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Media arts grad Jonathan Pulley chose his father, John, to play a key role in a film that landed the two at the Sundance Film Festival.

John Pulley has been working at the University of Arizona for more than two decades. But most people are more likely to see him on a movie screen than on campus.

In fact, if you were at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah a couple of years ago, you could have seen him rubbing elbows with other members of the film community at Robert Redford's annual movie fest.

Not that he ever aspired to be an actor.

Pulley has worked as a mechanic for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for 26 years, starting at the Environmental Research Laboratory near the Tucson International Airport, and for the last 23 years at the Campus Agricultural Center near Campbell Avenue and Roger Road.

He and his colleagues keep the UA's farm machinery operating, more than 150 pieces of equipment that range "from extremely heavy-duty farm equipment, tractors and trucks to grounds maintenance equipment," said Stephen H. Husman, director of the UA Tucson Area Agricultural Centers, which includes the facilities on Campbell Avenue, in Marana, the Santa Rita Experimental Range and the Red Rock Agricultural Center.

"In addition, they inspect approximately 300 fleet vehicles in the college for operational safety each year at the TAAC shop," Husman said. "John and the other mechanics provide a vital service and are rightfully proud of their contributions. The quality of their work is second to none," he said. In fact, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences honored them with the college's 2008 Outstanding Team Award.

Most of the work is routine maintenance, but sometimes their skills are critical.

"Once in a while a piece of equipment will break down in the middle of a project," Pulley said. "And everyone needs it back up and running right away so they can finish what they're doing. That's usually the toughest part of the job, when you have a stressful situation with a limited amount of time to figure out what's wrong and get the equipment back online so they can finish their research."

None of this, of course, has anything to do with acting. That came about purely out of serendipity a few years ago.

John Pulley is the father of two UA graduates. Daughter Anna Pulley is a writer based in San Francisco. His son, Jonathan, is the one who turned him into a thespian.

As a student, Jonathan produced and directed a film, "Move Me," for his senior thesis in 2006.

"The film is about a young man who is leaving home for the last time," John Pulley said. "It's Christmastime and the son is going somewhere, who knows where, and wants to connect with the old man before he leaves town.

"I don't think it was biographical or autobiographical because I played a crotchety old man," he joked.

"I had to learn lines and do what my son told me, like ‘No, that was wrong. I want you to do it this way,' or ‘Let's try it again like this,' and ‘Pause before you say the next line.'"

"It was interesting to have to take direction. It was a lot of fun. You get around all of these young people and they're full of energy.  They would shoot all of the scenes in different ways and pick the best ones to put in the film."

The next surprise for Pulley was in 2007 when "Move Me" was selected to be shown at Sundance.

"It was awesome," Pulley said of the trip to Utah." It was really cool being in a small town when it was freezing cold outside. People were skiing and going from one theater to another, some of them staying up all night long to see a film that someone wanted to see and you wanted to go with them."

Hanging out at Sundance meant partying with a younger crowd, spotting actors on the street and going to hear Robert Redford talk about film.

"I'd seen Jonathan's film here in Tucson, but seeing it at Sundance was a lot different because of all of the people who are into film were there.

"It didn't win any awards, but the theater (where ‘Move Me' was screened) was always full whenever they were showing it. He would have to get up after each performance and speak to the audience and answer questions. The film was well-received and got a couple of nice reviews from people here locally. I'm sure that helped him out with his career and opened a lot of doors."

"I told my kids when they were little not to get the idea that they would ever make it in film or writing. You need to get a real job," Pulley said with a smile.

"My son has rubbed it in several times."