2009 AFI Dallas Film Festival - St. Nick

(USA, 2009, 87 mins)
HDCam
Dallas/Ft Worth Premiere
Directed By: David Lowery

An 11-year-old boy and his sister, 9, are on the run. Depending only on themselves, they find an abandoned house and make it their own, inventing a lifestyle that only kids can. The question is: How long will it last?

Dallas director David Lowery makes beautiful use of stark Texas winter landscapes and prolonged silence that gives St. Nick an artful quietness that adds an adultness to the film. However, It’s a kids’ adventure story along the lines of Tom Sawyer or Pippi Longstocking, and the characters’ antics and expressiveness fill in the gaps.

Real life brother and sister Tucker and Savanna Sears perfectly play their parts, and cinematographer Clay Liford captures the vastness of rural Texas that make these little characters’ determination seem all that much bigger.

Information from the festival's website