"The Home of Katie Archer"

New Mexico-written screenplay to be produced as
multi-hour radio drama for local and national distribution!


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THANKS FOR THE GREAT TURNOUT AT AUDITIONS --
APPROX. 120 GREAT ACTORS! GREAT WORK!


Celebrity guests: Phil Proctor, Hodding Carter, Mike Malloy (as John D. Rockefeller!!!)

This project was listed for initial funding here:






 "The Home of Katie Archer" 


(Actor: William Sterchi)
dramatized preview


(Actor: Mary Evans)

"The Home of Katie Archer"
is a feature film script with present & historical elements, written by Jim Terr. It will be produced as a multi-hour radio drama by KUNM-FM in Albuquerque for local and national broadcast


View on YouTube  

 

 

Reading of one of the "modern sequence" scenes:

 


SYNOPSIS: "The Home of Katie Archer"
rev. 06-05
    Feature film script by Jim Terr (c) 2003/2004
        Tel. 505-989-9298; bluecanyon2@newmexico.com

A small southwestern town is slowly withering, despite an occasional Hollywood film shoot and the occasional celebrity taking up residence in the scenic country nearby.

Suddenly it turns out that a previously-unknown woman activist from the early 1900s, who's getting huge national recognition thanks to a new biography and TV documentary, was born and raised there! A humble town definitely devoid of Paris hotels.

In order to cash in on her fame, to build and publicize a museum and the home of her birth, the townspeople have to learn about her, appreciate her struggle and "The Struggle," and come to terms with some locals' ideas about "liberals" and "socialists."

Two stories, seemingly almost unrelated, separated by 90 years, are intercut:

1. Contemporary story: While the Rush Limbaugh-styled local radio station owner/host rails against celebrating a "socialist," even home-town-girl-made-good Katie Archer, life goes on: A young carpenter laying floors at $15/hr. in a rich actor's new home, blows up at the actor's multi-million-dollar dealmaking. The actor, on a bet, unaware that the carpenter is also an actor, gets him an audition that leads to a part in a feature film that's coming to town.

The carpenter's affair with the director's assistant puts his relationship with his artist/masseuse girlfriend and her precocious daughter, in jeopardy. The rich actor's eccentric mother, who's come to live with him, turns out to have a surprising past, dark secrets and a deadly side... This contemporary story has a lighter tone than:

2. The flashback follows Katie Archer's terrified flight from a violent home to her prominent and unexpected role in the Colorado miners' strike and "Ludlow Massacre" of 1914. Katie escapes her abusive husband in the middle of the night with her four small children, fleeing the small town in which the contemporary story (above) takes place. Almost penniless and with no contacts, they take the train as far as they can, to Denver, hoping to find work and perhaps cheap hotels.

Katie meets labor activist Mother Jones, who recognizes in her a talent for organizing and inspiring others, even though Katie has no previous political experience or awareness. Katie meets and goes to work for Eddie Hall, a character based on the actual, historical first PR man, Ivy Lee, who was hired to rehabilitate John D. Rockefeller's image following the massacre of the strikers and their families at his Colorado mine.

The climax is a spectacular clash between Katie, Eddie and Rockefeller.

The "flashback" story follows actual historical events quite closely, and includes some dialogue actually taken from Mother Jones' speeches and writings!

These two stories intersect unexpectedly at the end, when history meets "today" in a dramatic and moving revelation!

NOTE: One of several things this script has in its favor is that it consists of two entirely different stories of approximately equal length, which could be filmed completely independently of each other, by two different units and in fact two different directors!

This would be a film "first," as far as I know, and a great publicity hook indeed!

 

Entire contents (c) 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007Jim Terr
  Contact  or email bluecanyon2 -at- juno.com  subject: Katie Archer inquiry

 

 

Raw audio scenes, MP3, approx. 2-3 minutes @:

"Chameeza" scene; carpenter confronts rich actor
Francesca confronts Danny
Mother Jones exhorts workers, is arrested