Director: Ed Cunningham
Producers: Jonathan Perkins, Seth Gordon, and Mike J. Nichols
Writers: iEd Cunningham, Mike J. Nichols, and Paul Leach
Executive producers: Ed Cunningham, Byron Ashley, Scott Jackson, Harrison Kordestani Kerry, Cathy Loveland and Paul Campoamor
Editor: Mike J. Nichols
Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day is the feature film directorial debut of award-winning filmmaker Ed Cunningham that tells the story of 74-year-old Walter Day - the father of esports and star of The King of Kong - as he battles a lawsuit threatening his legacy while fulfilling his dream of recording and performing the rock-opera style love songs he has been hearing in his head since having his heart broken at the height of the arcade era.
Director’s Statement: The King of Kong premiered at Slamdance 2007 to a packed house of just the right type of audience. As the filmmakers, we could not have selected a better group of people to be the first to see something we had lived with for three years. The gamers, tech-types and doc lovers were all into it from frame one. “Is this real?” “Get a load of that guy.” The whispers, laughs and touching moments were all hitting. Then the projector overheated and shutdown. As the director sprinted up the aisle to help, I just listened. The break in tension allowed everyone to check in with each other. We knew the film could be seen as mocking people we had grown to love, doubt and admire and had worked tirelessly to present them truthfully and empathetically. And this audience got it. From that night forward, the original documentary has changed many people’s lives – for better and worse – so when Billy Mitchell called to tell me Walter Day was being sued based on things that happened in our movie, I began helping make sure he was properly defended. In a lawsuit strategy meeting I learned that some King of Kong fans were funding Walter to produce and perform the songs he had been hearing in his head since having his heart broken in the ‘80s, a story he shared in the original film. I felt a responsibility to document the conclusion to Walter’s journey and it was also a great opportunity because I love his music and want to help get out in the world.
About Monkey Wrench Films:
Denver & LA-based, with distribution partners in more than a dozen countries, Monkey Wrench Films is making literal and metaphorical waves in the indie film world with multiple award-winning acquisitions and a plethora of feature films in recent distribution. As self-proclaimed “industry disruptors”, Monkey Wrench Films specializes in bringing well-deserved indie films (narrative and documentary) to the big screen and creating post-show buzz in the entertainment industry. Their current and recent feature film slate includes, “Who Is Stan Smith”, from Lebron James’s Uninterrupted studio, the BAFTA Award-winning feature, “The Hermit of Treig”, the much-anticipated followup to “The King of Kong” the 2007 box office wunderkind, “Arcades and Love Songs”, “Geoff Marslett’s “Quantum Cowboys”, starring Lily Gladstone and David Arquette, Tom Putnam’s “The Dark Divide”, starring david Cross and Debra Messing. See their full release lineup at monkeywrenchfilms.com