Such familiar icons as pickup trucks, power lines and a prairie kitchen set a comfortable backdrop for a film that lays open some very uncomfortable realities.
Red Deer actor Lori Ravensborg, a part-time instructor at Red Deer College, makes her debut as a director with her 28-minute film The Long Road, being screened on Saturday at the Oceanside Film Festival in Oceanside, Calif.
People in cities or on islands in the ocean may not be able to identify with the landscape, but they will be able to identify with the emotional challenges facing an Alberta family, the father and his adult children as they deal with the death of his wife of 41 years, Ravensborg said.
Raised in Brooks and educated at Red Deer College, Neighbourhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York and Charles Sturt University in Australia, Ravensborg wrote, produced and directed the film, and also wrote and sang background music.
The Long Road was filmed locally using Central Alberta talent, including such familiar names as actor John Treleaven and production manager James Wilson along with newcomers Shannon Strumecki, Rob Hay, Tamara Werden and Rivera Reese.
Red Deer College provided equipment and funding support through its professional development fund while a grant from the Alberta chapter of Women in Film and Television also helped cover the bills.
Ravensborg, 41, wrote the 28-minute film for her thesis at Charles Sturt University, based on a conversation she had with her mother about her wishes for the end of her life.
Although not autobiographical in nature, it probes challenges that Ravensborg finds very real.
The process arose from the need within her thesis to develop a project that would extend her skills as a director.
“I needed to create a project that was emotionally challenging in nature. The best way for me to do that was to create a myriad of difficult relationships surrounding a family.”
The trailer focuses on an heartwrenching scene between father and son, as the father tries to explain the reason for choices he made in dealing with his wife’s illness.
Ravensborg calls the scene the big Kahuna of the film.
“That would be kind of my ultimate hope, actually, is that there would be emotion attached just from the trailer,” she said.
“For me, it felt very true to a prairie story. I wanted there to be a feel of environment and of nature, of knowing where we were. I wanted to get a real flavour of the father, who he was.
“He’s an Alberta farm boy, you know — a worked-hard, doesn’t-say-more-than-he-has-to kind of guy.”
Ravensborg has applied to a number of international festivals to generate exposure for her film, to be screened at Red Deer College on Sept. 29 during Arts and Culture Days.
Her future plans include creation of a feature-length film, now underway, that showcases five short films written and directed by five Alberta women whose films tell stories that both collide and interweave with each other.
Visit The Long Road at loriravensborg.weebly.com to learn more.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com