Oregon Locations Shine In “Lean on Pete”

Lean On Pete” has been collecting some great reviews, and has already premiered internationally in the Venice International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, and also screened in the US at Telluride.   Writer-Director, Andrew Haigh  (“45 Years”) adapted Willy Vlautin’s 2010 novel of the same name, that shot in Oregon last summer.  The #OregonMade feature made great use of locations, shooting in NE , and SE Portland, at the Portland Meadows race track, a family ranch in Molalla, and out in eastern Oregon in Burns, Hines, and at the Harney County fairgrounds.  Oregon’s often overlooked high-desert, big sky, wide-open spaces were integral to this film, considering the events that unfold actually happened in this dusty sage-brush landscape.  Richard Lawson, of Vanity Fair, said of Haigh’s choices that they beautifully captured, “a dazzling array of lonely and picturesque landscapes in the scrub deserts of eastern Oregon and Idaho.”

“Lean on Pete” follows the story of “fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Pummer) who,wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of the year. As the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, stability is hard to find. Hoping for a new start they move to Portland, Oregon where Charley takes a summer job, with a washed-up horse trainer, (Steve Buscemi) and befriends a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete.” (IMBD)  “Lean on Pete”premiered at the Venice Film Festival 201728 Aug 2017 – 06 Sep 2017, and at the Toronto International Film Festival September 7-17th.

Reviews:

Vanity Fair

Indiewire

Telegraph

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