JACKSON, Wyo. — After premiering at SXSW last year and screening at film festivals across the country and world, locally made movie “Peak Season” will come home this weekend for its regional debut.
Written and directed by Henry Loevner and Steven Kanter, the film stars Derrick Joseph DeBlasis as a nomadic fly fishing instructor living out of his car, and Claudia Restrepo as a Jackson visitor at loose ends. The two forge a friendship while Restrepo’s character’s fiancé is otherwise occupied.
“Peak Season” was shot on location in the summer of 2022. In addition to scenes set in the usual suspects of Grand Teton National Park and under Town Square’s antler arches, those familiar with Jackson will be delighted to spot locations in the film that are less postcard-ready. The Wilson Post Office even makes an appearance.
Loevner, originally from New Jersey, spent time all over Wyoming growing up, and then his parents moved to Jackson full-time about 15 years ago, followed by his brother and sister-in-law. He’s currently based in Los Angeles, but he said he thinks about making the move “constantly.”
“The script was really written around locations that we would have access to, and I’ve had the benefit of 15 years of location scouting, in a sense,” Loevner told Buckrail. “Film shoots in Jackson are not that common compared to a place like New York City or L.A., and in general people are extremely welcoming about hosting a very small film shoot. The Jackson Hole Airport, for example, was extremely generous to just let us shoot there. We benefited from a lot of generosity locally.”
Kanter agreed. “There were a few locations that we hadn’t necessarily identified in the script, where it said, ‘beautiful ravine for fishing in front of the Grand,'” Kanter said. “That ended up being a location that Henry’s dad, or a friend of his dad, recommended. That random spot, which you can’t find on a map marked as ‘ideal shooting location.'”
We benefited from a lot of generosity locally.
Henry Loevner, co-director of “Peak Season”
Both filmmakers noted that Jackson was recognized and often beloved by audience members across festival screenings.
“At the Denver Film Festival, we had a couple of people in the audience who had grown up in Jackson and were like, ‘Wow, you really got certain details about the specifics of life there really accurately,’ and that’s the best compliment we can get because we were so deliberate about trying to be as authentic and honest to what life in Jackson is like,” Loevner said.
Sometimes that authenticity means engaging with the parts of mountain town life that are less photogenic.
“Sometimes we’ll interact with folks in the audience who have had the opportunity to visit Jackson, or a similar resort town, and they understand both how incredibly beautiful it is, but also the complications that arise in communities like this, where there’s a combination of tourists and maybe wealthy people who are living locally, as well as service workers who are, in many cases, struggling to find affordable places to live,” Loevner said.
Loevner and Kanter said they spent a lot of time discussing how prominent community issues such as housing affordability would be in their script, striving to balance regional accuracy with a more universal story about human relationships.
“This is first and foremost a romance, it’s a story about two people, and we didn’t want the social commentary to ever feel like it was becoming too didactic or like it was a documentary,” Loevner said. “We wanted the characters to be front and center, but at the same time still try to capture what life is like in these communities and how that always feeds into the personal struggle of these characters… especially for Loren, the fishing guide; it’s so central to his storyline that he’s struggling to find a place to live.”
The filmmaking team’s interest in Wyoming might carry over into future projects, they said. They’ve considered tackling the reality of living on a dude ranch (which Loevner did as a teenager), or setting a movie during ski season. They’re also hoping to make connections within Jackson’s film scene.
“My hope is that whether through these screenings, or just in the future, we get opportunities to meet local filmmakers,” Loevner said.
The film is expected to go into wider release this summer, bowing at Regal Cinemas in 10 cities before becoming available for on-demand rentals.
Catch “Peak Season” in Victor on Friday, March 22, at 7 p.m. at Pierre’s Theater, and in Jackson on Saturday, March 23, at 6 p.m. at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with Loevner and Kanter. See PeakSeasonFilm.com for tickets and info.
