Clara Boone: Western Ghost Story
Montana, 1890. When a murder surfaces in her strict, morally righteous town, only Clara Boone can bring the perpetrator to justice by exposing her deepest secret: she can see the dead. Based on a true story.
Make a tax-deductible donation to the feature film, “Clara Boone.”
MINT Film MT dba MINT Film Festival is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and the fiscal sponsor of the CLARA BOONE film project. 119 N 29th ST, Billings, MT, 59101 | 406-702-7897
SYNOPSIS
This is a story about the life and death stakes of being different.
CLARA BOONE has seen ghosts all her life. Magic pills (barbiturates) from the doctor have helped cure her “hysteria,” but she has become numb to her gift and a shell of herself. At 35, a veritable old maid, Clara marries larger than life dreamer, DAMON BOONE, a Wild West Show performer, who pulls her from Philadelphia to the Wild West where she thinks she can leave her past behind.
They land in Damon’s Montana home: a boomtown that is trying to leave its wild, sinful past behind. As the town leaders transform the town from a haven for outcasts to a morally cleansed American township, Clara’s deepest secret is more dangerous than ever. Any citizen against this code is unwelcome: “welcomed” to leave or driven out on a rail. The effort is led by SARAH BICKFORD, formerly enslaved and a respected Virginia City business owner with a secret of her own, and FATHER MARTIN, a town missionary.
But when Clara runs out of medication to keep her visions away, the hauntings intensify. She is haunted by a fiercely protective Métis Indigenous woman, MABEL, birth Mother to EMILY, Clara’s precocious step-daughter. Furthermore, Emily already knows the lay of the land and does not need guidance. Clara spirals into a self-medicating hole that threatens to destroy her new family and expose her secret. Her herbalist neighbor, ZONA SHUE, a private citizen who lives by her own integrity and not the town rules, agrees to help her overcome her addiction as long as she faces her demons.
Through Zona’s herbs and friendship, Clara begins her journey towards self-acceptance for the first time in her life, taking steps to become the Wife and Mother she has always longed to be.
That all comes crashing to a halt when Zona is found dead – her husband claiming “female troubles.” Devastated, Clara must decide between backsliding into her old comfort of medicated-fog or embrace her gift in order to bring justice to her friend.
SUPPORTERS
“Seamlessly blending horror and Western genres, CLARA BOONE features a novel and compelling premise, painting a haunting picture of life as a woman in the last days of the Wild West.”
Cat Dale (co-Writer, Producer)
Montana State University Professor of Filmmaking, UT Austin MFA in Screenwriting, Writer/Director of award-winning short film “Wildcat” (Winner of Best Short Film Harlem Film Festival) and “Rubber and Glue, Director of the award-winning short "Touch." Cat's writing has been a Quarter-Finalist on The Academy Nicholl Fellowship, had a featured script on The Black List, and made it to the 2nd round of the Sundance Episodic Lab. https://www.bycatdale.com/
Jenna Ciralli (co-writer, Producer, Actor "Clara Boone")
Graduated from Willamette University with honors (Theatre Arts - Acting) and The William Esper Studio in NYC with Terry Knickerbocker. Creator of the award-winning short films “Willow Creek Road” (now on Omeleto, Best Actress - South Dakota Film Festival and Actors Awards, LA) and "Homestead," co-Creator Viral Video “Casting Call | The Project” (2017 Webby Award Honoree), Recent acting credits include: 12 Westerns in 12 Months “The New Frontier” on Tubi / Amazon Prime, "Amadi Comes Home," "Mending the Line," "Tokyo Cowboy," "Rust." www.jennaciralli.com
Amber Rose Mason (Producer, Actor - "Zona Shue")
BFA, University of Montana, Theatre Arts - Acting and Costume Design emphases. Credits include title role in short film “Wildcat” (London Independent Film Festival, Best Actress), features “Two Eyes” (OutFest Premiere), Ted K (Berlinale premiere), “Useless” (streaming), “Subterranea,” “Heart of the Gun,” 12 Westerns in 12 Months project, "Butcher's Crossing," “Blood for Dust” starring Kit Harrington and Scoot McNairy (Tribeca Premiere). Horse Wrangler / Horse Trainer / Ranch hand: https://www.amberrosemason.com/
Kweighbaye Kotee (Producer)
Kweighbaye is a Liberian - American film producer, writer, and founder of the Bushwick Film Festival. She has spoken at TEDx, JPMorgan Chase, SAG-AFTRA, Google, Société Générale, Blackstone, and prestigious universities, sharing her expertise on filmmaking, media, and entrepreneurship. Her global impact includes co-producing an UN-backed women's peace film festival in West Africa and leading a Masterclass on film festival strategy in South America. She has garnered notable features across esteemed media platforms such as NBC, Fox, NY1, SpectrumLA, Deadline, Pix11, and many others. Her unwavering dedication to amplifying new voices and empowering women of color in the film and entertainment industry has garnered recognition through a national PopSugar/Delta Airlines and by Lucy Liu, who awarded her for her trailblazing work in film and entertainment.
