In the summer of 1995 I spent two weeks in Red Lodge, Montana with my friend Kurt and our families filming a movie. I was Dougy and Kurt was Ralpho, we were the school yard bullies in a feature called Amanda. This week I watched it for the first time.

AN INSTANT CLASSIC?

Amanda stars Kiran Culken who plays a Montanan and a pipsqueak, Biddle Farnsworth, who starts to go blind in one eye after falling from a horse. That is, until he meets Seven, a magical black blacksmith and his horse Amanda, a massive (18 hands) animal who may be an angel. Seven forges Biddle a pair of magic metal eyeglasses that improve his vision.

Kurt sent me some of his recollections of the time:

I definitely remember our production assistant, Michael who smoked all the time. I remember that we ate in a separate tent from the “extras” and had catered hot food where they had only sandwiches. I remember the problems with recording my line that I spoke in that scene, far away from you and the boom, and they had to wire me with a mike which kept malfunctioning. I remember Kieran and playing video games next to Macauley in our hotel. I remember how our moms were sitting talking with this woman about how stressful it was to be a stage mother, and then an assistant came over and said, “Mrs. Culkin, they’re ready for you.”

WORLD PREMIER

The whole experience was incredible and overwhelming in all the best ways, but for all these years, if ever the subject came up, the story ended with a big question mark because the movie was never released in the US.

Thanks go to my brother-in-law for finding the DVD. After hearing the stories my sister* and I had about the filming he refused to believe that it was still unavailable on video. After a quick search he found it for sale from this reputable online store.  Easy as that. *You can see Sara in  pink dress waking away from Jenny in the outside scene.

I’m thinking of trying that hairstyle on again though, I think it suits me.