Greenwood will stand in for Oklahoma and Los Angeles when shooting begins this week on the movie Tombs, written and directed by BC filmmaker Marie Clements.
Asked in an interview with Vista Radio why she chose Greenwood, Clements replied “Why not Greenwood? We went on a location scout and kind of fell in love with Greenwood. It’s a bit of a time capsule with these beautiful buildings that really spoke to us and we wanted to put that on screen.”
Clements, who lives on Galiano Island but works in Vancouver, said it is just coincidence that Greenwood was one of the principal locations for Snow Falling on Cedars, filmed in 1998.
“I didn’t put the two together, but when I went to Greenwood, I was like, ‘wait a minute, I think I’ve seen this before.’ So obviously they picked it for a very good reason, because it has that kind of cinematic and tonal quality that has been left period accurate.”
Tombs is based on a play Clements wrote several years ago called Tombs of the Vanishing Indian that she has been working to adapt for the screen.
The story concerns three young Indigenous sisters who leave Oklahoma with their mother for Los Angeles in 1955 as part of a relocation program. But the program isn’t what they thought it would be, and they are left struggling. The mother dies and the girls are separated. The story then shifts to 1973, when the girls reunite, having led separate lives.
The film’s cast has not been revealed, but Clements said they will have two groups of actors playing the sisters, first when they’re young and then when they’re in their early 20s. The story concerns their relationships with each other, as well as three men.
The Greenwood scenes will be shot on Copper Street, which will be depicted in the film as a small town in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the interior of a house close to downtown Greenwood will be used as the rooming house where the family lives in Los Angeles. Crews will also film in the alley behind Copper Street, representing the back of the rooming house.
The Greenwood shoot is expected to last just over a week. Some crew members arrived last week to begin preparations. The production put out a call for locals to help and Clements said while they could still use more people, the majority of what they needed has been filled.
“A lot of residents have come to support us and help us,” she said. “There seems to be a lot of film people in Greenwood … We’re really grateful to be in Greenwood and to have such a welcome reception and support.”
Other scenes will be shot in Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton, Summerland, and Kamloops, she said.
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