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The story begins with a young girl in New Mexico yelling into the painted desert, listening to her echo. Then she hears a boy's voice responding to hers. Thing is, he's hundreds of miles away in Arizona. The boy leaves that day for the big city: Philadelphia. We go with him and get an eye full of his gritty life as a passive gigolo. When he returns to the small Arizona town seven years later and goes to his cliff, the young girl, now 20, has returned once again, herself readying to leave home.
Nickles single handedly wrote, directed and stared in this tale of lost and found innocence. Nickles borrows the tale an Indian once told him about magic wind tunnels. Most of the movie is monologues and exchange between the two and it's quite riveting, the man wanting desperately to expose himself, yet holding back.
In speaking with Nickles, I ended up with more questions than answers. It seems he is just as evasive as the character he plays. During the Q & A, he preferred to wise crack or answer in a sort of metaphoric code only he understands. This just continued to inflame the hearts and loins of the women in attendance. I never did find out the real answer to how Nickles was able to get Adam Ant for an hysterical cameo.
Winds captures you with outstanding cinematography and lyrical dialogue, taking you into an almost meditative state. The unique and metaphoric story is what hooked a lot of my friends who claimed this as their favorite of the weekend. Word was that someone from Paramount was talking to Nickles after the screening.
Return to AARO 95-96