Lost, but now found!

Rockaday Richie was written and produced by Don Gronquist and directed by George Hood, son of Frank Hood, the founder of the all important Teknifilm Lab.

It is screening on Feb. 6, 7:00 PM at the Whitsell Auditorium, as part of the Essential Northwest series. Admission is pay what you wish.

Both filmmakers will be present.

The 1970’s saw the re-emergence of wholly independent feature filmmaking in the Rose City. Here’s the timeline:

Tom Moyers, Jr. and Will Vinton make The Circle in 1972

Don Gronquist and George Hood make Rockaday Richie and the Queen of the Hop in 1974 (For film scholars: I recommend Tim Smith’s thematically related The Case Of The Kitchen Killer , made in Portland the same year, for a great double feature)

Don Zavin makes Fast Break in 1977

Penny Allen makes Property in 1978, and Paydirt in 1981

Gus Van Sant makes Mala Noche in 1985

And then we were off and running.

Here’s more information, from NW Film Center:

VISITING ARTIST—Made at the same time as Terrence Malick’s BADLANDS, ROCKADAY (nationally released in 1975 as B-titled STARK RAVING MAD) is based on the infamous Starkweather-Fugate murder spree in 1958. Portland actors Russ Fast and Marcie Severson star as the pair who left a disastrous trail of carnage from Nebraska throughout the Midwest as they desperately tried to cover up one killing with another. Written and co-produced (with Tiger Warren) by Don Gronquist and shot by John Mincey, a large cross-section of the Portland film community worked on the film, which was also George Hood’s first feature. “A compelling, if modest, work … neither high-brow nor exploitation. Fast has a brooding presence and is genuinely chilling. … Severson has natural screen charm.”—Variety (88 mins.)

Brian Lindstrom comments “An underrated film! Truly worth seeing. Will make any independent filmmaker proud.”

Although I excuse myself from seeing Rockaday Richie and the Queen of the Hop because of my wimpy dislike of serial murdering, I do claim it as an Oregon film, based on the location shooting and the Oregon citizenship of the artists.

Entertainment Weekly called them “the coolest wrinkled musicians this side of the Stones”.  The brainchildren of California Raisin Marketing Board, the musically talented Raisins first came to life at Will Vinton Studios in 1986.

They took the country by storm.

Executive producer Will Vinton, producer David Altschul and writer Ralph Liddle collected a 1988 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for their work.

I hereby claim A Claymation Christmas Celebration as an Oregon film on the basis of multiple criteria (credits include two Oregon Oscar winners – Will Vinton and Joan Gratz).

James Westby spent 20 days shooting Rid Of Me.

Then, into the cutting room.

Two years later he and his leading lady Katie O’Grady took the Tribecca Film Festival by storm with their comedy of a milquetoast who finally unleashes the power of her sexuality. Rid Of Me stars O’Grady, with support from (wonderful) Orianna Herrman, Storm Large, Art Alexakis, and Teresa Russell.

How do you fund an entirely independent romantic comedy? Here’s one of the ways James Westby did it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

James Westby tapped a wealth of producing talent for Rid Of Me — congratulations to all five of them – Kristin Coleman, Katie O’Grady, Robin Schiff-Coste, Raija Talus, and Westby himself – for creating a film which at least one Hollywood insider sees marked for multiple Oscar nominations.

Rid Of Me opens in theaters November 18, 2011.

I hereby claim Rid Of Me as an Oregon film, based on every qualification you can think of.

Yes, that’s Sallie “Force Of Nature” Ford on the soundtrack!

Woody Guthrie came to Portland in 1941 and spent a month here writing some of his most beloved songs.

He came to participate in a promotional film planned by Bonneville Power Adminstration. WWII slowed down the production schedule, and the film, titled The Columbia, came out in 1949.

Guthrie spent one month (May, actually) working for the BPA. He wrote 26 songs and was paid $266.

I learned to sing Roll On Columbia, the most famous of Guthrie’s regional anthems, at Blossom Gulch Elementary School in Coos Bay, Oregon. So many Washington State school children were likewise instructed that by 1987 Washington made it their official folk song.

And more verses here.

I hereby claim Roll On Columbia: Woody Guthrie & the Columbia River Songs as an Oregon film.

]]> http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2011/04/roll-on-columbia-woody-guthrie-the-columbia-river-songs-mcmenamins-edgefield-power-stationapril-26-630-pm-free/feed/ 0 http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2011/04/new-york-is-oregon-territory-a-o-scott-adores-meeks-cutoff/ http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2011/04/new-york-is-oregon-territory-a-o-scott-adores-meeks-cutoff/#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:04:42 +0000 Anne Richardson http://www.talltalestruetales.com/?p=13074 Michelle Williams crosses Harney County on foot, in Meek’s Cutoff

When you watch movies for a living, you start to lost track of what you really like. Your job is to watch everything. You don’t have the luxury of following your nose, refining your own taste.

So it is rare to read a review which leaps with enthusiasm. But A. O. Scott just wrote one:

James Westby returns to Tribecca Film Festival with a Portland “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” good-girl-grows-up black comedy starring Katie O’Grady, John Keyser and Storm Large.  Westby first came to Tribecca in 2008, when he brought The Auteur.

