Feature movie to be shot locally
SHERMAN — Phair Elizabeth sat on the stage of the Sherman Playhouse with a stack of books behind her.
It’s the place she’s come into her own while growing up in New Milford and it’s the same place her character and others will find themselves in an independent movie, “Golden,” which is set to start filming in Kent and Sherman next week.
“It’s an amazing project,” she said.
The movie is written and directed by Coco Cashman, 30, a New York City native who now lives in Los Angeles. It is based on her life and follows the main character Georgie at an all girls school as she deals with a loss.
“It’s really just a coming of age female story,” Cashman said. “A lot of coming of age stories I like are from the male perspective and this is a chance to show that through the female gaze.”
The movie’s name is even a nod to Holden Caulfield, the main character in the “Catcher in the Rye.”
The movie will probably be between 80 and 90 minutes. Cashman plans to hit the film festival circuit in October to show the completed work, including the festival in New Milford and her alma mater of Parsons School of Design.
The film will be shot over eight days with the bulk of it done at Marvelwood in Kent. The drama club scenes will be done at the Sherman Playhouse.
Cashman chose to film in the New Milford area at the suggestion of Elizabeth, Robin Frome at the Sherman Playhouse and Elizabeth’s mother, Trish Haldin. She said it meets her vision and has fallen in love with the area because everyone has been supportive and made the process so easy. The New Milford Film Commission is also helping out.
“It’s a very art positive place,” Elizabeth said.
Cashman’s also using some local talent, including Olivia Kirby, of New Milford, who is playing one of the other students, and Kathryn Almquist, at Marvelwood, who is playing the headmistress.
She’s also looking for extras, including highschool age girls for a cafeteria scene on June 12 at Marvelwood and anyone to be audience members on June 17 and 18 and Sherman Playhouse. Anyone interested should email her at coco.ccashman@gmail.com.
They’re also still fundraising to hit the $50,000 production goal.
Elizabeth has been with the project for about two years now. She joined it at a read through Cashman held to see how the script resonated.
“As soon as she read, it was like looking at my younger self,” Cashman said. “It was so surreal.”
Elizabeth, at 18, is a little older than her character and also more positive than the cynical Georgie. But she said she’s been able to tap into those dark days teenagers experience and has had a lot of fun playing her.
“It’s so nice stepping out of your shoes and into someone else’s shoes,” she said.
Cashman said all of the actresses have brought elements of their own personality to make the characters more dimensional.
She hopes her film is part of a growing movement of women creating movies to share their points of view. She said too long, it has been maledominated and women have not been valued for their contributions. She’s been the only women on the tech crews for a number of projects.
“It’s time for us to stand up for ourselves,” she said. “We can create art and be successful without being in situations that make us uncomfortable.”
Elizabeth said she hopes this film will inspire more women to go into the industry, building on the current trend. She’s currently studying computer animation at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla. and plans to make movies that way. Her professor told her that the class used to be all male and now it’s mostly women.
“I do think there’s a definite rise,” she said.
Cashman added that it’s been a difficult time politically for women and is using her art to address a variety of issues that have come up, including sexual assault, sexism, depression, anxiety and gender fluidity.
“Something really cool is going to come out of this period,” she said. “It’s going to be a period for more women in film and I want to be at the forefront of that.”