Directed By:
Alicia Oberle Farmer
Written By:
Alicia Oberle Farmer, Janice Spencer-Wise
Starring:
Tyrell Oberle, Janice Spencer-Wise, Lauren Holdt
Genre:
Drama
All media used courtesy of Zepstone Media
Also out in theaters, this weekend is Rite of the Shaman, a local film that won this year’s Utah Film Awards. I had the chance to interview the director Alicia Oberle Farmer about her movie, you can watch that by clicking the video below. I can say that I learned so much about how passionate she is, giving to her creative teams, and the story behind this exploration of grief and kindness.
I loved Rite of the Shaman’s message, this is Alicia’s strongest film to date and you can feel that in every shot, and in the story. The main character, a boy who is unable to speak due to trauma is also having to navigate a sick mother, bullies in high school, and just being a kid. The acting by Tyrell Oberle is great and for a first performance to also be limited in acting to not use his voice- is a big achievement.
The rest of the supporting cast including Janice Spencer-Wise and Lauren Holdt were great. Shoutout to cinematographer Carson McKinnon for his excellent visuals, the mountains, and landscape shots was breathtaking. If there were any issues I would say in some areas the sound mixing felt a little rough, but this is a film where you can feel the passion within every frame, and that makes it a recommendation for me.
