A story of everyday Indians
FILMMAKER AIMS TO DEBUNK STEREOTYPES
By Quynh Tran
Knight Ridder
When Piedmont writer-director Kate Montgomery began making her film ``Christmas in the Clouds'' five years ago, she didn't imagine that the process would become a journey of overcoming challenges and self-discovery.
Her previous work frequently had Native American elements, so setting her first feature film on an Indian reservation seemed natural, Montgomery says. The characters represented friends and colleagues -- everyday people with aspirations, who dealt with challenges through humor. These weren't the kinds of characters Montgomery saw coming out of Hollywood productions.
``Native peoples are the last bastion of stereotypes,'' she says. ``They are only defined as backdrop -- a shaman or an Indian on horseback or with feathers. You don't see them in a contemporary light.''
The film was shot at Robert Redford's Sundance Resort in Utah, a backdrop no other film except Redford's own movie ``Jeremiah Johnson'' can claim.
``Christmas in the Clouds'' pokes fun at stereotypes through a tale of mistaken identity, tribal enterprise, bingo and true love. The plot focuses on the Ute tribe, which runs a luxury ski lodge in Utah that desperately needs to stay in business. The enthusiastic lodge manager, played by Tim Vahle, goes into overdrive trying to impress one of the lodge's guests (Mariana Tosca), who he believes is an anonymous travel writer from New York.
The mostly Native American cast includes Graham Greene as the vegetarian chef who refuses to cook meat; Sheila Tousey as a hotel assistant distracted by romance novels; and Sam Vlahos as a retired chief and Vahle's father, trying to win a Jeep Cherokee at the Christmas bingo game.
Montgomery's friends, including Greene, were enthusiastic about making the film, but Hollywood executives wanted to eliminate the Indian characters and setting, the filmmaker recalls. They suggested an Irish-American story.
An Irish citizen herself, Montgomery says, ``The activist impetus behind the story would have been gone. The studios wanted to keep natives in a limited way.''
The director said she admires the sense of community among native people and their reverence and respect for one another. She wanted to capture the spirit of their oneness; removing the Indian setting would have destroyed the essence of the film, she says.
Moviegoers responded to the film as it worked its way through the independent film festival circuit, starting with its original release in 2001. ``Christmas in the Clouds'' received awards at the Sundance, Austin and Santa Fe film festivals and strong reviews with its current national distribution by Majestic Films.
Attaining that distribution for the film was a feat. Even as the movie racked up awards, the $3 million production was in debt. Montgomery didn't own the rights to the score, and there was no money to finish it, market it nationwide or even store it properly.
``Sometimes I wondered how I hung in there,'' Montgomery says, ``but every time I screened it, it energized me.
``I want people to feel better about themselves -- that most Americans care about one another and that the most important thing is love. We should remember that. Spend time with people you love.''
A former executive at the Wall Street Journal, Montgomery says many people are driven by materialistic desires, and in that pursuit forget about their responsibility to their community. She wants moviegoers to question how corporations -- such as major movie studios -- can help their local community.
``People can vote at the box office,'' she says. ``Send a message to the fat cats that if they want my money, they should do something for my community.''
With a daughter in college and a son in middle school, Montgomery is committed to public education. She decided her film should be a tool to support education and will donate November's screening proceeds to needy public school districts.
The film raised $55,000 in its Nov. 4 opening weekend.
As the film launched in California last week, Montgomery's work was still not quite done, nor did she want it to be. There were school districts to call, fund-raising venues to set up, and her daughter was home for the weekend.
``All this makes it worth the risk,'' she says. ``It was a magical experience. I almost feel everything happened the way it was meant to happen. The movie created a path that feels like destiny.''`Christmas in the Clouds'
Rated: PG (mild sexual content, language)
Cast: M. Emmet Walsh, Timothy Vahle, Mariana Tosca, Sam Vlahos, Sheila Tousey, Rosalind Ayres, Graham Greene, Jonathan Joss, Rita Coolidge
Writer-director: Kate Montgomery
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Also: Montgomery will appear at the Camera 12, 201 S. Second St., San Jose, following the 1:30 p.m. screening on Sunday.
Benefit: The November proceeds of the film, which is playing at three Bay Area theaters, will be donated to California public school districts in need. The film makes its national debut Dec. 2.
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Special thanks to Bea Woodward for passing this on!
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December 2005 Reports
Last updated on December 06, 2005