In an instance of life imitating art, Diane Orr had apparently vanished into thin air at one point — not unlike the subject of her latest movie, "Lost Forever EVERETT RUESS."
But unlike the seemingly ill-fated folk hero profiled by the Utah filmmaker, Orr has resurfaced.
It turns out that Orr, who made such award-winning features as "SL-1" and "The Plan" with her late partner C. Larry Roberts, has been living an everyday existence.
"It wasn't anything particularly mysterious or glamorous," Orr said. "I had to pay my bills and finish putting my children through school."
So Orr put her filmmaking career on hold for nearly a decade and worked as news director for six years at KUTV (1990-96), where she had originally cut her teeth producing segments for Channel 2's "Extra" newsmagazine program for five years in the late '70s and early '80s.
"It gave me a chance to return to my roots, make some money and recharge my batteries, which was good," Orr said.
However, she always planned to return to her first love, which is making movies.
And for her first project, she
revived "Lost Forever," something she had originally started with Roberts but then put aside after Roberts' death in 1988.
Orr will premiere the finished version of the film on Saturday in the Salt Lake Masonic Temple, 650 E. South Temple, as a special fund-raiser for the Utah Film & Video Center.
"It's a subject that's always been near and dear to my heart, but at the same time I couldn't finish it for a long time because there were a lot of painful memories associated with it," Orr said.
It also took Orr some time to acquaint herself with modern filmmaking techniques and equipment, as well as "wrap her head around" the story of Ruess, a California landscape artist and poet who set off on a nature trip in the desert near Escalante in 1934 and never returned.
At one point, she planned to make a straight documentary about Ruess, and then considered making a dramatic feature. But instead she wound up making a hybrid of the two.
"Lost Forever" stars local actor Mark Larson, who plays Ruess in dramatic re-creations and also plays himself in documentary scenes, in which he questions locals purporting to have knowledge about what happened to Ruess.
"It's a pretty risky concept," Orr said. "To be honest, I'm still not sure everything works. But I guess that's up to the audience to decide."
So far so good. The film received raves at the 2000 editions of the Taos Talking Pictures festival in New Mexico and the Telluride Mountain Film Festival, though Orr did later decide to trim "Lost Forever" by 11 minutes, to make the film "flow better," especially on video.
However, she claims that friends are "bugging" her to put that footage back in for a special edition. "I just tell them that the new version is really the 'director's cut,' " she said with a laugh.
The special screening of "Lost Forever" starts at 7:30 p.m. and will also include live musical performances by local musician Bob Moss, as well as a post-screening discussion with Orr, along with KUTV investigative reporter Rod Decker.
Suggested donations are $8. Videotape copies of "Lost Forever" can be purchased at Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East, or for $20 (plus $5 for shipping and handling costs) on the film's official Web site www.everettruessmovie.com.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com