Director, cinematographer and actor Ryan Hathaway has a depth of background behind the camera. Both Sarah-Beth Robinette, and Matt Wright, were first-time acting talent on this film. Wright, who gives a truly diabolical performance as the ugly step-brother Jonovan, is said to have claimed he hopes he will never make another film in his entire life---other film-makers might seek out Wright for his menacing ways. Summer Ferguson has both a college-background, and professional background, as a producer and actress, appearing in several recent small films (see IMDb listing.). Writer Julian Phillips is a former journalist, with a long list of credits in video, small films, educational, books, features, and promotional or press-work.
The scene in which Jonovan (Matt Wright), follows Beth-Ann into the woods as she is feeding the feral or wild cats she finds there, and then assaults her, was viewed almost 250,000 times or more on YouTube. Of course, this is an artistic and dramatic choice, for the story. The Beth-Ann character (Summer Ferguson), is openly sexual and bold about her job or employment part-time selling sex-aids or sex-toys to both mature and younger women in the conservative town. Earlier in the film, she repeatedly turns away Jonovan's advances---knowing he was abusive in the past towards her new friend, Mikala (Sarah-Beth Robinette). But Jonovan is 'turned on' by the 'open-and-honest' sexuality Beth-Ann seems to represent to him. It's also clear he's a mean drunk and unstable or Major Macho-type. With Benny Day, the Iraq-War vet, still lingering around in the woods near his tent---the assault takes place, and is rather ugly. How did the film-maker's feel about it?? Summer has said she felt awful---and the scene is followed up with a court-room scene, where Beth-Ann's emotions and tears flow, knowing she could have been killed, and knowing too that her friend---the lonely and wounded Iraq-war veteran in the woods---had 'laid down his life' to save hers. If you ask Ryan Hathaway, he's more likely to talk about his camera-angles or the amount of fake blood used in Benny's 'death-scene'. But Ryan also gives us a deeply mystical view of the man's death, as if it were all a dream. Julian Phillips, the writer, comments: "Rape and assault, violence, cruelty, sexuality and brutality towards women, is not only unacceptable, it's inhuman in a sense---or all too human. Rape is used as a weapon of war, in Africa and elsewhere. In the Islamic cultures, women have no choice, no voice---they are like slaves to the men they supposedly love. Benny fought in the Iraq-war, as the voice of Western wisdom---call it freedom if you want. His love, even after the war and even as he is dying himself, his mind broken and adrift in the pain of it all---his love is 'plain to him'. And he gives it, to save Beth-Ann. It's a natural thing, yet in the modern world---something to be nurtured and learned and re-learned. So the rape-scene is just another part of real life, which a writer would try to show. It was not written only as a surface-level cinematic or dramatic thrill."
Not really. The two young women in the film do 'fall in love', but there is no sex or erotica at all. As many joyful or curious people will do, especially when a woman has been abused by men, Beth-Ann and Mikala are drawn to each other as 'more than friends'. The backdrop of Beth-Ann's 'sex-toy parties' is really harmless fun---and very funny, too. Later, Beth-Ann starts to feel the town will never accept her---and Mikala and she break up, deciding to call it quits---which can happen to 'straight' couples, too. The tenderness between them, and the robust discussions on the topic with Benny Day, the homeless vet, give the story a vitality that seems to bring Benny back to life---like any healthy male---and also brings the story into the modern period with the idea that Iraq-war vets need love, too.
Allegheny Sunset is actually a type of wild-flower, common to this part of Virginia. The film was created in a small town called Clifton Forge, also in Virginia. In 'Allegheny Sunset', you'll see part of America that 'tourists' may never venture to visit---the woods and hills, the humble places in the town, many homes and open areas, the mountains and wooden bridges, and also fresh-water streams, great growths of trees, and deep mountain valleys. The images really showcase cinematographer Hathaway's work. The film also features original, Appalachian-style folk-music, created specifically for the film. A lot of people might enjoy this simply as a view of this wonderful part of America.
'Allegheny Sunset' film-maker Ryan Hathaway does not necessarily consider himself an actor, despite Hollywood good-looks. Hathaway continues work as a director and cinematographer, and is now developing two original screenplays. Summer Ferguson has made two films recently as an actress, starring in 'Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre' (2008), and also a second version of this campy horror film (in which she claims to have been a victim again). Summer also does production work in the Los Angeles area, and is planning another possible film with Ryan Hathaway. Writer Julian Phillips works on 'for-hire' scripts and screenplays, teaches screenwriting, and has other film projects in release, including 'Ex$pendable' from Tough Struggle Films, hopes for a production of 'Crashing Cannes', with Munich's Cinewerx Films, and other projects and 'spec' scripts and stories.
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