Page 40 - Flathead Beacon // 11.4.15

EVENTS 42 MOVIE REVIEWS 43 SIDE DISH 46 FACES & PLACES 47 PAWS & CLAWS 48 Arts&Entertainment
Independent Film Shoots in Kalispell Boutique production studio Snowfort Pictures began lming dark comedy last week
SBY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
CENE 98, TAKE ONE.
Adam Nelson, a computer technician from
Columbia Falls, darts in and out of the camera’s frame to secure a line of yellow crime scene tape across a hallway at a hotel south of downtown Kalispell. The hallway recedes behind the tape like the archetypal horror lm hotel corridor, dim and narrow and bare. Ominous.
In real life, the hallway leads to the hotel’s perfectly innocuous pool. It’s not clear where it leads in the world of “Buster’s Mal Heart,” a surreal dark comedy that began lming in the Flathead last week. But it can’t be good.
The story, written and directed by award-winning director Sarah Adina Smith, is about Buster, a man on the run from authorities who survives the Montana win- ter by breaking into people’s homes. Hundreds of miles from the ocean, he is troubled by a recurring dream that he’s lost at sea. Though the producers can’t elabo- rate without spoilers, his dreams are the rst hint that Buster is one man split between two bodies.
It’s a rainy morning in Kalispell, one of the rst days of shooting the low-budget indie lm. The production crew was hoping for snow.
Travis Stevens, founder and CEO of Snowfort Pic- tures, the boutique production company producing “Buster’s Mal Heart,” is upstairs in the production room, wearing a red bu alo check annel. He has cre- ated nine lms that have taken home many best feature awards from festivals around the world.
This, his newest project, which will premier in spring 2016, isn’t Stevens’ rst take at dark comedy. He pro- duced in 2013 a lm called Cheap Thrills, wherein a down-on-his-luck man and his friend accept a dare from a couple at a bar that leads to more dares, each more twisted than the last.
“This [ lm] is a di erent kind of comedy,” says Ste- vens. “It’s almost absurd.”
Producer Jonako Donley nods, agreeing, “It’s sur- real in that we’re taking something metaphorical and
Certi ed by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery
95 INDIAN TRAIL RD. KALISPELL 755-1300 • www.glacierfootandankle.com
ERIK PLOOT, D.P.M.
Podiatric Physician and Surgeon
40
NOVEMBER 4, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
FALL INTO BEAUTIFUL HOME DECOR!
Unique and fabulous decor for your holiday table.
2699 Hwy 93 S. Kalispell • 756-8526 Furniture, Gifts & Decor Galore!
PAINFUL TOENAIL? PAINFUL CORNS?
We O er Permanent Relief!
Simple procedures for permanent toenail removal & toe surgery for permanent relief of painful corns.
Local actor Adam Nelson moves crime scene tape as crews lm “Buster’s Mal Heart” at a local hotel. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
treating it as if it were literal.”
Scene 98, take two.
Nelson fastens the caution tape to the beige brick wall
and steps out of view. Cash Johnson, another local man, enters the shot and turns away from the camera to walk down the hallway, ducking under two more lines of tape.
Johnson, a a hotel employee and local physical trainer, says he was just working at the hotel one day when he was asked if he’d like to be in the lm. They told him his look – athletic, clean-shaven, honest – was perfect for someone on the detective’s squad. He agreed,
enthusiastically. This is his rst time acting.
Nelson got the gig after attending an open background talent casting call held on Oct. 10 at the Flathead Valley Community College. He’s appeared locally in shows at
the White sh Theatre Company and FVCC Theatre. The men are two of a eet of Flathead Valley extras playing churchgoers, funeral attendees, park rangers, local law enforcement, fraternity brothers, and hotel guests. The lm stars Rami Malek, the lead of 2015 drama–thriller television series Mr. Robot, and Kate Lyn Sheil, known for her role in House of Cards, among others.