Directors Statement
The story of “Poncho and Lefty in Chrome Don’t Get Ya Home” is inspired by my love for motorcycles. During my college years in Tucson, Arizona I probably spent as much time in my garage working on old Harley’s than I did in the classroom and read nearly as much Cycle Trader magazine as I did text books. After college I worked in construction where the boss’s work truck only had a couple of CD’s in it and where I became a fan of Willie Nelson. The title of Poncho and Lefty comes from a Townes Van Zandt song called Poncho and Lefty covered by Wille and Merle Haggard. Check it out. Most of the money I made went into my bikes and free time was spent out exploring the desert with it’s alien cartoon landscape covered in Saguaro Cactus. Often rides would end up at a wayward Saloon for a game of pool and something to quench the thirst. Old motorcycles can be a chore to maintain and there wer a lot of antics that went on with my friends and I including trying to keep our machines road-worthy, or to just get home. Parts would rattle loose (so would your fillings) and lots of the time you would find yourself looking for a shady spot to wrench on the bike while your pals patiently watched. There was a cast of characters I met out in the desert, guys with nicknames like Dirty George, Mental Dave, Crazy Chris, Mike da Bum, Mushroom Joe, Sisko, Bird, Crash, Johnny Sprocket and the list goes on… this piece is also a nod to those guys and the laughs and memories they have given me.
After my time in the desert, and in the pursuit of cleaning up my act and getting on with life, I ended up moving to the San Francisco Bay Area to work in visual effects for feature films. For the last 25 years filmmaking has been my career and the lion’s share of it has been spent working with live-action photography. However, I’d always loved animation as a kid and have come to realize what a liberating medium it is to tell a story while bending and enhancing reality, and having some fun with it.
Ultimately I’m hoping “Poncho and Lefty” will provide a little entertainment, and in the process convey the feeling of the southwest which I remember, and treasure.
Matt Jacobs