Druid Peak (film)

Plot

The film follows the story of Owen Wagner (played by Spencer Treat Clark), who survives a truck accident that kills his best friend while growing up in a mining town in West Virginia. Following the accident he moves to live with his father (played by Andrew Wilson) in Yellowstone National Park, where he is in charge of the wolf-reintroduction program. The film is a coming-of-age story that focuses significantly on the natural beauty of Owens new found surroundings. Zelnick has said of the film that, "Druid Peak is a coming of age story about a troubled teenage boy who finds a home for himself tracking wolves in Wyoming. I always call it a coming of age story with a conservation twist. It’s a story about a kid who is given a second chance in a place as wild as he is."

Production

The film was written and directed by Marni Zelnick, and filmed in 2011 around Jackson Hole in Wyoming in addition to Yellowstone,Utah,Idaho and West Virginia. Zelnick first came to the area with the films executive producer Maureen Mayer. According to Christine Peterson, "Mayer used connections from decades of living in Wilson to arrange everything from shooting scenes on ranches to discounts on food for the crews to finding a pilot with a single-engine plane. Some of the crew members slept in her house during production. The rest shared another house that Mayer found." The film received financing from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Feature Film Award, which provided a $100,000 production grant. The cinematographer for the film was Rachel Morrison. The cast was assembled with the help of James Franco, who set up contact between the filmmakers and agents representing the talent eventually used for the film. Marketing for the film was organized by Mayer.

The films leads include Spencer Treat Clark, Andrew Wilson, and Rachel Korine. All of the wolves used in the film are real and the filmmakers employed Doug and Lynn Seuss of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife as animal handlers to prepare them for the screen. Clark said of the wolves that, "To some degree, I expected the trained wolves to be a bit like domestic dogs but I couldnt have been more wrong. They were definitely wild animals and, for the most part, they wanted nothing to do with you. It was incredible to see wolves up close, and even more so to see them interact with each other. They have such an inherent beauty and intelligence. You dont need to understand them to appreciate them or to recognize their importance.

Release

Druid Peak was named a finalist in the 2014 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festivals Best Theatrical Program category, held in one of the movies filming locations. The film also received the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature from the Florida Film Festival. The filmmakers held Q&A sessions following the initial screenings of the film in Orlando, Florida. In June 2014, the film was a selection at the Dances With Films festival.

Reception

The Orlando Weekly gave the film four out of five stars.