Monday, April 3, 2017

'Scandal' in Colfax as film team wraps project


Concluding a grueling 48-hour race to finish, the Perpetual F film team turned in their 6-minute short film ‘Grand Forks’ Sunday night.
The project is one of more than a dozen shot and edited in between Friday and Sunday evenings as part of the Sacramento International Film Festival’s 48-hour film challenge.
The projects will screen at the festival on April 23.
‘Grand Forks’ is a creative adaptation of real event from the early 1970s. In the film, downtown Colfax stands in for the North Dakota town of Grand Forks.
“Pulling off a period-piece in a 48-hour challenge was super ambitious,” said Ed Fletcher, the writer and one of the producers on the project. ”The contest does allow teams to do some pre-production so we had a lot done before the clock started ticking.”
Directing the project was Damen Quincy Hayes, who is also teaming with Fletcher on a related documentary “Do the Dance.”
It all started with “Pink,” Fletcher’s true story script about the Sacramento 1969 battle of over nude dancing at Orangevale’s Pink Pussy Kat club. The recent death of key figures prompted the Perpetual F team to accelerate plans to tell the real story through the documentary.
“When the 48 came along we already had plenty on our plate,” said Hayes, who performed under the name DQ Hayes during his career as a musician. “But the idea was so good we decided to do it anyway.”
‘Grand Forks’ explores a chapter of Sacramento-born exotic dancer Susanne Haines life that isn’t covered by ‘Pink.’ When the club manager wants to cut her appearance fee, exotic dancer Susanne Haines cooks up a scandalous plan to scare up a full house.
“I kept telling people in the local film community we weren't doing a 48, but the theme for the slate of 48-hour films ‘scandal’ was almost too good to pass up,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said his mind was also influenced by actress Bunny Stewart, who offered her services before seeing a script. Stewart plays Haines in the film.