There was a lot of traffic at the Holy Redeemer School parking lot on Veterans Day — film crews with a new movie directed by Gus Van Sant were there shooting scenes.
Film company trailers encircled the Catholic school on North Rosa Parks Way.
A parent who is connected with the company working on the project, formerly known as “Restless” but currently untitled, approached Principal Anna Raineri about using the parking lot as a set for part of the Hollywood picture.
“They decided it was the perfect scene for what they needed, so it fell into place after that,” she said in an interview with the Portland Sentinel, a monthly publication that covers North Portland.
The parking lot made front page news last week in the Catholic Sentinel after a volunteer crew dug up 2,500 square feet of old playground pavement to help decrease rainwater runoff of blacktop-borne pollutants into local waterways.
The de-paving is part of a bigger project to support ecological advancements at the school. Part of the newly green area will be used as a community garden, and the school also hopes to renovate the existing parking lot, which is cracked from many years of use.
Meanwhile, Raineri said she didn’t know who would be coming when she agreed to let the filming company use the parking lot.
According to the International Movie Database, the Van Sant film is to star Mia Wasikowska, who is also in Tim Burton’s upcoming cinema version of “Alice in Wonderland,” and Henry Hopper, 19-year-old son of Dennis Hopper and Katherien LaNasa. Schuyler Fisk, daughter of Sissy Spacek, also joins the cast.
The movie, being shot in Portland, is based on the stage play, “Of Winter and Water Birds,” written and adapted for the screen by Jason Lew.
The Oregon Film Office reports the film is produced by Imagine Entertainment. It is a coming-of-age story about two young outsiders who find love after being shaped by the circumstances that bring them together.
Van Sant’s other films include “Drugstore Cowboy” and “Good Will Hunting.”
Van Sant, a Portland resident, often uses his hometown as a backdrop for his films.
