'FROZEN RIVER'

Courtney Hunt was a few hundred miles away and a couple of seasons removed from the frozen St. Lawrence River the day after Labor Day, but the river was on her mind, as it has been for the past several years.

It's been quite a ride for the writer and director of the film "Frozen River," which won the grand jury prize in the drama category at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and has been receiving glowing reviews since its limited opening last month.

At Sundance, director Quentin Tarantino presented the grand jury prize for drama.

"It took my breath away," the director told the Associated Press, "and then somewhere around the last hour, it put my heart in a vise and proceeded to twist that vise until the last frame."

The movie has been released to about 70 outlets, but Sony Pictures Classics, which purchased the rights to "Frozen River" for under $1 million, could give it much wider release as the buzz about it grows.

"Frozen River" was filmed in the Plattsburgh and Beekmantown areas of Clinton County in 24 wintry days in 2007, but the story's setting is the Massena/Akwesasne area.

It's based on a 15-minute movie of the same name that Ms. Hunt filmed in 2004 at the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation near Massena.

When she called on her cell phone from her home in Columbia County to talk about "Frozen River," Ms. Hunt had a more immediate task at hand: picking her daughter up after her first day of school. But she talked about "Frozen River" as she waited in her car.

She said Clinton County was selected as the filming location of the feature-length "Frozen River" mainly for logistics.

"This was a more complicated shooting," she said, adding that the Plattsburgh area had more accommodations for the film crew than the Massena/Akwesasne area.

"It was also easier to shoot on Lake Champlain," she said.

The movie is about Ray Eddy, a broke "trailer mom" who is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling when she meets a Mohawk girl. The pair make runs across the frozen St. Lawrence carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.

Ms. Hunt said the genesis for the movie came during trips to the north country. Her husband, Donald A. Harwood, was born in Malone and is a graduate of St. Lawrence University, Canton. Ms. Hunt said her husband has relatives in the Malone and Burke areas, which they often visit.

Ms. Hunt, who has a master's degree from Columbia University's film division, said she became dedicated to making the movie in the late 1990s after keeping it in her mind for a long time. The smuggled items in her story were eventually tweaked from cigarettes to humans.

"I stuck with the idea, doing research and getting to know people in the area," she said. Those people included several smugglers, Mohawks and state troopers.

She was compelled to write the story because of the risk the smugglers face driving across the frozen river and to explore what life circumstances would lead someone to take such chances.

"It has to do with single mothers trying to get by," she said.

Ms. Hunt said she is flattered with the movie's grand reviews.

"It tells a good story," she said. "I think people are hungry for stories about real people and their struggles."

Ms. Hunt, who is also a lawyer, said acquaintances helped to fund the movie, which was made on a budget of "well below $1 million."

The film crew had to pinch pennies. "It wasn't low budget, it was no budget," Ms. Hunt said.

The crew struggled through a cold snap and storms and had to make their shots count. Many of the actors were first-timers.

"It was rigorous," Ms. Hunt said. "We had to focus our efforts. We didn't have the money to do reshoots."

Time has flown by since the filming, Ms. Hunt said. They finished a rough cut of the film last summer for the September 2007 entry deadline for the Sundance festival, held in January.

"It's been nonstop," Ms. Hunt said. "I'm enjoying it. But it's not like we hit the jackpot."

She said "Frozen River" was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics for a little more than what it cost to make it.

She anticipates the movie will see a wider release.

She also would like to see a special showing. "My goal is to have a local screening just for local people," she said.

"People can go to their local movie theaters and ask for it. Sometimes that works," Ms. Hunt said.

Jeffrey A. Szot, owner of the JS Cinemas — the Roxy Theater in Potsdam, the American theater in Canton and the 56 Auto Drive-In in Massena — said there is lot of local interest in the film and he has contacted his booking agent to request a print. He said he was hopes it will be available soon.

The manager of Regal Cinemas at Salmon Run Mall said the multiplex gets its movies on a week-to-week basis from Regal Entertainment Group, Knoxville, Tenn.

"'Frozen River' isn't dated for the Watertown market," Regal spokesman Richard Grover said from Regal's corporate offices. "It's an art film, so there are limited prints."

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About Melissa Leo

Melissa Leo, who plays single mom Ray Eddy in "Frozen River," is generating talk of an Oscar nomination for best actress by many reviewers.

Ms. Leo studied drama at Mount View Theatre School in London and later at SUNY Purchase. She is most widely known for her portrayal of detective Kay Howard on the CBS drama "Homicide: Life on the Streets."

She has also appeared in the several episodes of the ABC series "The Young Riders," Showtime's "The L Word," the film "21 Grams" and the new movie "Righteous Kill," starring Robert DiNiro and Al Pacino.

She also appeared in Courtney Hunt's 2004 mini-film of "Frozen River" in the same role as Ray Eddy.