December 30, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 9A
‘A love letter to my
home state’
Thriller nears the fi nish line
By Eve Marx
For EO Media Group
T
he South County’s turn on the big screen comes
closer as crew members put fi nishing touches on
“Seaside,” the movie, which was shot in April in
Seaside, Cannon Beach and Arch Cape, where the
fi lmmaker’s parents own a home. “My parents
have a home in Arch Cape and I’ve spent a lot of time
there,” Zalutsky said.
“We are almost fi nished,” director Sam Zalutsky said,
speaking from his home in New York City. Post-produc-
tion — including color correction, sound editing and
sound design are expected to reach completion in about
a month. “The movie is a love letter to my home state,”
he said.
Zalutsky said he was drawn to do a fi lm about Seaside
after spending so much time here as a youth.
“The Oregon C oast landscape has so seldom been
caught on fi lm,” he added. “I knew I could do a visual-
ly dynamic fi lm, and of course I had use of my parents’
beach house not just as a location, but as a place to live
during the shooting.”
While writing the script, Zalutsky incorporated loca-
tions like Funland , the Arcade and the Seaside Civic and
C onvention C enter, which offered up a side room for an
interrogation scene. Zalutsky, a Portland native and mas-
ter of fi ne arts graduate from New York University’s Tisch
School of the Arts, was short-listed for the Independent
Spirit Award’s “Someone to Watch Award” for his fi rst
feature, “You Belong To Me.”
His 17-minute fi lm “How to Make it to the Promised
Land” was funded through Kickstarter and a Jerome
Foundation grant. Zalutsky wrote “Seaside” during a res-
idency at the MacDowell Colony, an artist colony in New
Hampshire.
This month, a social media fundraising campaign is
helping fi lmmakers cross the fi nish line.
SUBMITTED P HOTO
‘Hamilton’ star
Ariana DeBose, who appeared in the original Broad-
way cast of “Hamilton,” stars with Oregon native Stef-
fanie Leigh in this female-driven revenge thriller.
“The fi lm is a thriller with lots of twists,” Zalutsky
said.
His script tells the story of a young woman who moves
to the Oregon C oast with her boyfriend to start a new life
in the beach house he’s inherited from his parents. When
the two bump into another young woman who has previ-
ous knowledge of the boyfriend, it becomes apparent the
boyfriend hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about his past.
Bad things — very bad things — soon start happening.
To produce the fi lm, Zalutsky recruited fellow Port-
landers Alyssa Roehrenbeck (“The Drunk Series,”
“Gage,” “DOTT”) and Kevin Corstange, who has ap-
peared in productions at Portland Center Stage and now is
a New York-based producer.
Local casting was provided by Simon Max Hill, who
also helped cast IFC’s “Portlandia.”
Director Sam Zalutsky with cinematographer Phil
Anderson.
“Seaside” received encouragement and support from
the local Seaside community, including in-kind donations
from local businesses, including Sleepy Monk Coffee,
Cannon Beach’s American Legion Post 168, Seaside Ge-
lato, the Spindrift Inn and the City of Seaside Union Bank.
Basic Rights Oregon, a progressive group for social
equality, also hosted a fundraiser to benefi t both “Sea-
side” and the organization.
As the fi lm draws closer to completion, Zalutsky said
he’s starting to submit it to fi lm festivals, some of them
in Oregon. He hopes to have screenings in Portland and
on the coast.
The local landscape plays a key role, with its “beauti-
ful, but dangerous” cliffs, rocks, wind and rain.
“As befi ts the landscape, we learn it’s not an easy place
to live,” Zalutsky said. “The environment is beautiful but
dangerous.”
Ariana DeBose and Matt Shingledecker in various scenes while fi lming “Seaside.”
SUBMITTED P HOTOS
Providence Hospital off ers
community resource desk
Providence Seaside Hos-
pital and Clatsop Community
Action, in a community part-
nership, have opened a com-
munity resource desk at the
main entrance to the hospital in
Seaside.
The services offered include
signing up for food stamp ben-
efi ts, assistance with fi nding
food pantries, locating housing
resources, utility and heating as-
sistance, transportation options
as well other needed services.
This resource is open to all
residents and visitors of Clat-
sop County and provides a
convenient location for all who
live in, or are visiting South
Clatsop County. This service is
also available in downtown As-
toria at the Clatsop Communi-
ty Action offi ce located at 364
Ninth St.
The Seaside location is
staffed by Marcelo Hernan-
dez, a bilingual referral coor-
dinator employed by Clatsop
Community Action and fund-
ed by Providence Community
Health Division. The desk is
open Monday through Friday,
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is
located in the main lobby of
Providence Seaside Hospital,
725 Wahanna Road, Seaside;
503-717-7176.
COM ING IN FEBR UAR Y!
20 17 EDITIO N
of th e a w a rd-w in n in g publica tion from
th e publish ers of Coa st W eeken d
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Marcelo Hernandez, a bilingual referral coordinator at the
resource desk.
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