Oregon Film Trail Continues in Salem!
Two Oregon Film Trail signs were unveiled over the week end honoring Salem’s starring role as a location for “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” (the honors being done by Oregon Museum of Mental Health Museum Curator, Megan Lallier-Barron and Dennie Brooks, Board Member.) The signs mark two different filming locations related to the now classic feature film, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” and feature facts and anecdotes about the film. The signs will be unveiled at the Oregon Museum of Mental Health and the Salem “Dome” Building (currently occupied by the Oregon Department of Corrections) on October 12th, marking the end of Mental Health Awareness Week in the United States.
Dating back to 1909, Oregon has a rich and interesting film history with over 500+ feature films & television shows that have utilized thousands of locations around the state for a wide variety of production backdrops. Today, Oregon continues to be a destination for creative media producers from around the world. From Emmy winning television productions, to Oscar nominated feature films; world-class animated films to award winning interactive games – Oregon is a brand unto itself.
Oregon Film, in partnership with the Oregon Made Creative Foundation and funded in part by a grant from Travel Oregon, created the Oregon Film Trail featuring signage located at strategic points around the state. The creation of the Trail aims to strengthen the correlation between the film/TV industry, economic development, and tourism. The signs are located outside the Department of Correction’s “Dome” Building (where the film’s main character, Randle McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, arrives when admitted to the psychiatric hospital in the film’s opening scenes) and one at the entryway to the Oregon Museum of Mental Health housed in the former entrance to the old Oregon State Hospital. The hospital was the main filming location of “Cuckoo’s Nest” and featured many of the patients as extras. The signs are a collaborative partnership between the Oregon Film Office (partnered with the Oregon Made Creative Foundation), the Oregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health, Travel Salem, the Oregon Department of Corrections (who installed the signs), and Salem resident, Erik Andersson. This project has been funded in part by a grant from Travel Oregon.
Fans of “Cuckoo’s Nest” have been coming to the Museum since the opening in October 2012. These include hundreds of visitors from the former Soviet Union where the film, with its emphasis on institutional overreach, is something of a cult classic. As a part of the month-long celebration of the Museum’s seventh anniversary, the original Academy Award-winning film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” will be shown at the Salem Cinema on Monday, October 7th at 7 p.m. The film will follow a brief introduction by Museum Board Member Dennie Brooks, who was the location coordinator for the movie, followed by a Q and A about the making of the film.
Oregon Museum of Mental Health Board President, Kathryn Dysart says, “Interest in the film provides infinite opportunities to share information about mental health issues. Within its context we can talk about trauma-informed care, the importance of patients participating in their own recovery, the impact of intergenerational trauma on Native Americans, and the use of allegory to highlight abuses of authority.”
The opening scene of, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” depicts Jack Nicholson’s character, Randle McMurphy being dropped off on the front steps of the fictitious psychiatric hospital, now occupied by the Oregon Department of Corrections. Colette S. Peters, Department of Corrections Director, said, “The Oregon Department of Corrections is honored to partner with the Oregon State Hospital and Oregon Film in this endeavor. DOC houses more than 14,500 incarcerated individuals statewide, with more than half affected by some kind of mental health diagnosis. We applaud efforts to maintain focus and awareness on mental health issues and treatment by providing support, educating the public, and advocating for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.”
“The Oregon Film Trail, by stitching together filmed locations, their stories, and anecdotes of how they played a part in communities across Oregon, will help tell a bigger story. The Trail is not comprised of just signs in the ground, they are interest points across the state that stitch these stories together and, at the same time, provide another unique way for our community partners to utilize useful storytelling to promote their own interests and causes.” – Oregon Film
In addition to the new signs in Salem, another will be unveiled in Depoe Bay to commemorate the fishing boat excursion scene from “Cuckoo’s Nest” and will nicely link the two towns together. (More information coming soon.)
Phase two of the Oregon Film Trail will encompass a digital interface map and potentially an augmented reality experience that the many Oregon Film Trail partners will be able to utilize for their own promotions as well as to entertain and educate visitors and Oregonians alike.
The Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce and the Oregon Film Office developed the initial Oregon Film Trail concept, with help from the Oregon Film Museum, and identified the Astoria movie locations as the first three signs to be rolled out on the Trail last year. (The Oregon Coast Visitors Association provided additional funding for these coastal signs.) Additionally, Oregon State Parks partnered with Oregon Film and the Oregon Made Creative Foundation to install signs at Gleneden Beach State Recreation Site and Ecola State Park. Three subsequent signs in Brownsville were also unveiled with partners; the City of Brownsville, the Linn County Historical Museum, Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, and Oregon Made Creative Foundation. A further sign in the north coast at the Hammond Marina in Warrenton was installed with partnership from Hammond Marina, City of Warrenton, the Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association. Additional signs are in the process of being added to the Trail throughout the state with new locations being explored and identified from Ashland to Joseph, Athena to Cottage Grove, Eugene to St. Helens, and Depoe Bay to Burns. Suggestions are always welcome ([email protected]). These signs are funded, in part, by a grant from Travel Oregon.
About Oregon Made Creative Foundation:
The OMCF is a program of The Charitable Partnership Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. It was founded through the efforts of Oregon Film (a/k/a the Oregon Governor’s Office of Film & Television) as a stand alone non-profit foundation focused on providing opportunity and grants for #OregonMade creators through strategic partnerships and creative connections. www.oregonmade.org
The OSH Museum of Mental Health, which is operated on the campus of the original 1883 Oregon Insane Asylum in Salem, bears witness and gives voice to the experiences of people who have lived and worked at Oregon’s psychiatric hospitals by educating visitors, challenging stereotypes and stigma, and preserving the historic record. Galleries that feature artifacts and archives documenting the lives of former patients give visitors a look into the troubled past of many Oregon families. Educational programs offer not only information about the hospitals but also current material on careers in mental health care.
About the Oregon Department of Corrections:
DOC employs 4,700 staff members at 14 institutions, two community corrections offices, and several centralized support facilities throughout the state. The agency is responsible for the care and custody of over 14,500 adults sentenced to more than 12 months of incarceration, and direct or indirect supervision of 31,000 offenders on felony supervision in the community. DOC is recognized nationally among correctional agencies for providing adults in custody with the cognitive, education, and job skills needed to become productive citizens when they transition back to their communities.
About Travel Salem:
Travel Salem is a non-profit organization that promotes Salem and Marion and Polk counties for leisure tourism and convention and event business. The local annual economic impact of the greater Salem area visitor industry is $603 million. Travel Salem manages the Official Salem Area Visitors Center located at 388 State Street in downtown Salem, eight satellite visitor information locations located throughout the region and the Official Salem Area Website, www.TravelSalem.com