By Ford Ashley

 

Phoenix, Arizona—Rick Schroder, famed child actor (NBC’s Silver Spoons, 1982) who has transitioned to become a noted adult actor (as Detective Sorenson in television’s NYPD Blue) has an ‘ace in the hole’ with his directorial screen debut, independent film Black Cloud (Old Post 2004).

 

 Scheduled for release in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma on October 1, 2004, Black Cloud is also the first time the career-actor has written and produced for the big screen.

 

    “I don’t see a lot of directors in their twenties,” said Rick Schroder, agreeing that most directing for the cinema occurs somewhere along the thirty-something stretch.

 Raised in Staten Island, New York, the east coast native was intriqued, as a child, by the highly-circulated Sunday afternoon westerns, especially any of the classics by John Ford and John Wayne. 

 

 “To me movies were supposed to be shot in Monument Valley [Arizona] … in the southwest. That impression [as] a little boy fascinated me,” commented Rick on his early acculturation to the American genre.

 

 Schroder’s latest pitch, Black Cloud, is a western too in the sense that it is set in the American southwest: with cowboys, like country singer Tim McGraw, and Native American characters/talent, like up-and-coming actors Eddie Spears and Elsa Yazzie.

 Rick’s approach to directing is to try and make each scene the best he can make it, without losing emotional true-ness “so that the people who watch can really relate to the characters and can understand where they are coming from.”

 

 As a child, Schroder was no stranger to dramatic portrayals and depictions, sharing the kudos (at eight-years-old), with heavy-weights Jon Voight and Faye Dunaway, for the 1979 tear-jerker The Champ.

 

 You could say Black Cloud is a new experience as a director, but similar dramatic experience for an actor. Further, Schroder does admit that he does not see his directing style as “objective,” in terms of form but has much to explore with his method as a new director. 

 

 Still, the bottom line—in style or genre at this point – is the American southwest, and definitely keeping Native American themes and actors in mind when conceptualizing future projects—as a matter of fact, Schroder would like to start writing again immediately after the release of Black Cloud.

 

 Writing is not limited to the big screen, as Schroder has been nominated for the Country Music Association’s Video of the Year, for directing and starring in the video “Whiskey Lullaby” (performed by the popular Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss). So, Black Cloud is more realization of cinemagraphic concepts by Schroder.

 

 The independent film Black Cloud was shot on location in Las Vegas, Nevada and parts of the Navajo Reservation (northern Arizona). Starring Eddie Spears, Russell Means, Schroder, Wayne Knight and Tim McGraw, most of the story was shot in Navajoland over a period of three weeks, the remaining one week in Las Vegas. According to the actor, this schedule is pretty typical for independent film.

 

 Black Cloud is about a boxer—who happens to be Native American –that overcomes adversity to make it to the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team.

 

 Locally in the valley, Black Cloud cleaned house at the Phoenix Film Festival (April 2004), drawing record crowds and scoring three major awards, including best picture audience award and honor for the film’s ensemble cast.

 

 Like the more recent Windtalkers (MGM/UA 2002), Black Cloud was shot in the famous Arizona hot spot of Monument Valley.

 

 Schroder feels the scenes shot on the reservation are a perk to the film. “[Black Cloud] is set in a beautiful location,” he started and went on to elaborate about the hospitality of the Navajo locals, who were great hosts to the film cast and crew. “So many people opened their homes to us. We didn’t have any money to build sets, so we had to use these real places… People let us film in their homes!”

 

 Of course, a western film project wouldn’t be truly western without a little grit. One anecdote Schroder finished up with was about the final day of shooting, on the reservation, and the cast and crew were hit by a sand storm. The incident occurred in Many Farms (near Canyon De Chelly) and Schroder tagged the story with, “I made everybody stay and we fought through it. You were eating dust!”

 

 As with the project, time is something the actor wishes he had more of, but with a twenty-year-plus career and keeping it in motion, Rick says there is much more on the way as a screen-writer and director.

 

 Black Cloud will have a special invitiation-only premiere in Phoenix on September 27, 2004, and will open in Phoenix, Tucson and Oklahoma City on October 1, 2004. More information can be accessed at www.blackcloudthemovie.com