Premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2023
By: Victoria Stevens
New York, NY (The Hollywood Times) 06/23/2023– “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don’t.” This quote by Stephen King highlights the theme around the feature film Blood for Dust that premiered this year at Tribeca Film Festival. “Variety” Magazine described the film as a cross between Breaking Bad and Fargo.
“We always knew that our film was a Neo Western, but we hadn’t thought about it as a Northwestern because it took place in the snow. Our film was originally set in Texas, and we were going to shoot in Montana and have Montana stand in for Texas. However, once the production schedule moved us into the winter, we thought well there is no way a hot Texas summer would look like what Montana looks like in the winter. So, adjusting the film to be set in Montana allowed the film to take on a whole new identity. The Cohen Brothers are masters and there isn’t a lot of humor in my movie, and I am not sure if stylistically if we are coming close to Fargo. There is a Breaking Bad element to it so I can understand those comparisons,” explained Director Rod Blackhurst.
Blood for Dust is a film about survival, risk, and the need to protect one’s family.
“It’s about an economically disadvantage man who feels corner and trapped and ends up making a lot of bad choices. It’s a portrait of where I believe a lot of people will sit on the line between right and wrong as they struggle to make choices in the face of ecosystems that work to keep them down. It’s also about a man who is trying to change his stars and trying to figure out how to fit into the American dream and if the American dream is reliable at all,” said Blackhurst.
The dynamic relationships between cast members on this film is what gave the audience characters they could relate to and feel for. Scoot McNairy, as the lead character Cliff, and Kit Harington as his crime partner Ricky give such a thrilling performance that it left the audience questioning if they might have done the same thing if put into that predicament.
“Once I had gotten Scoot to join the project, I had a point to anchor around. It was always very important to me to figure out who Cliff was, and Scoot had all those qualities that I admired in an actor. Generally, their inclinations, their choices, their behaviors, their ticks. The way they take up space on a screen without calling attention to themselves, but the screen feels full of them,” said Blackhurst. “With Kit Harington being in the movie, I have always loved Kit and the work that he was doing on Game of Thrones. We both shared the same agents and so we put it out to them about joining together to make this film and they agreed. Kit told me that he was looking to do something that was drastically so different than anything he’s ever done. So, it really feels like a gift to make movies with good people you loved from afar and then to fall in love with them as people and become friends is amazing,” explained Blackhurst.
Filmmaking is a team effort, and it requires a certain level of trust from your cast and crew. Many filmmakers create a core tribe that they believe in and will collaborate with on a daily basis. Blackhurst partnered with Noah Lang to create his production company Witchcraft Motion Picture Company back in 2018. Since then, he has been putting together his tribe of actors and crew that he feels share his vision and understand his values.
(CJ Rivera – Invision)
“I met Noah Lang in Brooklyn where I lived at the time, and we shared similar sensibilities and similar work ethic. We met on the internet and realized that we were essentially neighbors, and we became fast friends. Once you find a tribe, and you realize that you can weather a lot of storms together then you grow stronger because you care about those people even more. I got lucky meeting Noah because we were like the right fit to be making movies together and then right after that we realized that we had to do everything on our own. We really had to circle our tribe up and put together another movie ourselves from scratch and who better to do that with than the people you have already done it with before,” expressed Blackhurst.
In this industry there are a lot of ups and downs. There are successes and there are failures. When creating a film, directors have to deal with many disappointments along the way and these failures either push you forward or pull you back.
“Getting into any film festival is hard. The advice that I have for any director that is trying to make anything is that it is going to be a labor of love in the beginning. It’s going to take a whole lot of you and confidence. It’s also going to take a whole lot of belief in you and your tribe to do this. That first film we made that won the audience award at Tribeca we had a budget of $106,000. It’s a miracle that it exists, and yet I would hope that it is an example and proof of what is possible when people find other like-minded people and they invest into each other. It is going to be hard work but that hard work can be very rewarding. I also tell people to not get discouraged by failure. Don’t be afraid to throw things away and start over. Keep the good people in your life constant and take care of them and they will take care of you,” shared Blackhurst.
Rod Blackhurst is a devoted director and father. To follow his work, you can go to his Instagram @Rodblackhurst.