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Litchfield Native Returns Home for Film Story of Pet Cow August 10, 2003 LITCHFIELD, Neb. (AP) - Holly Lewis has returned to a farm near her hometown to shoot a movie that tells the story of her childhood pet cow. Lewis, now an actress in Los Angeles, brought the cameras to Litchfield and Loup City last month to make an independent film "Oscar." It is named for a Holstein calf she had when she was about 10 years old. "It's a great little story about the acceptance of the circle of life," she told the Kearney Hub in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. Lewis has been writing short stories for some time. Her partner and Loup City native Raider Acher, whose professional name is Raider Rhotenacher, picked up the story about Oscar and turned it into a screenplay. "It's a great story, and it seems a lot of people out here are fascinated with cow stories," she said with a laugh. "Why did we do it? We had the time, we had the kids, we had the farm and everything just kind of fell into place." The film was shot at Lewis' grandparents' farm where her brother, Mark Lewis, now lives. The stars of the show were Lewis' cousin and nephew, who played the part of Lewis and her brother as kids. Lewis played the part of the mother. "We didn't give (Mark) very much of a warning before we came in and completely redid the interior of his house and turned a garage into a corral. If we tried to recreate this in L.A. it would cost $25,000 to $30,000 easy. We had a very low budget," she said. "Luckily, everyone was very generous with their cars, their cows and even musk thistle." One scene in the movie shows the kids cutting musk thistle out of a pasture. The 5-foot thistle was found in a neighbor's pasture the day before he was going to cut it himself. The story tells of a 9-year-old Nebraska girl in 1975 who has a pet cow and discovers where hamburger comes from. "The story is about the girl realizing that the pet cow is not a toy, but for the survival of the family," Lewis said. She remembers the story because her grandmother took a photo of Lewis riding a horse and her brother on the back of the tame cow. The film was shot almost entirely on the farm near Litchfield. One picnic scene was shot at Bowman Lake near Loup City. It took three days in early July to shoot the film. When edited, it will be about 18 minutes long. Lewis said the kids in the film were "great." "I taught them acting in three hours. I told them how it would work with the camera," she said. "I asked them if they wanted to do it and warned them they couldn't get bored in the middle and go in and watch TV." Although it was 105 degrees, theY hardly complained, Lewis said. "They were committed. For an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, they were great," she said. Lewis has several more ideas for films in the state, including one about a young girl who goes away from home for the first time to 4-H camp. But for now, Lewis and Acher want to get "Oscar" edited in time to enter it in January's Sundance Film Festival. The application deadline is Sept. 14. If it isn't accepted for Sundance, they want to enter it in the Slamdance, which is another film festival for more independent movies and shorts. Lewis said after the film goes through the festivals, they will show it in Litchfield. Each person in the film will get a copy and will be listed in the credits. |
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