Screen Shot 2017-04-25 at 4.05.16 PM.jpg — ABOUT

In 2006, Brightlight Studio released a film which was produced alongside an award winning cast, Emmy winning editor, Emmy winning composer, Emmy winning sound designer, and award winning screenwriters. The film was an official selection at many film festivals, both nationally and internationally, and was the winner of many awards.

Our Story begins...

...with 16th century Spanish sailors beaching their launch on Manzanita beach. They carry a treasure chest up Neahkahnie Mountain, leading a manacled African slave. The treasure is buried and the slave killed. He is laid on top of the ground to “guard” the treasure and frighten away the local Indians.

Julie, a lonely fourteen year old girl, and her family move from California to a beautiful Oregon seaside town, as a last resort after her dad loses his job. Her family has trouble adjusting to their new life and Julie is forgotten and ignored.

Julie has a dramatic mystical encounter with a large Roosevelt Elk on the beach. The elk’s fur has black handprints on its neck. Its hooves uncover an old Spanish gold coin in the sand. The Elk becomes Julie’s silent, watchful guide and protector as she becomes drawn to the legend of the Tillamook Treasure.

She seeks the wisdom and guidance of her Grandfather and his good friend, Standing Elk, one of the last of the local Native American tribe. The men tell Julie the legend of the Spanish treasure and also of an elk, saved from drowning by the slave before his death. They tell her that the elk was later seen with black handprints marking its neck from where the slave had grasped the exhausted animal as it swam near the Spanish launch. Julie is confused because 400 years later, “her elk” has the same black handprints on its neck …