Local director to premier movie in Black Hills

Sundance-raised filmmaker Chris Canfield will be premiering his new feature in Rapid City later this month. A “classic western with a horror twist,” Canfield decided to make his first feature-length movie in his childhood home of the Black Hills.

The premiere will be taking place at 7 p.m. on July 22 at the Historic Elks Theatre, followed by a Q&A with Canfield and producers Eric Corneliuson of Denver and Ryan Hall of Rapid City.

The plot centers on Dowanhowee, a Sioux Indian woman who crosses paths with an outlaw group known as the Dutch Wilder Gang and discovers one of the men is riding a horse that belongs to a member of her slain family. She takes revenge and flees into an uncharted area known as the Black Wood Forest.

The gang soon discovers that there is more to the forest than they knew – including an ancient creature known as a Wendigo.

The cast includes a number of familiar names, including Tanasjia Slaughter (Last Son), Stelio Savante (The Sopranos), Bates Wilder (Black Mass) and Glenn Morshower (Transformers, 24), as well as local cast and crew.

After graduating high school, Canfield attended the Colorado Film School and then began working his way up the ladder by working in the art department on commercials and movies. He became a production designer, meanwhile directing three short movies: Jawless Dog (2014), Occupy (2013) and Bunker’d (2011).

Black Wood is his first feature-length film as director.

The movie will be showing at the same theatre for a week after the premier, as well as in locations including Northfield 18 in Denver, CO and the State Theater in Sioux Falls, SD.

It will be released on a number of streaming platforms on July 26, including iTunes, Apple TV, Prime Video, VIDI, Google Play/YouTube Movies, Redbox and Microsoft Movies & TV.