Background

Ace in the Hole is a film about a very special place, Ace Junkyard, and the very unique person who operated it, Bill "The Junkman" Kennedy.

Primarily, Ace Junkyard was an auto wrecking business, which subsequently made it a great resource for both physical materials and creative inspiration for Bay Area industrial artists. The junkyard offered a variety of salvageable items, from aluminum car wheels to heat sinks, power cords to WWII era heavy machinery. Another reason Ace is so special is that its overseer, Bill Kennedy, was an unusually generous patron of this art form. Even on his most surly, grumpy days, everyone still knew him as an open-hearted, jovial person, with a special place in his heart for artists. Finally, Bill's life was transformed by Ace Junkyard and the artists that frequented it. Bill blossomed from being crotchety, overweight and lonely, into a happy, enriched person, surrounded by a vibrant community of punks, DIY artists, makers, hobbyists, musicians, scientists and tech geeks. This extended family was an odd and unusual community, but one that loved Bill and accepted him, and gave him the freedom to be himself.

Ace Junkyard was in San Francisco for 25 years, and was always the place to go if you were an artist looking for scrap metal, motors, motherboards, keyboards, monitors, defunct oscillators or that one specific little thingamabob to be the perfect finishing touch on your creation. Alas, Judy Broadhead, the landlady, decided to end the junkyard's tenancy and shut down the property. After 18 months of fighting hard to exercise his legal right to extend thelease for another five years, Bill decided that he could not continue to pay the exorbitant lawyers fees, plus the rent on the property, all the while incurring financial damages from an unstable business operation. Sadly, he had to agree to Judy's terms and on December 31, 2009, Ace Junkyard closed its gates forever.