Craig-Allen

PENDLETON — Budding Pendleton actress Samantha Craig-Allen is getting her big break this fall when she stars in the upcoming film “Waking Up in Idaho.”

The film, scheduled to start shooting in September, is about two women who are new foster moms and the teenagers for whom they are caring. Craig-Allen, 19, plays Anna, a tough girl and the best wrestler in her high school, who was kicked off the team for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“Anna has anger issues, while my co-star, Dekin Carney, plays Boyd, a shy kid,” Craig-Allen said.

A natural-born ham, Craig-Allen said acting has always been an interest.

“As a kid I would reenact scenes from movies like Harry Potter and Spider-Man,” she said.

At the age of 15, Craig-Allen, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said she got involved in theater at Pendleton High School and was encouraged by her acting teacher, Shannon O’Rourke, to help with set design and backstage work.

“While I was working backstage I was able to take notes from the actors, kids my age, who had parts in the play,” she said.

During her junior year she got a part in a comedy skit called “Hold For Three.”

“I had to hold my breath for three minutes, while doing things the other actors told me to do,” she said.

Soon she will get to put her comedic acting experience to the test. While the film deals with tough subjects, such as foster care and struggling for love and connections, it’s actually a comedy.

Craig-Allen became involved when her father, Sheldon Allen of Culdesac, Idaho, contacted her about the film’s production, knowing her love of acting. Sheldon and Eve Bean-Allen have become producers of the film, finding local connections and resources for the project.

The film focuses on the lives of four characters — Craig-Allen’s character, Anna, a Native American girl in the foster care system and her new foster mother, Lucy, and Dekin’s character, Boyd, a white boy with low intellect but a positive attitude and his new foster mother, Peg. The four go out into the wilds of Idaho for a weekend of hiking and horseback riding. In the process they each face their own senses of longing for love and meaningful relationships.

The movie isn’t necessarily about the foster system or being Native American, but those themes play into the story.

Director Jonny Lewis, playing with contrasts besides the two teen characters’ personalities, cast Craig-Allen, of Umatilla and Nez Perce heritage, to pair up with Carney, who is white.

“We don’t usually see Native Americans in film or TV unless it’s about a Native American story. But why not just show a Native as a regular person like everyone else,” Lewis said.

Craig-Allen said she and Lewis have been doing background work on what it’s like to be a foster child.

“I have seen my friends and other people around me in foster care and their experience,” she said,.

In addition to her own interactions, Craig-Allen said the director, Lewis, has done what she called “deep research” into the foster care system.

“Dekin’s and my characters are two examples of kids in foster care,” she said.

The film is not about what’s wrong with the foster system, or the troubles of Native Americans, Lewis said.

“We all know what’s wrong with this world, but I wanted people to feel a little better about life after watching our movie. I confess, it’s a feel-good movie,” he said.

Comedy, like life, Lewis said, is all about making mistakes.

“But if you truly care about the people you’re with, forgiveness and understanding poke their noses through from time to time,” he said.

Lewis, who hails from Michigan, has made a couple dozen short films, but this is his first full-length film. Besides help from the Allens, he is working with Jeanette Yoffe, a former foster care social worker, who has been advising on the film.

Yoffe, a former foster child, will be playing a social worker in the film.

Though Lewis is bringing a small but professional crew, he invited locals to help with the production, like 15-year-old First Nations girl Kiya Bruno, to work as part of the crew.

“Kiya auditioned for the role of Anna, and didn’t get the part, but she mentioned that when she’s on a film set, she’s always checking out the camera angles,” he said. “That told me she’s sharp enough to help out on our crew, so she’s going to be our script supervisor. That’s a big responsibility, so of course we’ll help her with it.”