Monty’s Log Cabin Featured in Short Film
Locals Tapped as Bar Scene Extras
By Julie Horner
The announcement on backstage.com read: “Seeking real people in Santa Cruz to play background roles in an overnight shoot dive bar scene at Monty’s Log Cabin.” The project: Arcadia, a short film written and directed by New York-based filmaker and playwright Chloe Xtina and produced by independent, female-strong Blackdove Pictures, with support from the Sundance Ignite Fellowship. They were looking for extras that could represent “weathered, earthy, regulars at the dive bar.” Ellie Zambarano was in charge of casting and let the extras know when to arrive and what to wear.
Call time was 12:30 am Thursday, May 23, 2024. We arrived at Monty’s wearing the required “easy-going, slightly rugged and simple flannel, denim, and leather.” The parking area was ablaze with stage lighting and packed with young actors and crew, and all but two local friends, Greg Roe and Angela Hedges, were strangers. An assistant whisked us quickly to the back patio where we joined other extras huddled together jovially around the firepit waiting for our scene call times. We extras played rough and ready punters moving about the bar as directed until dawn.
The movie ‘Arcadia’ is a play within a film. Taking place during “a dark, rainy summer plagued with mudslides,” and filmed in 16mm for that dreamy 80s nostalgic grindhouse feel, the star is an 18-year-old ‘Juliet’ who has been selected as the lead in a psychosexual stage play produced by a prestigious theater troupe in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In ‘The Myth of Dogskin’ Juliet is a young bride who is forced to love “her murderous dog-man groom.” During rehearsals and shoots on location, Juliet taps into her own personal rage and learns to turn her newly found sexual power in the lead role into a vicious weapon which transforms her “from child to woman to beast.”
A film set at Monty’s Log Cabin
Often backlit by environmental upheaval, many of Xtina’s short films grapple with growing up female under the predatory male gaze. Dabbling into the subconscious, her works navigate evolving societal norms and ultimately resonate with characters feeling safe and seen.
The production is the biggest the writer/director has undertaken. She said, “It was a four-day shoot, in Pescadero and Felton, and the cast was staying in Mount Hermon. I wanted a real local dive bar. I found Monty’s pretty much straight away.” The barn at Pie Ranch and a rustic dwelling at Green Oaks Farm next door were also featured. The cast, including extras, numbered 31 total. The main characters are close knit through a variety of theater connections in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York, Chloe Xtina said. The 25-person crew was from “all over the place,” including Santa Cruz. Bay Area area folk who played “dive barflies” for the production in addition to Greg Roe, Angela Hedges, and myself, included Amber Ott, She’aShaunna Egling, Jenny McKee, Paul Howard, Cory Hansen, Sandor Jozef Helderman, and Andrew Yabroff. Owner Monty McKissock and bartender Brittany Ritter were on hand to keep an eye on things. Actor profiles can be viewed on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) under “Arcadia.”
Julie Horner and Jenny McKee, extras in Arcadia, filmed at Monty’s Log Cabin in Felton.
Arcadia is in edit now and Chloe Xtina said they’ll do the festival circuit. Xtina’s films can be viewed at chloextina.com.
Photos contributed.
Featured photo: Chloe Xtina and her film crew at Monty’s Log Cabin in Felton.
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Julie Horner is Co-Founder and Editor for the San Lorenzo Valley Post. Julie lives and works in Boulder Creek and is an active participant in the county's vibrant music scene. She loves the outdoors and is the go-to expert on Santa Cruz Mountains hiking trails.
