ISHues 77 min feature documentary
Scott Montgomery
co-director, director of photography and co-producer.
Big Apple Film Festival 2026: Feature Documentary Finalist
Depth of Field Film Festival 2026: Best in Show
Friday Harbor Film Festival 2026: Selection (October 2026)
MONIFF 2026: Selection (October 2026)
20 year old kid from Kansas City gets on a bus bound for LA.... It doesn’t go well.
Phil writes a few songs and needs a singer. Ish answers the online post. The result is Ish’s chance at destiny. Over seven years, Phil becomes the mentor and father figure Ish never had. Together they navigate music and hardest part: when the tape stops rolling.
Ish aged out of foster care at 18. Was living on the roof of a restaurant off Hollywood Blvd when we met him.
The Orange Couch interview: I pulled out childhood memories that horrified me while he laughed about it. Stories, many just fragments, of this family and that home... his best guess is roughly a dozen. For a taste watch Flashback 1-3.
He’s articulate, inconsistent, frustrating and funny. Probably hasn’t slept in 2-3 days. He also has music in his bones and a voice that's lightning in a bottle.
Three albums of original Americana/Roots music as William Pilgrim and the All Grows Up (Spotify) engineered by Grammy winning Bob Horn. Guest artists include Hip Hop legend Darryl McDanniels (DMC of Run DMC), punk royalty Exene Cervenka and 5 time Grammy: Blind Boys of Alabama. We worked in Studio One at EastWest on Sunset, a room designed for Sinatra and later had the Stones, Madonna, Elvis, U2, Michael Jackson’s Thriller… you get the idea.
Our plan was to build a suite of dovetailed pieces called The ISHues Project. Original music and video shorts attached to 20ish min webisodes focused on themes and guests we aligned with. Kevin Alexander Gray is a perfect example. His life’s work as a South Carolina organizer, writer and thinker brought depth and history to Episode 4: Rock & Roll Models. We shot 650 hours of footage over 7 years.
Personal favorites are Cheating the Devil and a little used intro to Episode 2: Power of Word. The childhood reenactment scenes based on the Orange Couch interview are powerful.
This year the music (honestly, give a listen... it's really good), the footage and edits and re-edits have finally found their way. Bring on the Festivals!!
Coda: everyone asks… where is Ish now? After we stopped, he moved to Nashville and fronted a punk cowboy band. Then met a girl online who moved him to Sweden: their marriage lasted two years. He's near Mexico City now and doing well. You can’t make this shit up.