"A dark, beautiful film."
    -Wilmington Star-News

In 1740s Northern Ireland, a young man becomes ensnared in a deadly love triangle and must decide whether to follow his heart or his father's twisted advice. Shot in a striking film noir style, "Willow Garden" tells the backstory of one of America's strangest murder ballads.

Produced & Directed by
Don Henderson Baker & Jim Haverkamp

Written by
Don Henderson Baker

Director of Photography
Steve Daniels

Edited by
Bear Baker & Jim Haverkamp

Music by
Brian Weeks

Cast
Brian Prince, Elizabeth Roberts, Jon Stafford

"Willow Garden" began as a stage play by Don Henderson Baker. Fascinated by the song "Willow Garden"--a murder ballad in which the protagonist stabs, poisons, and drowns his love, with little explanation as to why--Baker set out to provide a backstory for such a gruesome tale.

As a writer and actor, Baker has done a lot of work dealing with his native Appalachian region. It was natural, then, for him to set "Willow Garden" in Northern Ireland among the community (known in America as the "Scotch Irish") that would become the first settlers of Appalachia. Baker imagined the tale's origins as a complex mix of passion and religious zealotry, embodied by the character John E. McCorkle, a Scottish Protestant lord (and named for Baker's great grandfather).

For the movie version, Baker and Jim Haverkamp decided to film the story in a very simplified, stylized setting. Rather than try to recreate exact period details, they instead stripped away as many elements of the set as possible. The striking black and white cinematography by Steve Daniels accentuates the theatricality of this world and gives the film the feeling of a dark fable, fueled by the characters' elemental passions.

Above: Elizabeth Roberts and Brian Prince as Rose and Willie in "Willow Garden"