Watch: Gary Yost's Short Film About Russ Kerr's Mill Valley Barber Shop

As word spread earlier this week that Russ Kerr, the renowned and colorful barber whose shop was a fixture in Mill Valley for more than four decades, had passed away on July 9, a number of his customers and friends shared their reactions and memories of the man on our story and our Facebook page.

One was local photographer and filmmaker Gary Yost, who almost apologetically said that Kerr had been cutting his hair for 15 years, far short of the barber's customers who'd been coming to him for decades. 

But Yost left no doubt that Kerr had many a major impact on him, so much so that when Kerr decided to sell his shop to Yianni Spiros Markatos in 2012, Yost made a short film about Russ' Barber Shop, chatting with longtime customers and capturing the spirit of camaraderie that many of them cherished about the tiny shop on Locust Avenue.

"I present this loving portrait of a man who has brought his community together in a way that is rarely seen these days," Yost wrote in posting the 22-minute film online.

The film features a number of tidbits, including that fact that Kerr bought the shop for just $2,850 from Bill Bowen in November 1970, and that there were at least seven other barber shops in Mill Valley at that time. It also includes a slew of praise from his customers, include a man named Drew who said he'd been getting his hair cut by Russ for nearly 30 years.