The Ground Beneath Our Feet

What do you get when you bring together a former NPR radio producer and a trio of talented French teenage filmmakers?  A road movie, provisionally entitled The Ground Beneath Our Feet, set in the present day American Midwest... and the Pays des Illinois of the 1760s! 

 

Theo Reynal, one of the three Young French cinematographers,
scouting locations in St. Louis.  Photo: Riverfront Times. 

The St. Louis Riverfront Times reports that Seán Collins will be working with Aurélien Loevenbruck, Alex Fortineau and Theo Reynal, for whom is a school project at the ESRA film academy in Rennes, France.  Fortineau is writing the contemporary portion of the plot, which follows an erstwhile American living in France who is travelling to St. Louis to confront a family tragedy but finds himself stranded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with no money and no transportation.  Collins, meanwhile, is writing the historical portion of the film, which will follow a French settler "who sets off for New Mexico after Great Britain takes control of the territory east of the Mississippi", reports the RTF.

The three Frenchmen have just spent two weeks scouting locations in and around St. Louis, and will be back this summer to film.

Incidentally, France warns its citizens not to visit North St. Louis : "Avoid the northern neighborhood between the airport and the town center, but the shuttle from the airport is safe," advises the French governmental website as of last year...

P.-F.-X.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/30/4925613/up-the-river-to-destiny-missouris.html#storylink=cpy