Woman co-produces film 'Painted Woman'

FORT SMITH (AP) — Priscilla Tran credits her work ethic and an "incredible" production team for helping get "Painted Woman" from the written page to the theater screen.

The Times Record reports that the 25-yearold Fort Smith resident worked as an associate producer for the new film, which features "Hunger Games" star Stef Dawson and was screened at the recent Bentonville Film Festival.

"It's great that the end result of the film was impressive," said Tran, who graduated from Southside High School in 2009 and obtained a degree in theater acting and directing from the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith in 2013. "With most movies, they get made and you'll see them in the theater two or three years later, but our movie was made back in October.

"We filmed for about three weeks in October," she added. "It had a crazy turnaround time and got made."

Co-written and directed by James Cotten, "Painted Lady" follows a woman named Julia Richards, who has been a "kept woman that has been controlled by others," Tran said.

"Julia is a woman who has never been able to tell her own story or paint her own canvas," she said. "In the movie, she meets other people along the way, like the cowboy played by David Thomas Jenkins.

"The woman then realizes that she can make her own choices," added Tran, who is the daughter of John and Quenna Tran of Fort Smith. "It's a story that has all these elements — drama, romance, some violence and the Western era — tied into it."