Preview of A Year in Mooring

Meet the 2011 SXSW Filmmakers | “A Year in Mooring” Director Chris EyreDisarming in its subtly, “A Year in Mooring” is the quiet cinematic journey about the inevitability of change. Starring Josh Lucas in his first leading dramatic role, “A Year in Mooring” follows the story of a successful businessman (Lucas) attempting to resurrect his life. Entering an idyllic harbor as a broken and haunted man, he buys and boards a dilapidated sailboat. Walking an isolated line between solitude and redemption, he’s watched by three equally mysterious residents: a waitress (Ayelet Zurer), the veteran mariner (James Cromwell), and a newly single father (Jon Tenney). [Synopsis courtesy of SXSW]

Responses courtesy of “A Year in Mooring” director Chris Eyre.

Using images to delve into the past…

I became a filmmaker when I started taking pictures as a teenager. I photographed everything—people, animals and many landscapes. I didn’t know why, but as a Native-American adoptee, I first started looking at all the historical photos of my own tribe in high school and tried to figure out who all these distant relatives might be. I especially loved the historical photos by Edward Sheriff Curtis. I found out later that my great, great grandfather on my Cheyenne-side was photographed by Curtis in 1899. His name was “Cohoe/Nohoe” or “lame man” (due to a bad leg). By using images, I was trying to go back somewhere and understand more of who I was or who my biological people were that I had lost.

My new movie “A Year in Mooring” uses landscapes as atmosphere to help tell the characters stories. Those are the type of movies I like best, one’s that could come from a lost photograph.

In the pipeline…

A remake of the 1983 movie “Running Brave” that follows the true-life story of Native American Olympian Billy Mills from his time growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1950s to becoming the only American to win a Gold Medal in the 10,000 meter long-distance race at the 1964 Tokyo games. To this day, his victory is described as one of the greatest moments in Olympic history.Comment:  For more on the subject, see María Hinojosa Interviews Chris Eyre and Filming A Year in Mooring.