This week we take a creek less traveled to the center of the state and explore a comedy that only the 1980’s could’ve created and then the rest of history has somewhat ignored. Along the way we connect the dots between an Astoria artist, the cast of “Animal House,” “Ghostbusters,” “Hill Street Blues,” and “Porky’s” and throw in a creator of “Grimm” for good measure, all the while never taking our eye off that wet and wild…creek: the Deschutes River. Continue reading... “Raiders Of The Lost Archive – Back To School With “Up The Creek” (1984)”
Portland documentary short, and #OregonMade, “Thou Shall Not Tailgate” recently received accolades from MovieMaker Magazine (Crowdfunding Pick) and Kickstarter (Projects We Love) for it’s current fundraising effort. With less than TWO DAYS LEFT, the indie short raised over 60% of it’s budget, and met its $15k goal.
As summer starts to come to a close it is with great pleasure that we find a way to celebrate the awesomeness that is the Oregon Coast especially in such a grand cinematic way. The North Coast as been home to many an iconic flick – Twilight, Short Circuit, Free Willy, Kindergarden Cop and, of course, The Goonies – but it has never seen the likes of Keanu and Patrick in the pouring rain at Indian Beach.
Mastering the Interview: Real People as Documentary Story Structure
Taught by Steve Amen, Executive Producer / Host of OPB’s Oregon Field Guide
Mondays, 6:30pm-9:30pm, October 2 – November 6
Northwest Film Center, 934 SW Salmon St. $495
The stories and voices of real people are the building blocks of documentary storytelling. The challenge for the filmmaker is to adapt their style to the person being interviewed. A successful interviewer allows the subject to share their story in a way that is not only personal, but also that is focused, engaging, and provides real insight into the subject. Continue reading... “Mastering The Interview With OPB’s Steve Amen”
Officially, the first Golden Age of Television spanned the late 40’s to the late 50’s. Since we’re ostensibly living through a Goldener Age of Television (which has certainly created far more hours and channels of product than the first one did) it seems only wise to remind ourselves of Oregon’s place in the first heyday of the small screen and the echoes of that past into our present. That’s were ROTLA creator and contributor Phil Oppenheim takes us this week.Continue reading... “Raiders of the Lost Archive – “Legacy for Lucia” Route 66 (Philip Leacock, 1960)”
This week our cinematic history starts to criss-cross itself with a film that was made 20 years ago but set only 4 years ago in a worldthat echoes…well, you can take from it what you will…
A great deal of post-apocalyptic beauty was found in Central Oregon for this 90’s blockbuster which winds its way from Elvis to St. Rose, Oregon, and Phil Oppenheim argues that it is worth a 3 hour re-look – especially in the (lack) of light along the Path of Totality. Continue reading... “Raiders of the Lost Archive “Eclipse Clips” THE POSTMAN (1997)”
“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.Continue reading... ““Lean on Pete” to Premiere at Venice Film Fest & TIFF”
As Oregon Film starts to think about turning that wily age of 50 we are reflecting on some of the history that brought us to this point in our lifespan – and why not start at the beginning?
The story goes – after he made the beaches available to the public – Gov. Tom McCall needed just that little bit more to cement his legacy, so he assigned staffer Warren Merrill to help out a large Hollywood production creating No Name City at the confluence of two rivers in Baker County and, Lo and Behold, the beginnings of Oregon Film were born and so was…
As we begin down the Path of Totality on August 21, we felt like it was appropriate to look back on projects that found themselves along that same Path, albeit far before the Totality cometh.
“Raiders” contributor Phil Oppenheim calls this sub-series “Eclipse Clips.”
THE OLD OREGON TRAIL (Victor Adamson, 1928)
A horse, a gal, and the John Day River — what more does a feller need?
If you find yourself strangling your steering wheel in frustration while parked in bumper-to-bumper Route 206 traffic on the way to your overbooked hotel room in downtown Condon for the eclipse, you may want to consider the plight of the poor Mercer family (or better yet, see if you can find it on disc for the SUV’s back-seat DVD player and pop it in when the kids in the back seat start losing their minds).Continue reading... “Raiders of the Lost Archive “Eclipse Clips” THE OLD OREGON TRAIL (1928)”
Writer-Director, 
