ELY- “Boundary Waters,” a feature-length film shot last year in Ely, will open on Friday at the Twin Cities Film Fest in St. Louis Park, and on Saturday at the Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, N.Y.
In advance of the movie’s premiere, the Timberjay interviewed the film’s director Tessa Blake just before she left the country to direct a film in Budapest, Hungary.
“I’ve been very fortunate to build a pretty robust career as a TV director,” said Blake, who is also an award-winning filmmaker.
Highlights of her directing career include her work for the ABC television series “A Million Little Things” and “Station 19,” and for CBS’s “NCIS: New Orleans.” She has also directed for the FX’s “American Horror Story” and Warner Bros.’ “Rivendale.” Blake’s film “Election Night” premiered in 2015 at the Cannes Film Festival.
In addition to directing “Boundary Waters,” Blake is one of its two screenwriters and a co-producer.
Creating Athens
“For me, the town was an important character in this film,” Blake told the Timberjay. “Most of our time was spent in Ely. We really endeavor in the film to show the love for Ely that we had as filmmakers.”
The producers decided to go forward with the film in December 2022 and immediately began reviewing possible locations to shoot it.
“We fell in love with Ely and Virginia,” Blake explained, “so we created a fictional town that has its Main Street from Virginia and everything else is from Ely.”
When asked why the film didn’t use Ely’s Sheridan St., Blake said Virginia’s Chestnut St. had a more traditional and less hilly appearance: “Ely’s Main Street (Sheridan) is lovely, but because it’s hilly, it’s also different than that classic straight-look-down-Main Street feel that Virginia has.”
The filmmakers opted for a fictitious name for the town, which Blake said allows everyone to see themselves in it.
Renaming Athens
The working title of the film was “Athens,” used while the production crew was in town. The name was taken from Athens, N.Y., which was one of the other communities the producers scouted as a location for the movie.
The name was later changed to “Boundary Waters,” to reflect the updating of the location. A week later at the beginning of May, Miller reported that they had changed their minds about the name change.
“We received feedback from some in the community who thought, perhaps, that we were making an environmental film,” Miller said. As a result of the misunderstanding, the filmmakers went back to using the working title “Athens” while still working in Ely.
The film formerly known as “Athens” finally acquired its release name of “Boundary Waters” during its post-production period.
Crafting the story
“Boundary Waters” is a 98-minute coming-of-age movie about a 12-year-old boy named Michael. His mother is raped and his parents and grandmother try to cover up the event. The movie is told from Michael’s perspective as he tries to uncover the facts of what happened to his mother.
Blake told the Timberjay that the plot of the movie is based on the 2015 novel “Closed Doors” by award-winning author Lisa O’Donnell.
As one of the screenwriters for the film, Blake explained the process of going from the book’s storyline to the plot of the movie: “We kept the premise from the book, but films and novels are different art forms. Many parts of the story were simplified in the film so that we could amplify the story about a boy’s experience of an event that happened to his mother.
“I have directed a lot of television, so I have a lot of fluency with action, suspense, chasing the bad guy, and capturing the bad guy. One of the most profound choices that we made as storytellers was to not spend any time in this story focused on the bad guy … I wanted to spend our energy with the family, and on Michael’s perspective.”
Filming in Ely
The “Boundary Waters” producers rented space from the city of Ely in the 720 Miners Dr. building. They also rented a house on Harvey St. just uphill from the Post Office as the location of Michael’s home in the film.
Michael’s house in the film is one of three matching homes built next to each other.
“We found an old photograph from 1889,” Blake explained, “and (on it) they were called the ‘Three Sisters houses.’ Here’s the crazy thing. I rented this house (to stay at while in Ely) that turned out to be next door to the house where we actually shot the film. So, I had one of the Three Sisters houses. Then we rented the one next door, and Jessica Dusich lives in the third of those three sister houses … She was the most gracious neighbor we could have hoped for. And Cecilia Rolando lives across the street. She’s a painter. Cecilia’s work is in the movie as Granny’s artwork … All of the artwork inside the house is Cecilia’s.”
Extras
“Filmmaking is a team sport,” Blake said, “and I had an incredible team. A ton of that team was Ely locals. They were complimented by an extraordinary crew as well as one of the best casts you can imagine … and these amazing (professional acting) kids came together, in part because they also fell in love with the kids from Ely. I didn’t have to make them act like they were friends. They became very bonded and that’s really featured in the film. You’ll see these wonderful Ely performances throughout, and they were crucial to making a beautiful movie.”
Post-production
Prepping to shoot in Ely took most of April 2023. Blake said shooting the film took all of May and the first week of June. “We started editing right after we wrapped in June,” Blake said. “We locked the picture at the end of October after test screenings. Then I went to work with our composer, who’s French, in November. We worked on the color correct in Italy, because our cinematographer is Italian. We did the sound mix in Los Angeles in the New Year and finished the film around March.”
The completion date was several months past the deadline for the Ely Film Festival, which explains why it didn’t show last February in Ely. As for showings at other upcoming film festivals, Blake wasn’t ready to talk about that.
“We keep that quiet until we know for sure that the film is part of a festival. We let the festivals make the announcements. We’re not really permitted to talk about a film (we’ve submitted) to the festivals until they’ve announced it.”
Blake would not say whether “Boundary Waters” was submitted to the Ely Film Festival, citing the above film festival policies.
The Timberjay contacted Jacob White, the executive director of the Ely Film Festival about the status of “Boundary Waters” in the upcoming festival program. “You’ll have to wait until we make our announcement of this year’s films in December,” White said.