Rochester filmmaker gets a boost from a big name in film

Apr. 11—ROCHESTER — Before videos of tourists trying to pet buffalo getting catapulted by the wild animals became a seasonal social media viral sensation, Kayla Arend saw plenty of people behaving badly at Yellowstone National Park.

She also saw instances when bad decisions or carelessness could turn deadly.

That helped give her some ideas for a screenplay.

Arend, a Rochester native and recent graduate of the New York University film school, wrote and directed her thesis film "Leaving Yellowstone" based partially on her experiences as a summer wildlife photography guide in Wyoming.

Depending on who you ask, her film, "Leaving Yellowstone" is either suspense or horror.

Regardless, it had a big name supporter.

Filmmaker and actor Spike Lee, a film instructor at NYU, agreed to grant Arend funding toward shooting the film. Arend shot it on location in Wyoming in winter.

That came after Lee watched her film "Chicken Boy" filmed in 2018 at Salem corners in Southeast Minnesota.

"He said he liked it," Arend said, adding the film was a bit "depressing and disturbing."

Her thesis film partly funded by Lee is a bit different, but not exactly a feel good romp. In the movie, a woman goes on a cabin vacation to Yellowstone with her newly met boyfriend. She then finds out the man has a dark side to him and the trip takes a life-threatening turn. It might sound like a familiar trope, but it's not a tale of a helpless damsel in the woods, Arend said.

"I'm just sort of sick of this narrative that women are just victims or survivors and don't actually put forth the effort to protect themselves or avenge themselves," Arend said.

The park and its myriad of deadly landscapes play key roles in the film as the woman fights for her life, she said.

"To me, Yellowstone is a natural breeder of these types of stories," Arend said. "It's pretty notorious for people going missing and people not knowing what happened to them."

Like a TikTok video of a tourist touching a fluffy buffalo, it does not end well for her boyfriend, Arend added. The story involves the woman working with nature in fighting her foe. As she wrote the film, a quote by Aristotle came to mind — "He who has overcome his fears will truly be free."

The intimidating landscape of Yellowstone in winter literally becomes her protagonist's path to freedom.

"I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but in the end he dies, as many people do, in a volcanic area," Arend said.

Arend said her time as an undergraduate at Montana State University before going to film school helped her appreciate the stark landscape outside the city. Watching a friend and classmate struggle with sexual assault and the lack of support she received was also a catalyst for the film idea.

The financial help Lee offered made shooting the film possible and might help open some doors for screening "Leaving Yellowstone," Arend added.

"It's a huge leg up for somebody in an industry where nepotism is almost a part of it," she said.

"I don't have a lot of money — I just have a lot of people who believe in me and a solid creative vision."

Initially, Arend was set to shoot the film in winter 2019. However, she dropped that plan in order to care for her mother in Minnesota who had a heart transplant. She returned to Wyoming in January 2020 to film it. Although mostly filmed, production was slowed due to COVID-19 but Arend attended an online graduation with other NYU film students.

"Which really sucked and made a lot of people depressed, myself included," she said.

She finally completed "Leaving Yellowstone" in December 2022.

The film was screened at the Gasparilla Film Festival in Tampa, Florida, in March 2023. Next, it goes to the Julien Dubuque Film Festival in Dubuque, Iowa, which runs April 26-30, 2023. After that, it will be shown at the Female Voices Rock Film Festival in Brooklyn, New York, May 2023. In 2024, it will be screened near where it was filmed at Jackson, Wyoming, Arend said.

Arend said she has been taking pictures and shooting video since she was child. Going to film school was a natural next step. Her next project, which doesn't yet have a title, is about a young woman alone at Joshua Tree National Park.

"It's not finished, but it doesn't have a real happy ending either," Arend said, adding she began shooting that in 2018 and hopes to shift to something different once that is finally complete.

"I'm working with some ideas that are different," she said. "It turns out not too many people like to watch disturbing and sad films."