Olivia Maxwell casts her spell
“Macbeth Unhinged,” famous actor and first-time director Angus Macfadyen’s feature premiering Saturday night at this weekend’s Little Washington Film Festival, has one other Rappahannock connection: Actress Olivia Maxwell, daughter of Flint Hill-based feature film director Ron Maxwell (“Gods and Generals,” “Gettysburg”), has a substantial supporting role in the film. Pictured here in the stretch limo where much of Macfadyen’s adaptation takes place, Olivia Maxwell plays Witch No. 1, the most visible of the three strange sisters whose prophesies launch Macbeth on his climb to power and descent to you-know-where.
Stephanie (Dee Dee) Slewka is an accomplished television producer and writer. She’s got a nose for news and her list of documentary films is impressive. Her daughter, Roxie, is no stranger to what it takes to put together a story and be able to tell it visually.
“She’s been around me making films since she was little, so some of this is osmosis,” says Slewka. Roxie, age 10, is in fifth grade and attends Grymes Memorial School in Orange County. One of her classmates is the son of Dr. Khalid Athar, an anesthesiologist at the Culpeper Surgery Center.
Through conversations, Roxie and her mother learned of Dr. Ben Allen, an orthopedic surgeon with the Virginia Orthopaedic and Spine Center who was born with an orthopedic birth defect crippling one leg.
Years later, his daughter Amanda Jane, is working in Afghanistan on an aid project and learns of the son of one of the security team, Yahya, who suffers from the same affliction.
What happens next is a string of events that brings the boy and his father to the United States, to the home of Dr. Allen, and eventually under the care of a team of doctors, nurses, and therapists including Allen and Athar. The end result is a five-yearold boy who is now running and playing soccer in the streets of Kabul with the aid of a prosthetic leg.
For more than three years, he crawled everywhere. He couldn’t stand upright and couldn’t walk.
“It’s a story that needs to be told,” said Slewka, and the timing for sharing that story coincided with the upcoming 4-H Youth Hour at The Film Festival at Little Washington.
On the day of the interview, Roxie, came prepared with a list of questions.
“I like your cane,” she said to Allen who uses a novel saw shaped handled cane made by a friend. He has been wearing a prosthetic leg since he was 16. She handled the interview like a pro.
“She’s has been writing since she was tiny — the script comes from talent,” says her proud mother. As part of the Rappahannock 4-H Film Club, Roxie has also produced a very short video poem.
Roxie story-boarded the piece, which includes narrative from Dr. Allen, his wife Mary and daughter Amanda. She conducted the interviews, wrote and narrated the script and helped decide what images to put where.
The video titled Prostheses will screen this Sunday, April 10, from 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. at the Theatre at Washington, 291 Gay St. The 4-H Youth Hour includes short films from youth ages 9 through 18 from Rappahannock County and is free to all.
➤ For the full story of Dr. Allen’s treatment of Yahya, go to culpepertimes.com