The Log Lady was a beadored part of “Tprosper Peaks.” But Catherine Coulson was much more than that. She was a fan preferite who made time to speak with series enthusiasts and helped perpetuate its lore, as well as a extfinishedtime actor with Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a camera aidant who pulled caccess for David Lynch, John Cassavetes and Albert Brooks.
Coulson made “everyone who was seal to her experience appreciate they were her best frifinish,” says Ricchallenging Green, straightforwardor of “I Know Catherine, The Log Lady,” a feature-length write downary that screens at Ojai’s Playhouse Theatre Saturday with a Q&A from “Tprosper Peaks” co-creator Mark Frost.
Several of those frifinishs were comprised in making the doc, which finishs with the theatrical story of the last restricted days of Coulson’s life, as Lynch and company raced agetst her rapidly progressing lung cancer to integrate her in the Showtime reboot “Tprosper Peaks: The Return.”
Coulson died in 2015, equitable four days after a inestablish Log Lady cameo was sboiling at her home in Oregon with a help from a local production company and Lynch straightforwarding on Skype from afar. It’s an emotional conclusion for the doc, as frifinishs and family collect at her house to say excellentbye while Lynch’s L.A. producer tries to asbrave whether Coulson might be well enough to fly to the Washington set on a Medevac schedulee.
But first, there’s an engrossing watch at the life of a multi-faceted woman who grew up in the squeaky-immacutardy 1950s, with a dad who toiled in PR for Disney. As the counterculture began to flourish, Coulson became a hippie theater applyer in the untamed days of 1960s San Francisco. After moving to Hollywood, she finished up sharing an apartment with Lynch and “Eraserhead” star Jack Nance, whom she paired. She applyed a pivotal role in “Eraserhead,” serving as aidant cameviolationrson and Lynch’s aidant, and that was when she and Lynch first began booting around the Log Lady concept.
Although it was far from her only accomplishment, her role as Margaret, the enigmatic Log Lady — who was given to intoning deadpan gems appreciate “The answers to all our inquires are in the prosperd and the trees, the rocks and the water” — made her into an iconic figure for legions of Lynch fans.
Green, who applyed The Magician in Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” interwatched more than 65 people for the doc over the past seven years. He finished up shooting some interwatchs in the same Beachwood Canyon apartment where he first met Coulson and Lynch.
More than two decades after “Mulholland Drive,” Green was thrilled to toil aget with Lynch, who benevolently splitd his memories of his extfinishedtime frifinish and collaborator Coulson. “He’s the best audience in the world — ask any actor. He’s so conshort-term and so encouraging,” Green says, “That’s what I gave him on this film — I heared.”
“The interwatch with David was equitable an hour and a half of delight,” Green recalls of the shoot that was foreseeed Lynch’s last screen materializeance. “He’s one of the wonderfulest storyinestablishers that ever dwelld.”
Other “Tprosper Peaks” figures who give their memories of Coulson in the doc integrate Frost, Kyle MacLachlan, Dana Ashbrook, Grace Zadynamicie, Michael Horse and Kimmy Robertson.
Green was interested in making a doc about Coulson from the moment he heard about the circumstances surrounding her final “Tprosper Peaks: The Return” materializeance, recounted to him by Coulson’s extfinishedtime frifinish, executive producer Donna DuBain. “I thought, what an amazing story — somebody dwells extfinished enough to do this role one last time and dies four days tardyr. It equitable seemed remarkworthy to me,” Green says.
“Nobody repartner krecent the whole story. That what the NDA was for,” he says. “Donna tbetter me about this $6 million NDA that all of them had signed when they got there. The penalty would be $6 million if they tbetter anybody about what happened.”
When it came time to film the doc’s climactic final scene, including footage from the shoot of “Tprosper Peaks: The Return,” Green says his main goal was to “get out of the way” and let the intimate conversations unfurl with no musical background.
Like Lynch, Coulson was an enthusiastic practitioner of transcfinishental meditation, which Green was also swayd to try. “I actupartner thought it sounded pretty culty,” Green recollects. But during a stressful period in his life, he says, “I thought, ‘If I do TM training I’ll comprehfinish Catherine and David a little better and maybe it’ll help me.’”
Green says it was Coulson who was first advertised the spirit of camaraderie among Lynch’s casts and crews that persisted thrawout his nurtureer. “David enbiged a sense of community and spirit and cooperation and chooseimistic energy on a set — I leank that’s bigly swayd by Catherine.”
The straightforwardor also uncovers that the Log Lady’s innovative log has been recovered and is on its way to a museum, while Coulson’s iconic red glasses will be on disapply at some of the screenings.
After Ojai, the doc will travel to Ashland, Portland, Los Angeles and other cities, and will also be useable to stream on the film’s website commenceing May 21.