Berkley Brady (Director)
Berkley is based out of Treaty 7 territory, Calgary, Alberta. Director and President, Nika Productions, with feature Dark Nature (Fantasia 2022 premiere, Marché du Film - Cannes, 1 of the Fantastic 7, a selection of the top genre films in the world, Best Feature at Fogfest, 2022, and Best Director - Blood In the Snow, 2022). Released by Epic, Summer 2023. DGC nomination for “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television” The Secret History of the Wild West. Recipient of the CHANEL Women Writers’ Network Grant and the Renee Perlmutter Memorial Fellowship for Literary Adaptation - TIFF Writers’ Studio, 2023. MFA in Film Directing, Columbia University, NYC.
Jeri Rafter (Producer / AD)
Jeri is a Montana-based producer. Producing credits: BUTCHER'S CROSSING starring Nicholas Cage (TIFF), WE BURN LIKE THIS starring Devery Jacobs (DEAUVILLE), MICKEY AND THE BEAR starring Cami Morrone (SXSW, L'ACID CANNES), SOOYII (Blackfoot and Shoshone languages), DAUGHTER OF A LOST BIRD (PBS), BELLA VISTA (Rotterdam). Helmed MT units: THE PLOUGHMEN, directed by Ed Harris, starring Robert Duvall, TED K (BERLINALE), and THE BALLAD OF LEFTY BROWN, starring Bill Pullman (SXSW). Sundance Producers Lab alum, Sundance + Women in Film Female Filmmakers Initiative. MFA, Media Arts, University of Montana.
April Matthis (Actor - "Sarah Bickford" )
April is an NYC-based actress. Broadway credits include “The Piano Lesson” by August Wilson, starring Samuel L Jackson and John David Washington, and World Premiere of "Primary Trust," Roundabout Theatre, NYC: “Toni Stone” (Obie Award Winner, Outer Critics Circle Award, 2020) and Obie Award for “Sustained Excellence” (2015), TV: The Blacklist, New Amsterdam, Film: Fugitive Dreams (Austin Film Festival), award-winning short film "Amadi Comes Home" as an Actor/Writer.
Alexa Alberda (co-Producer)
Alexa is an MSU graduate and MSU Professor in Filmmaking. Producer of award-winning short films: “Touch,” Producer of “Wildcat” (Charlotte Film Festival triple Honorable Mention), Associate Producer of “Rubber and Glue,” Writer/Director of “A Helping Hand” (Best Mockumentary at the Oregon Short Film Festival).
Blaine Dunkley (Director of Photography)
Blaine is a New York & Montana-based Cinematographer, Camera Operator & Drone Pilot. Co-wrote, co-produced, and photographed ‘Week One’ ( 2019 Montana Film Festival). Additional credits include: pop-surrealist noir thriller ‘The Blue Rose’, and the acclaimed wildlife crime documentary ‘Tigre Gente’ (Salem Film Festival 2022 American Cinematographer Award). Commercial clients include collaborations with VEVO, Columbia Records, Island, Verve, Nylon, and Warner. https://www.blainedunkley.com/
WHY NOW?
We are very interested in revisiting the classic Western genre in order to amplify underrepresented voices in Film & TV. "Clara Boone" is the present Zeitgeist, and it also comes from our team's personal fight to feature stories of women and women of color in an entertaining, complex, and compelling way.
Westerns are where we go to examine our big feelings, values, and morals in spaces large enough to hold them. Here, we can progress the narrative in order to explore Western Medicine vs. the Earth's Natural remedies, Feminine Intuition vs. Masculine Construct, Private Knowing vs. Public Showing, and deepen the study of alienation, healing, addiction, sisterhood, self-actualization, community, loss and survival through our own lens.
In 1890, we were on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution: slavery had ended, interracial marriage was legal, abortion was considered a public health issue and featured in pamphlets, and herbalists and midwifery still reigned supreme. But a frightening lack of Women’s Rights, as well as Racism and Indigenous Genocide, must be faced in the late 19th Century as well. Things we are still trying to face and reconcile today. We must know our history in order to know our progress. Back and forth, back and forth. Progress is not linear and hard-won.
Make a tax-deductible donation to the
feature film, “Clara Boone.”
MINT Film MT dba MINT Film Festival is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and the fiscal sponsor of the CLARA BOONE film project.
119 N 29th ST, Billings, MT, 59101 | 406-702-7897