Rekha Basu and Antoinette Lavalle review their lines for a scene in “Peck” at the Salisbury House. (Photo: “Peck”)
Writer: Michael Morain
Oscars? Shmoscars. For at least a few local movie fans, this month’s main event is the premiere of “Peck” at 7 p.m. March 17 at the Varsity Cinema.
The feature film tells an early 20th-century story about a young woman who is stuck – at home, in her head – until a few new folks come to town and help her crack open some new possibilities.
The film’s director, co-writer and star, Antoinette Lavalle, expanded the project from an initial concept she cooked up during her studies at the New School in New York. She kept at it after she returned home to Des Moines and set up shop at Mainframe Studios. “You just kind of get that spark that you can’t stop thinking about,” she said.
With support from a Greenlight Grant from Produce Iowa, the state film office, Lavalle and her team shot most of the movie’s scenes in September 2022. They shot interiors and exteriors at the Rollins Mansion, Salisbury House and Gardens, another South of Grand home, a couple of properties near Brown’s Woods and the north side, plus another site in Marshalltown. Their cast included local actors, a few horses and – last but certainly not least – a little yellow bird named Coco Chanel.
“They always warn first-time directors against involving animals, but we broke that rule,” Lavalle said.
Spoiler alert: The caged bird flies free by the end of the movie.
“Women had different expectations back then” in the early 1900s, Lavalle said. “So here we see the main character coming of age and realizing she doesn’t want to do what’s expected of her.”
The script has already won an award from a Los Angeles film festival and has been accepted into an upcoming festival on the East Coast. But the screening at the Varsity, followed by a Q&A and party, will mark its official premiere.
