A friend of mine (Doug Hall) was involved in this production, so I was able to watch it via a private link on Vimeo a few months ago. While it has had some film festival exposure, and will be playing at the Elba Film Festival next month, I feel very fortunate to have seen it before it continues to grow into the larger public consciousness.
Whalen pieces together an incredible coming-of-age story with a very unique voice that shines through in both her writing and her direction. She manages to strike a good balance between engaging tropes in the genre and more challengingly surreal writing.
While I'm biased, I was very impressed with Doug Hall's performance. It plays as both humble and measured, and fits the father character very effectively. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention how good of a performance Georgie Charette delivers in the role of Rosie.
While Federico Cesca does some really engaging camera work, the real star of the crew is Lee Eaton, who's color grading gives the film a certain texture that brings the whole project together.
Independent film making is almost always inherently burdened by the financial restraints, but in states like Wyoming where networking to get a good cast and crew is a difficult process, those challenges are that much more difficult to overcome. But, Bird Dog manages to pull it off. As they say, 90% of good directing is casting, and Whalen did this exceptionally well.
