A teenage girl, a mentally disabled boy and a lost
horse. Nicole Gordon, master of fine arts candidate in film production and directing at UCLA, wanted to save these characters for her final thesis, but she knew she could no longer wait to see them on screen.
Set in a desert town in Southern California, “The Last Wild” tells the story of Crystal, a disillusioned teenager from an abusive family, who tutors Darryl, a mentally disabled student.
When Darryl sets free a neglected horse, the pair goes off in search of the animal and, in the process, Crystal comes to understand the beauty of Darryl’s optimistic worldview.
The idea for the story came from Gordon’s own experiences tutoring a mentally disabled peer in junior high school.
“He had this incredibly rich imagination and behaved as if he was abiding by a code of conduct that was not contemporary,” Gordon said. “He would take off his hat and bow to me and open the door.”
Gordon said this student’s openness and curiosity reminded her of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” and her film draws many parallels to the story of the man of La Mancha.
“Don Quixote believes himself to be a knight but he’s received as a raving lunatic. But the stuff he’s raving about is really beautiful and he sees things not as they are, but as they could be,” Gordon said.
Gordon said she is interested in Don Quixote’s devotion to a character named Dulcinea, a common woman who he imagines to be a princess.
“He treats her as someone more valuable than who society sees her to be and they have a very unique relationship, similar to what Crystal and Darryl have in ‘The Last Wild,'” Gordon said.
While directing is Gordon’s current pursuit, she didn’t always know that she wanted to work in film. She had a strong interest in theater and photography growing up, and taking a film class in her undergraduate years at UC Berkeley made her realize that cinema consolidates both of her longtime passions.
The film’s co-producer and master of fine arts candidate William Barker said Gordon’s theater experience comes through in the way she prepares for and rehearses for every scene.
“She brings a lot of spontaneity to the set and she encourages other people to be creative in their problem solving,” Barker said.
While working with the actors was a pleasure, Gordon said the horses weren’t always as easy to control.
“We were shooting (the principal horse) Patron in the stable and we have this amazing shot of him getting curious about the camera. He just walks straight toward the cinematographer and puts his nose up in the lens,” she said.
UCLA alumnus, master of fine arts graduate and cinematographer Jason Knutzen said shooting became especially tricky when multiple horses were brought on set, and the animals intimidated the actors.
“(Gordon) did a great job to calm their fears and make them feel like they were safe in the situation and helped them channel their fear into their performance,” Knutzen said.
Gordon is already six weeks into preparing for her next short, but she hopes one day to revisit Crystal and Darryl’s story in a feature-length film. In the meantime, she is excited for audiences at the White Sands International Film Festival to experience “The Last Wild.”
“I hope it inspires audiences to act even if they don’t have a clear answer,” Gordon said. “Sometimes just taking a risk and doing what you believe is the right thing to do is enough. Not necessarily a solution, but enough.”