Meet the S.D. filmmaker bringing a survival story to the big screen

Hikers call the Hunt Trail up Maine’s Mount Katahdin, which starts in a forest, gains more than 4,500 feet of elevation in a 5-mile span and ends at a rocky ridgeline, the toughest climb in the eastern United States.

Andrew Kightlinger climbed it twice.

The first time was for an out-of-the-ordinary job interview. The second time came after he got the job and was directing a movie based on a real-life adventure that took place on Mount Katahdin in 1939. It involved a 12-year-old boy, Donn Fendler, who became separated from his companions on the mountain and spent nine days surviving on his own.

The as-told-to book that resulted from his adventure and misadventure is still required reading in Maine and, Kightlinger said, is considered the “Little House on the Prairie” of New England. Fendler, who died in 2016 at the age of 90, would visit Maine schools every fall and answer children’s questions about his ordeal.

After 30 years of attempts to tell Fendler’s story on screen, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” has been turned into a movie, directed by a man more familiar with the flatlands of South Dakota. Kightlinger also spent his early years in Madagascar with his parents, Dr. Lon Kightlinger and the late Mynna Kightlinger, before the family moved to Pierre.

For the past 17 years, Kightlinger has lived in Los Angeles as he has pursued a career as a director, writer and editor. He both wrote and directed the 2017 film “Tater Tot & Patton” set in South Dakota. That movie won first place for best screenplay at the Vail Film Festival.

During the interview process for “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” ready to move on from movies with $150,000 budgets, Kightlinger said, “I pitched my heart out.”

It worked.

“I think they were looking for somebody a little fresh,” Kightlinger said.

With a background divided between the rainforest and the prairie, the wilderness and outdoors have always been part of Kightlinger’s upbringing. The script spoke to him on several levels, including the challenge of nature and the importance of family. Kightlinger father and son talk almost every day.

“I connected to the father-son angle,” Kightlinger said. “We have a good relationship. It’s been the two of us since my mother passed away (in 2007). I saw in it something very simple: a movie about a father and a son who are desperately trying to connect but can’t.”

The film focuses on both parents of the lost boy. It reminded Kightlinger of an experience when he was 8 and flying home alone to Madagascar. The airplane developed engine trouble and had to land elsewhere. For 12 hours, Kightlinger’s parents knew only that the plane had not arrived, unsure whether their son was alive or dead.

“The movie felt like that. The kid gets lost, and the parents do anything they could do to find him. It just made me think about parenthood and relationships, about parents and children, that are something to be cherished,” Kightlinger said.

Whenever he makes a movie, Kightlinger wants an answer to the “big fat why” behind its purpose. His “why” for this movie is the hope that it might bring parents and children together.

It is, Kightlinger said cheerfully, “callously designed to make people cry.” However, it’s also funny. He compares it to “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” which deals with children, adventure and relationships.

The film, which opens nationwide Friday, was screened in July at the Maine International Film Festival. Audience reactions included “emotional,” “impactful,” “at the end I cried like a little girl,” “family film,” “suspenseful,” “10 out of 10” and it will “go in my top two of all time.”

Kightlinger hadn’t heard of Fendler when he received the script. As he prepared to film, he decided not to let the specter of a well-loved book hang over the decisions he made. He did use archival footage of Fendler being rescued like chapter headings in his film, to remind the audience this is a real piece of American history.

This was the first time Kightlinger worked intensively with child actors over a several-month period. Casting director Richard DeJesus was asked to find a young actor with the presence of Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun,” which is considered one of the great child performances. DeJesus found that in Luke David Blumm, Kightlinger said.

“He’s amazing. It’s a tour de force performance,” he said. “I can’t believe a 12-year-old can do what he can do. He’s 12, so he’s still kind of a goober, but when the moment counted, he became Daniel Day-Lewis. I became a better director working with him.”

Actor Sylvester Stallone, who shot to fame almost 50 years ago with “Rocky,” is the producer on “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” This is the first movie from Stallone that has featured young actors, Kightlinger said. Stallone, while hands off during the making of the movie, gave it his stamp of approval and trusted the process, Kightlinger said.

While leading a crew of 200, Kightlinger learned that being kind is “a kind of superpower.” He knew he needed to find a balance between lifting up and emboldening his cast and crew while also being the boss.

“My personality fits well into this industry,” he said. “I also have to keep my vision coherent and make sure I’m telling a movie to my taste. You hear all these nightmares about directors being like dictators and ruling with an iron fist. You don’t have to be. I can still be me.”

“Lost on a Mountain in Maine” was filmed primarily in upstate New York because of tax incentives that made it much more affordable. Some shots took place on Mount Katahdin, which is when Kightlinger climbed it a second time, now burdened with 60 pounds of camera equipment.

It does have a bit of South Dakota in it, however.

“I used 40 or 50 Sioux Falls residents in the movie scenes with a bunch of extras,” Kightlinger said. “Usually extras are silent, and in the sound process, you have to reloop all that dialogue. You get actors in a room with a bunch of microphones, whispering or yelling ‘extra, extra.’ The entire movie is littered with Sioux Falls voices, which is kind of fun.”

Kightlinger thinks South Dakotans will appreciate the values embodied in the movie and how it shares Fendler’s legacy. Fendler wanted to inspire children and their families to be better versions of themselves. Although Fendler did not think that was he did was that incredible, he did acknowledge how many people it had affected. The movie will help prolong Fendler’s message for decades to come, Kightlinger said.

It’s a universal story, the director said. He wanted to bring it to South Dakota because the state has shaped him, Pierre residents have invested in his projects, and Augustana University helped put him on his path. South Dakota remains his home, where he joins his father for holidays and other get-togethers.

“I would not be doing this if it were not for South Dakota,” Kightlinger said. “Our state has been a champion for me. I want to continue to bring movies here.”

Kightlinger has three of his own movie scripts waiting, any one of which could be his next project. One takes place in South Dakota. The experience he has gained with “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” has shown that he can deliver a film at that level.

“I’ve auditioned and read for movies at a higher price point,” he said. “I proved I could deliver a movie at this level. My goal is to be directing a movie next year. The industry has gone through historic strikes with the writers and actors guilds, and that’s really done damage that it’s taking a long time to recover from. I’m really blessed having a movie coming out.”

Theaters showing “Lost on a Mountain in Maine”

• Aberdeen: Golden Ticket Aberdeen
• Brookings: Brookings Cinema 8
• Mitchell: Luxury 5
• Pierre: State 123
• Rapid City: Golden Ticket Rushmore and AMC
• Sioux City: Great Lakes Cinema 7
• Sioux Falls: The State Theatre on Nov. 15, 16, 17
• Sioux Falls: West Mall 7 this weekend
• Spearfish: Northern Hills
• Watertown: Odyssey Grand 9
• Webster: Webster Theatre