They “alchemized pain and misfortune into profound art.” ~ Jessica Baxter, Hammer to Nail
“She just loved sex.”
It’s not the first laugh of surprise in I Know Catherine, the Log Lady, and it isn’t the last. The tone of the film — lively, fast-paced, underscored with original jazz and blues, and always embracing the absurdity of life — might seem a contrast to it’s subject.
Beginning its weeklong run in Glendale this Friday, May 9, I Know Catherine tells the story of what it took for Catherine Coulson to film her final scenes as the Log Lady for David Lynch and Twin Peaks, the Return.
Just after The Return was announced, Coulson, in her 22nd year acting at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. The next nine months would see her race to keep ahead of death while Twin Peaks, the Return was in pre-production.
The final act of the documentary is a “Hail Mary pass into the end zone” (Kent Hill, Film Threat) as Catherine gets more than a little help from her friends to film her scenes for the series.
Four days after filming, she was gone.
That’s the “a death well lived” part of the movie. Interwoven with that last year are the surprises: Coulson was one of the first women assistant camera/focus pullers in Hollywood. She produced movies, served as a community leader, found the “love of her life” (her daughter, Zoey), and “everyone thought she was their best friend,” according to her friend, playwright Lisa Loomer.
David Lynch’s interview in the film may be his last on screen. Also featured are Twin Peaks alumni Charlotte Stewart, Kimmy Robertson, Grace Zabriskie, Michael Horse and Dana Ashbrook, and dozens more of Catherine’s best friends.
“A Wonderful tribute to Catherine Coulson” — Stephen Silver, The SS Ben Hecht