Roxanne, the beloved romantic comedy starring Steve Martin and Darryl Hannah, was filmed in Nelson in the summer of 1986, and put this picturesque town on the map. The film captured Nelson’s heritage homes, historic fire hall, rich landscapes, looming mountains, and quirky streets and businesses. Roxanne is by far the most commercially successful feature that has been filmed here in Nelson, but it certainly wasn’t the only one.
Just after the filming of Roxanne, Scottish director Bill Forsyth produced Housekeeping, with Nelson cast as the town of Fingerbone – Nelsonites will recognize landmarks such as Ellison’s, the train station, and Central School. At the time of its release, Housekeeping was a popular, well-reviewed movie, however it is often forgotten today. Dry humour and strange characters complemented the small-town plot about growing up and finding direction in a directionless family. Christine Lahti plays the role perfectly, portraying Sylvie as the kind, clueless aunt attempting to raise her nieces, reportedly after Diane Keaton backed out of the project due to differences about the performance.
Rumours of a third film called The Experts starring John Travolta circulated in the late 1980s, but it ended up being filmed in Niagara, B.C. Big Hollywood’s interest then came to a halt, but filmmaking in the Nelson area continued with smaller – and sometimes stranger – projects.
Director and journalist Jonathon Kay visited Nelson in the 1990s to produce Starlight, starring Willie Nelson, Billy Wirth, and Rae Dawn Chong. Starlight follows a similar, alien-falls-to-earth plot as older films: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), and Starman (1984). It was not a commercial success, nor did it bring in wonderful reviews, but another oddball movie from the Kootenays is always appreciated.
Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995) stars Anna Chlumsky, later known for her role in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s sitcom Veep, and Christina Ricci, who has nearly 100 acting credits to her name (according to IMDB). The film follows two young girls finding themselves while they search for gold in the Kootenays. It has gained notoriety as a cult classic, both as a coming-of-age and implicitly queer film.
A Simple Curve (2005) tells the story of a young boy growing up in New Denver on Slocan Lake. It depicts local counterculture history from the perspective of a young person finding their way in the world. Aubrey Nealon, the director of the film, grew up in the Slocan Valley himself.
Local production company Watershed Productions has contributed in a big way to the Nelson film scene, with Only In Nelson, directed by Amy Bohigian, which follows Bubbles the Clown’s run for mayor in 2019 while outlining many of the city’s oddities, and Queering the Interior (2022), which was produced by Watershed Productions and the Nelson Museum, and explores the history of the LGBTQ2S+ community in the Kootenays. Bohigian was also the casting director for The Tall Man (2012), a popular thriller filmed in the Kootenays and starring Jessica Biel.
With the hundreds of kilometres of trails in and around the Nelson area, it's no wonder there have also been a string of mountain bike films shot in the Koots. In 2002, Derek Westerlund self-produced his third feature-length film, Freewheel Burning, shot on 16mm film for a budget of $250,000. (Westerlund also founded Freeride Entertainment, which has become one of the most successful extreme sports film producers in the world.) One year later, Jeremy Grant and Mike Kinrade produced their fourth full-length mountain biking film, Self Titled, through their brand MPF productions. The film was distributed worldwide and can still be purchased online to this day.
There is even more local film history waiting to be discovered by Nelson’s movie buffs, and a great place to start is the Shawn Lamb Archives at the Nelson Museum, and local video gem Reo’s Video. And if you are feeling nostalgic, why not explore downtown Nelson on the Roxanne walking tour! Newly designed brochures are available for free at the Nelson Museum and the Nelson Visitor Centre.
Jake Maslak is a summer student working at the Nelson Museum, Archives and Gallery. History Buff appears monthly.
