting that version to pandemic-era virtual festivals.

Our biggest success during that period came from the Canadian festival Shock Stock, where the film premiered for a small, socially distanced audience at a pop-up drive-in. Apparently, the reaction was strong enough that the festival head gave us what became one of our promotional quotes: “See it with a crowd.”

I could not be more proud of how well this movie plays with an audience that is ready to meet it on its level. It’s a weird little movie with a lot to say, and so far we’ve been very lucky that people have gotten on board with it. It makes me think about the legacy of the B-movies that paved the way for something like Prosperity Creek. You have George A. Romero’s pioneering use of genre as social satire in Night of the Living Dead, and then something lighter and campier like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both are heavily referenced in our film.

Without giving too much away, I play a small role toward the end of Prosperity Creek as an eccentric German scientist who enters during the third act to help wrap up the conflict. Stephen referred to it as the Mel Brooks influence on me, which is certainly true to an extent, but I recently realized that the character is primarily an homage to Dr. Scott from Rocky Horror.

I’ve been obsessed with The Rocky Horror Picture Show since middle school and frequently attend local late-night screenings. It has become a big part of who I am.

So, if I had a time machine and could be part of any movie audience at any point in history, I’d go back to the late 1970s and attend one of those early midnight screenings of Rocky Horror.

What I wouldn’t give to watch those traditions being created in real time—to see the movie with people going in blind, without the generations of cultural hype and expectations that come with seeing it today.

How thrilling must it have been for my parents’ generation to help create a space that blurred the line between live theater and a traditional movie screening, while also celebrating identities that, only a few years earlier, could have gotten people arrested in certain parts of the country? That legacy has actually been on my mind a lot recently following the passing of Tim Curry. I was only around for the later decades of his career. How amazing would it have been to be there from the beginning?

Don’t dream it. Be it.

Reviews & Dunn: Where can fans follow you and keep up with your work?

Zack Walsh: Unfortunately, I’m very bad at social media! Short of adding me as a personal friend on Facebook, you can find most information about me through my artist website at zackwalsh.org.

You can also follow Prosperity Creek on Instagram at @prosperitycreek.movie.

Tickets for our exclusive September 2 screening are available through Alamo Drafthouse Northern Virginia at drafthouse.com/northern-virginia.