Jade McDowell East Oregonian
Published on August 1, 2017 12:01AM
Last changed on August 1, 2017 10:51PM
A pair of sisters from Hermiston helped create Portland’s winning submission to the 48 Hour Film Project.
The annual contest gives filmmakers around the world a character, prop and line they must integrate into their film, which must be created and produced within a 48-hour span after they draw a genre out of a hat. The best film from each major city will be screened in Paris during the 48HFP Filmapalooza in 2018, and the top 10 films will be shown at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Lacy and Cassa Frost of Hermiston joined RedFawn at the last minute, after hearing that team leader Isaac Trimble was putting together an all-American Indian team. They helped out behind the camera as production assistants and in front of it, playing brief roles as crime scene investigators and murder victims in the seven-minute silent film called “Missing Indigenous.”
“They had me laying over a huge boulder, covered me in fake blood and tore my clothes up, and Lacy was hanging upside-down in a tree,” Cassa said.
Cassa said she has some acting experience in commercials, and hopes to eventually make a career in the industry. Lacy said she went along with Cassa for the experience.
“I did it on a whim but it turned out really well and I had fun,” she said.
The silent film follows two detectives, played by Isaac Trimble and Solomon Trimble (who played Sam Uley in “Twilight”) as they work to solve the murder of a young American Indian woman but find more victims along the way. The final moments of the film show a collage of missing posters and a line of text stating that American Indian women are 10 times as likely to be murdered as the rest of the population. The New York Times used that same figure in a 2012 article about the issue, citing Justice Department data.
Lacy said she and Cassa were adopted in South Dakota and raised in Hermiston, not on a reservation, so participating in the film taught her more about the issues facing American Indian women. She also enjoyed the chance to be around cast and crew members who were American Indians, too.
“It felt special,” she said. “I felt honored to be a part of it. We don’t know a lot of other natives, so it was a cool way to get pulled back into that culture.”
Isaac Trimble said he had participated in 48HFP in the past as an actor or crew member, but this was his first time putting together a team of his own. He said the group couldn’t do any writing ahead of time, but did jot down one-line ideas of different stories they could tell that would highlight their heritage.
When he drew the silent film genre, he immediately thought of the line on their brainstorming white board that said “the story of missing and murdered women in Indian Country” and decided to use the silence of the film as a metaphor for how the issue is a “silent epidemic” that often goes without much media coverage.
He said that after a couple of female members of his team dropped out, he put out the word to friends asking if anyone knew of any American Indian actresses in Oregon who would be up for the challenge. Someone recommended the Frost sisters and they agreed to give up their weekend to work on the film with a bunch of strangers.
“That takes a lot of bravery and courage, and Cassa and Lacy stepped up to the plate,” Trimble said.
He said the team was “floored” to win best film and excited to go to France.
The rules of 48HFP dictate that the short films can’t be available online to the public until after the Filmapalooza in March, but a short preview is featured on the team’s GoFundMe account SendaFilmTeamtoFrance.
Trimble said the team is working on writing a pilot for a crime show about missing and murdered American Indian women.
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Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536.