As an actress and model Erin Gray has spent most of her adult life in the big city lights.
But, like thousand of others before her, she was drawn to Mt. Shasta for a different kind of illumination.
Speaking during Sunday’s filmmaking seminar at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, the former star of the TV shows Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Silver Spoons, said she took a role in Jerry Alden Deal’s “Dreams Awake” movie because, “I’m on a journey of self-discovery... I’m trying to wake up and be more conscious... this film is about that in many ways. It’s about raising your energy to a higher level.”
Gray, who plays the role of the mother Hope Emrys in Deal’s Dreams Awake, which was filmed last year on and around Mt. Shasta, participated in the seminar along with Deal, actor Tim O’Connor, who also stars in Dreams, film editor Bob Gordon, production designer Renee Prince, and Deal’s wife, executive producer Berry Deal.
Gray, a highly sought after fashion model before she began her acting career in the 1970s, was one of several film stars who sang the area’s praises during the weekend of the 5th annual Mount Shasta International Film Festival.
“The hospitality I’ve been shown here is second to none, and we’ve been in big festivals around the world,” said director Mark Mahon, whose movie “Strength and Honour” received the Festival’s Best American Independent Feature Film award.
Mahon, whose film has now won 16 awards, made his statement during a Q & A session following the showing of his film Saturday evening at Coming Attractions Theatres in Mount Shasta.
Mahon received his Mount Shasta award from Festival founder and director Jeffrey Winters during Thursday night’s Festival Gala celebration at the Community Center, which was also attended by award recipient Dominic Scott Kay, the 12 year old who won the Best Short award for the 18 minute film he made when he was nine, “Saving Angelo.”
Dominic said he has been in other bigger festivals, but “this is definitely one of the most important ones; all these films have so much meaning… to inspire you… This is one of my favorite film festivals so far.”
Gray, who teaches Tai Chi and owns a business called “Heroes for Hire,” said she had just returned from filming in Romania, playing a role in which she was eaten by a ghoul, when she got the call about Dreams Awake.
At first she balked, but then she said, “the material they gave me triggered a sense memory of something that had come across at an earlier time in life... I got goose bumps... it was very serendipitous.”
When the role of Ambrose came open she suggested to Deal that he try to get O’Connor, with whom she co-starred in Buck Rogers.
O’Connor, who is retired and living in Nevada City, where he directs some community theater, said he hadn’t been involved in a movie role for at least 10 years. But he too was attracted by Deal’s script and the opportunity to work with Gray again.
“I’ve passed this mountain many times,” O’Connor said near the end of Sunday’s seminar, which included the showing of some clips from Dreams Awake and Buck Rogers. He said he had heard stories of the mountain’s mystical and spiritual aspects and was “deeply impressed by it.”
Gray said she grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, and “being here in many ways was like coming home... I met incredible people (while here for the filming)... we had deep philosophical conversations... this is so right for me.”
One of the seminar participants, Mark Stillwell, a special education teacher from Redding, said he enjoyed learning about filmmaking during the event and enjoyed the three movies he saw during the Film Festival.
“They were phenomenal, very high quality,” Stillwell said of the films. “I wasn’t expecting them to be as good a quality as they were.”
Marie Wells of the Mount Shasta Chamber said she saw two movies, “A Man Named Pearl and “Irina Palm.”
She said of Irina Palm, “I have not laughed so much watching a movie in a long time.”
See page B16 for photographs from the Film Festival Gala.
Weed, Calif. —
