According to Emilio Torres, the last movie filmed in Ketchikan was the 1950’s noir film “Cry Vengeance.” That is until he completed “The Ladder,” his first feature-length film, last year.
Torres is an NYU film school graduate who grew up in Ketchikan. For him, it was a no-brainer to shoot his first film here.
“One of the reasons I made this film is I think Ketchikan is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and I think the film is a testament to the artistic community in Ketchikan,” Torres said over the phone, from his home in Arizona.
In many ways, “The Ladder” is a film about aging. It centers on Arthur, a commercial fisherman who’s getting too old to fish. Early in the film, audiences learn that Arthur’s wife died and his son lives in New York City. The aging protagonist wants his son to move back to Alaska, but they have a somewhat strained relationship.
Then, a flashy biotechnology company called Actilife sets up shop in Ketchikan with the intention of using the somewhat isolated, aging Alaska town to conduct clinical trials of a new procedure called “the Fresh Start.” Without giving too much away, an elderly patient can emerge from the procedure looking and feeling like their 20-something-year-old self. But there’s more than meets the eye.
“Normally, when people think of coming-of-age movies, they think of a boy becoming a man. I thought it’d be much more interesting to do a man accepting his old age and this final chapter of his life,” Torres said during a visit to KRBD’s studios in 2023. “One of the screenwriting tips they always say is: ‘Think of what your protagonist wants, and just completely blindside them.’ So, I thought, ‘I’m going to give this character exactly what he wants and try to find a reason why maybe that’s not really what he needs to do.’”
Many of the film’s stars and all the film’s extras were recruited from Ketchikan. Arthur is played by local actor Keith Smith and his daughter-in-law is played by local actress Heidi Poet. Local artist and musician Torah Zamora also appears as Actilife’s medical lead and “Fresh Start” advocate.
Torres had a roughly $120,000 budget to film “The Ladder,” which he says is modest as far as feature-length film shoots go. Afterwards though, he had to raise money to produce the film and roll it out. A Seed&Spark crowdfunding campaign to complete production, supported by the Ketchikan community, raised over $50,000. Additionally, Torres said that Southeast Alaska’s Tongass Federal Credit Union also played a pivotal role in funding the film.
The plot of “The Ladder” is deeply Alaskan, but many of the themes are universal, like humans being outpaced by technology, the rise of the next big “miracle drug,” or finding meaning in a world that is constantly changing.
“But really at its core, it’s just about how a father and son navigate their relationships changing as they get older,” Torres said. “But also how they navigate what their life means in a world that is changing around them.”
Torres first piloted the story as a short film, which has since racked up nearly 200,000 views on YouTube, taken home a Critic’s Choice Award for short films at the Sci-On Film Festival and Best Acting Performance award at the Oregon Short Film Festival. It can also be found on Alaska Airlines inflight entertainment.
“The Ladder” joins a relatively short list of films that were set and primarily filmed in the state of Alaska. It joins “The Frozen Ground” with Nicolas Cage, John Kusack, and 50 Cent and the 2012 thriller “Beyond,” which were both filmed in Anchorage. Another oft-cited landmark of Alaskan movie magic is the arctic horror classic “The Thing,” which director John Carpenter said was shot largely between Juneau, a number of sites straddling the Alaska-British Columbia border, and a refrigerated lot in Los Angeles.
Of course, many movies are like “The Proposal,” a 2009 romcom with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds that takes place in Sitka, Alaska, but most of the filming happened in New England. Or perhaps Christopher Nolan’s “Insomnia,” a movie where a Los Angeles cop, played by Al Pacino, tracks a serial killer, played by Robin Williams, through the fictional Alaska town of Nightmute. That was filmed in Squamish, British Columbia.
For Torres, that is exactly what makes the Fargo Film Festival choosing to screen his film so exciting: people so far away getting a taste of Ketchikan.
Torres will be attending the film festival in Fargo, North Dakota, and he said his goal is “to sort of be the cheerleader for ‘The Ladder’ and be the cheerleader for this movie that Ketchikan made.”
The Fargo Film Festival happens every year in March. This year will be its 25th anniversary and silver screen icon Molly Ringwald will be in attendance for a special screening of her classic film “The Breakfast Club.” Past awardees at the festival include Baltimore’s beloved cult filmmaker John Waters and zombie movie auteur George A. Romero.
“The selection process is complicated, because even if your film is good, it’s possible that when you’re submitting to a film festival, you could be unlucky, and one of the programmers who watches your film doesn’t really jive with it, or maybe they already have a sci-fi film about a fisherman,” Torres said, laughing. “Whatever the case may be, there are lots of deciding factors. So for a filmmaker, you’re submitting and you just cross your fingers and pray that someone believes in your work and wants to screen it.”
Torres’ dream is to be a full-time filmmaker. So, he said the ideal situation is if the film wins an award or two, or perhaps a Hollywood producer sees it at a festival like this one and likes it enough to put it in theaters across the country. For independent filmmakers, that’s like winning the lottery.
Torres said so many people in Ketchikan invested in the film or donated their time or personal belongings as props, and some have yet to see the film.
“So to those people I would just say, ‘I appreciate you so much. Be patient, because the film will eventually be publicly available,’” Torres said.
Torres privately screened the film for the very first time to Ketchikan cast, crew, and supporters last fall at the local Coliseum Theater. The theater filled with cheers every time viewers recognized one of their friends or neighbors on the big screen.
