The Hidden World Of The Disney Park Underground: Documentary To Screen At Orpheum

Documentary films have a unique power: they can present facts on a certain subject while guiding their audience through the story at their own pace, providing a far more entertaining experience than a Wikipedia article, but with a similar result.

 They can also show you whole worlds you’ve never known about and introduce you to eclectic characters that you’ll never meet in real life. One of those unknown worlds is underground Disney fan culture, which is especially engaged in the forgotten aspects of the company’s various theme parks.

Director Josh Bailey grew up watching YouTube videos on the subject, and that was the start of an interest that led him to complete his first documentary, “Stolen Kingdom,” which will have an exclusive two-night engagement at the Chatham Orpheum Theater this weekend.

“I knew there was a story there,” said Bailey, who began the film’s development in earnest over six years ago. “When I started to explore it, I found that one of our main subjects was, in addition to filming and trespassing [in Disney’s Orlando theme parks], he was also taking things and selling them on the black market.”

“Stolen Kingdom” covers a broad scope of darker, lesser-known history behind the scenes of the Disney parks, but soon zeroes in on various “urban explorers,” people who explore abandoned structures and sites, often documenting and photographing them. Some have made online profiles centered around this practice at Disney parks, and many of them are interviewed for this film.

“I knew what I wanted from the beginning because I had been consuming this content for so long,” said Bailey. “I wanted to make a funny film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time, conveys that my subjects are very serious about Disney. I’m not trying to mock or ridicule them — I love certain aspects of the material just as much as they do — but I encourage the audience to laugh at their behavior, because it’s pretty silly.”

One of Bailey’s biggest inspirations was a question he had seen thrown around online for years: Is themed entertainment “art?”

“I don’t personally insert my opinion into the film,” he said, “but I do think they’re art. I’m glad someone naturally touched on the topic in their interview, and I could take it and run with it.”

 Whether or not Bailey moved forward with the documentary was contingent on its main subject, Patrick Spikes, the aforementioned former Disney employee who routinely broke into the park’s backrooms, stole old items and sold them on eBay for inflated prices. But once Bailey reconnected with Spikes, whom he had met years before, it was off to the races.

 “Our initial team of four had some varying degree of film industry knowledge…Actually, I think all four of us dropped out of film school,” Bailey laughed. His crew, some of whom had done camera work for reality television, took a guerrilla approach, borrowed cameras and lighting equipment, and started shooting interviews with no funding.

 “We took our time with post-production,” he said. “It would’ve been great to have a large budget, but we got by.” Over that time, Bailey and his team narrowed the scope of the film, completing version after version and sending each one out for notes from family and friends. “Every month, there was a new most difficult thing I had ever done,” he said, “but making your first film with your friends and actually finishing it is an irreplaceable feeling.” Bailey currently has two more documentaries in the works, and hopes to one day produce a narrative feature.

 Josh Koopman, co-owner of Pizza Shark, came on board as executive producer to help the film’s prospects at festivals and with potential distributors. 

“It kind of makes you think about art, and how we show our care for the things we value,” Koopman said, recounting his experience first watching “Stolen Kingdom.”

“There’s a real arc to it,” he said. “These urban explorers, these superfans, just wanted to see how things work and catalogue their favorite rides before they disappeared forever. That evolved into showcasing it on YouTube, and then some of them started selling stolen items online. The whole reason for caring is gone.”

 Koopman followed the film to some festivals around the country, but ultimately brought it to the Orpheum Theater, which hosts one of Pizza Shark’s three locations. The theater will screen the film on Oct. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. Visit www.chathamorpheum.org for ticket information.