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Project Description

All materials ©2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 by Boxelder Productions, LLC 

Film Synopsis

      Wanda the Wonderful is a 1920's era feature length film about a passionate and volatile Wild West sharpshooter.  A "Docu-Western" hybrid, the film is based upon and includes documentary elements about the real life Wanda.  A thoroughly modern woman of the 1920's, Wanda is a mixture of cowgirl and flapper.  Growing up in the Chickasaw Indian Territory, she is a woman who totes guns and wears pants when skirts are the norm.  Escaping a ne'er-do-well husband, Wanda joins the circus as a sharpshooter, leaving her children behind.  Performing in Vaudeville, she travels the world as "Wanda Savage" with her sharpshooting act.  The Depression hits and times being tough, Wanda ends up at the Ritz, a Wyoming brothel, where she meets and then marries a sheep rancher named Carl.  Together they prosper until years later the secrets of Wanda's tumultuous past catch up to her.  In a heated argument with Carl, Wanda succumbs to her volatile temper and in a final act of recklessness she shoots Carl, her fourth and final husband.

      Filmmaker Carolyn Macartney never met her grandmother Wanda but she was always intrigued by the stories she heard about her growing up, taboo subject though she was.  Inspired by her mythic legacy, Carolyn uncovers the true story of Wanda.  In addition to exploring Wanda’s adventurous life and tempestuous love affairs, the film examines the sacrifices that all individuals of extreme talent and temperament make - and their consequences.   The pathos that Wanda experienced in pursuit of her independence is as vital an aspect of her story as the story itself.  It is through Wanda's human fallibility that we gain insight into her wild life and magnetic, volatile persona.  Wanda was a woman who followed her passions - at whatever cost, and actually lived the Wild West.

Stylistic approach

      Dramatic interpretations, interviews and archival imagery combine to reveal Wanda’s story.  Scripted scenes based on events from Wanda's life form the narrative arc of the film.  Centering on her relationship with the filmmaker’s grandfather Carl Hampton, Wanda’s fourth and final husband, these scenes are shot in the style of the Western film genre.  The character driven dramatic interpretations have a close, personal approach in order to get to know Wanda and Carl as thinking, feeling individuals.  Their intimacy contrasts with the vast open spaces of the majestic Wyoming landscape that serves as the primary backdrop.  In addition to being the authentic location for much of the story, the uncompromising Wyoming terrain serves as a metaphor for that which is raw and untamable, a reference to Wanda's persona.  It is important that people understand Wanda not only as a figure from the past, but as a person not so distanced from ourselves.  There are truths to the mythologies of the Wild West and Wanda represents some of these.  Her stories also reveal a darker side of what a Wild West lifestyle required on a human level.  Performance of Wanda’s character within these mythologies as well as references to actual past events allows the audience an intimate engagement with Wanda as a character and human.

      The dramatic narrative aspect of the project will constitute approximately sixty percent of the film and will intertwine with archival, primary source and contemporary elements, linking the dramatized story to reality.  These elements include:  film footage representing Wanda's career in Hollywood; photographic still imagery from Wanda's show business career and ranching life; interviews shot on High Definition video with descendents and friends; voice-over of Wanda's letters to her children; family home movies; site specific "atmospheric" footage shot on 16mm film with a home made lens used to evoke an abstract, removed reality representative of a past long gone.  Famed Texas musician James McMurtry, featured in two scenes, is performing music within and for the project and will be providing voice over narration for the film.  James’ music and the atmospheric footage are particularly evocative elements that add a creative edge and texture to the piece as a whole, as well as serving as visual and aural bridges between the different types of media. 

      By including documentary-style "real" media, the idea is to bring home the fact that Wanda was a real woman and that her actions still reverberate with her family today.  Through the interviews we will get to know Wanda’s offspring, other descendants and friends.  The interviews will also show the varying versions of the stories about Wanda relative to the perspective and proximity to the event and people involved.

       The film combines a creative hybrid of forms through which to explore the complexity of Wanda's story:  Exposition of her adventurous and varied life; how the ensuing generations understand Wanda, are an extension of her and have been affected by her; Wanda's experience as a woman within the context of the Wild West; exploration of Wanda's character as an amazing yet fallible human.  Together they create a vivid and multifaceted portrait.

Themes

      Wanda the Wonderful explores the idea that an extreme and exciting life can come at great sacrifice.  Mistakes made on the way up are generally covered over and left buried, yet Wanda's are laid bare with the discovery of the secret of her first three children.  The choices women had in those days were few, and it is easy to pass judgment from a modern perspective.  Yet can we blame her? Restless, talented and extremely energetic, Wanda opted for career and independence over motherhood.   

      The stories and accomplishments of strong female characters of the past have been left behind in favor of their male counterparts.  It is critical that we begin to uncover these hidden stories of women's lives that reach beyond the confines of beauty and husbands.  By bringing Wanda's amazing story to light, we aim to chip a little bit away from the usual stereotypes of women presented by the media and offer up a different, exciting and challenging option.

Conclusion

      Wanda's passion was her driving force and magnetism.  It was also her demise.  In pursuit of her career and independence, Wanda was years ahead of her time.  Yet it was the sacrifices she made in order to follow her passion that were to haunt her for the rest her life.  Driven by her manic personality Wanda was a Wild West heroine who made mistakes, but survived.