"North Star" by P.J. Palmer

The age-old question:

How do you get insanely talented, recognizable stars attached to a short film?

"The script," says writer-director P.J. Palmer.

Obviously, right?

"Not to sound flippant—because there is more to it than just that—but the script was the reason they came on board. Ultimately, if the script hadn't been at that level, I wouldn't have this cast."

Palmer's short, North Star, assembles a couple legendary actors: Colman Domingo, who leads, and Kevin Bacon, with a number of other veterans. None of which Palmer knew personally (outside of Laura Innes, whom he had worked with prior).

"Colman Domingo told me he called his reps and said scripts like these were the reason we all got into the business. Kevin Bacon told me he loved the story and that I was offering him something he had never been offered before: the chance to play a televangelist ... I mean, the worst anyone can say is no."

It's a multi-layered story that comments on so many things under the surface. "Like an onion," Palmer notes. A film about race, what it means to be an American, the lack of health care in this country, poverty, the struggle for economic survival, religion and faith, politics, end of life care, marriage, commitment to our loved ones ...

And the film's core idea: what is family? Who gets to decide what family means?

"Much of this film is personal to me. The main characters, a couple in their 50s dealing with the early onset of a life-ending disease, are based on a real couple I knew. I was very taken with how our friend cared for his wife after she suffered a horrific stroke out of the blue at age 52—one day she was fine, the next, their lives were forever changed. And the way he cared for her—refusing to move her from the house where they raised their children, refusing to hire a nurse or place her in a home, altering his entire life from managing a vast ranch to becoming her sole domestic caretaker ... made me think: she knows one thing—he is her North Star, he will always be there for her."

A beautiful story, however, wasn't quite enough to make the film complete. Palmer realized he needed to make the story his own, so he changed the characters to reflect him and his partner, a multicultural and same-gendered couple.

"From there, I incorporated elements we've heard from family regarding our relationship ... This film was a way for me to sort of answer back. In a way that wasn't argumentative, and from a place of love, while still holding my truth." 

Told with merciless poignancy, Palmer's North Star became a critical hit, garnering over 80 wins* throughout its festival run.

*this is not a typo; yes, that's crazy.

Odds & Ends

• The film was shot in Trinity County, a remote part of Northern California. Where Palmer lived during high school. He and his producers scouted for almost two years (!), traveling thousands of miles across the Sierra Nevada and Alberta, Canada, searching for an older house next to a road with a visible barn and field from the front windows. You would think that would be easy to find—it wasn't. Then, one day, while working on a documentary in Monterey, Palmer looked at Zillow for Northern California and found this perfect-looking ranch for sale. "I called the realtor and drove 8 hours to look at it—it was perfect ... right there in the same county where I had lived and where the original story that inspired my script had happened." 
• When Palmer and his casting director reached out to Domingo to play the lead, he was booked for years. So they moved forward, cast another actor, and went through several starts and stops. By the time they finally had the film set and ready to shoot, their lead actor had to drop out, giving them only a couple of weeks to re-cast before shooting. "I was beside myself," Palmer recounts, "thinking we wouldn't make the film. Jeffrey [the casting director] told me to reach out to Colman again. I argued that he had already passed. But Jeffrey gently reminded me that I was a man with nothing to lose at this point. So we reached out, and the next day, Colman called me. He was in the makeup trailer for his TV show, reading the next episode, and by chance, he wasn't in it. This meant he had two weeks off ... and he said he would come make my movie with me." Spoiler alert: yes, he showed up.

About P.J. Palmer

P.J. Palmer is an award-winning filmmaker raised in the rural mountains of Northern California and has always loved telling stories with motion picture. His work includes series producer for the award-winning LGBTQ+ drama series “Anyone But Me,” and has written an award-winning pilot titled “On Cannery Row.” He splits his time between New York City and Los Angeles.