Rid Of Me is Westby’s third feature. His first was Film Geek (2005).

From the festival website:

“Rid of Me,” directed and written by James Westby. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. When she moves to Portland, Oregon, Meris does her best to fit in with her husband’s clique of old high school buddies—until she gets dumped. Her life trashed, she takes a job as a candy store clerk, opening unexpected worlds into the Northwest underground punk scene and Cambodian rock. A low budget is no barrier to creativity and cinematic innovation in this black comedy of embarrassments about sticking up for yourself no matter how messy.

I hereby claim Rid Of Me as an Oregon film, on the basis of just about every qualifying criteria you can think of.

An Indian came to us, pointed out the course to [The Dalles] to which he said it was 5 days journey, and so far from refusing to follow the advise of the Indian, at my request he was employed by Mr. Meek to pilot us to Crooked River, which he did for a blanket. Solomon Tetherow, 1845 pioneer

Kelly Reichardt, Jon Raymond and Neil Kopp tell the story of a wagon train which misplaced itself in Harney County. Paul Dano and Michelle Williams star.

Willamette Week let the cat out of the bag last year:

Meek’s Cutoff … is based on the true story of an ill-fated wagon train that attempted a shortcut on the Oregon Trail……the tale includes starvation, a legendary lost gold mine and a Native American scout who might or might not be inclined to save the day. Neil Kopp confirmed that the screenplay, written by Portland’s Jon Raymond, is “loosely based on Stephen Meek…who basically becomes lost.”

Adam Yauch, head of Oscilloscope, the distributor of Meek’s Cutoff has an interesting theory.

“As a side note,” Yauch continued. “‘Meek’s Cutoff’ is so real feeling and looking that I suspect Kelly may have completed work on a time-machine…. and ….‘Meek’s’ is actually a documentary that she went back and shot in 1845. If anyone has any evidence to that effect, please contact me directly ASAP.”

Faithful readers of Oregon Movies, A to Z recognize that the wagon train genre has intersected with the documentary genre at least once before.  James Cruze’s The Covered Wagon had meticulous art direction, far beyond the call of narrative duty, faithfully recreating the living conditions aboard the Oregon Trail prairie schooners. Cruze did this because it was 1923, and some of his audience had actually been in covered wagons, as children, themselves.

Kelly Reichardt was under no such pressure. Yet attention to historic accuracy seems to have been a source of artistic inspiration for herself and for Jonathan Raymond, the screenwriter.

Shot in Oregon, based on real life Oregonians, written by an Oregonian, produced by an Oregonian – not hard to preemptively declare Meek’s Cutoff as an Oregon film.

There never was before, and there will never be again, anyone like John Callahan.

A prolific and widely praised cartoonist who channeled deep sorrow into pitiless single panels of biting wit, he came to his artform only after he had been severely disabled by a car crash. John could still manipulate the controls on his motorized wheelchair, and he could still, using both hands, put pencil to paper. For pretty much everything else he needed help.  A recovered alcoholic who was deeply grateful to be alive, his  lacerating comic sensibility was showcased in cartoons which managed to offend nearly everyone.

His work migrated over to television with Nickelodeon’s Pelswick (ironically, a children’s show) in 2000, and with the  Australian-Canadian show Quads in 2001.

Earlier, in 1993, filmmaker Kelley Baker had produced the beautifully simple I Think I Was An Alcoholic, based on Callahan’s book by the same title. Animator Laura Di Trapani brought Callahan’s drawings to life, and Callahan himself narrated.

You can see I Think I Was An Alcoholic here.

I hereby claim I Think I Was An Alcoholic as an Oregon film, on the basis of multiple qualifying criteria.

Portland turned Karl Lind into a filmmaker, and he has returned the favor by contributing on every conceivable front to Portland’s burgeoning film scene.

Crewing for Portlandia? Check.

Curating for the Odds and Ends series at ATA? Check.

Winning acclaim for his experimental filmmaking? Check.

Co-founding Grand Detour? Check.

Making short, superb videos for Portland non-profits? Check.

In wearing all these hats, Lind is taking after one of his Portland indie filmmaking forebearers – Will Vinton. When Vinton was starting out, he combined working on local commercials and  local industrial films with directing his own, more personal, projects. I asked Will once if he worked on his own projects to keep from being bored with his other, more conventional, gigs. “I was never bored!” he said. “I was learning from everything I did. No matter where the project came from, I would learn something new.”

Read more about Karl Lind  here. Or visit Grand Detour’s website:

“a destination for national and international touring filmmakers and curators. We are planting the seeds towards our larger goal of becoming Portland’s hub for innovative video and media related artworks. Grand Detour is a haven for underground artists, digital methods classes, installations, and community discourse.”

Santa arrives tomorrow, Nov. 27., 12:00 sharp,  at 2124 N. Williams in Portland. He’ll be there to drink cocoa and get pictures taken with your kids. You’ll be there to buy hand made crafts from the artists who work at Port City Development Center.

What is Port City Development Center?

Oregon filmmaker Karl Lind took it upon himself to answer that question in Port City: Then And Now,  a 20 minute proof that there are places where Christmas doesn’t just come once a year.