“The Presence” director

An article by Vale    Comments Off

The Presence of Tom Provost
By Madelyn Ritrosky
We enjoyed being in the presence of filmmaker Tom Provost at Heartland’s Closing Night event, but we also enjoyed his film, The Presence.
I like the title. It’s rather understated and vague, in a deliberate, ghostly sort of way – just like the film. And just like the characters, who are few. In addition to Mira Sorvino’s lead, the woman who arrives to write, and Shane West, an isolated spirit, another strong presence structures the film’s mise-en-scene, the house. It’s an old, lonely, lakeside house surrounded only by woods.
Tom originally planned the film for a cabin in Canada but lost that location. Two years went by before he finally found an historic home at the base of Mt. Hood in Oregon. He noted that because it is in Mt. Hood National Forest, they were allowed only 30 people on set at a time.
As film theorists and filmmakers tend to assert, film as an artistic medium is first and foremost a visual medium. Tom has created a film that utilizes that visual orientation to tell an intriguing story – all the more intriguing because ambiguous characters and events structure the story.
It was a delight to watch this spooky movie with 11-year-old Jared, who is just old enough to appreciate this very visual, brooding mystery – without any overt violence. It was also a delight to meet and talk with writer-director Tom Provost.

Read the rest of the interview