Red Rock Film Festival 2009

Located a few miles north of the Arizona line, Kanab, Utah sits along the highway that links Zion National Park to the Grand Canyon. The majestic landscape surrounding the city helped to make this section of Southern Utah a favorite destination for motion picture companies, and since the 1920s, hundreds of productions have been shot there. While it is the beauty of the landscape which first attracted Hollywood's attention, the producers, directors and actors who came out here to make the pictures quickly discovered that the people living in Kanab were a great resource, too. When director William Wellman arrived in Kanab in 1943 to shoot 'Buffalo Bill' with Joel McCrae and Maureen O'Hara, he was so impressed by the local population's readiness to appear in his movie as stuntmen, doubles and extras, he called Kanab 'a little Hollywood all on its own.' The name stuck. Narrated by legendary Utah newsman Dick Nourse, 'Return to Little Hollywood' chronicles Kanab's transformation from a quiet cattle town into one of the entertainment industry's busiest production areas. This fast-moving film features footage of the locations where classic movies like 'MacKenna's Gold' and 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' were made and interviews with several actors who worked in the area, including Clint Walker, Johnny Western and Harry Carey, Jr. Also included are conversations with colorful locals who recall the days when Hollywood’s brightest stars roamed Kanab’s streets, and a survey of recent film projects produced in this stunning corner of the American southwest.