The Beaver Trilogy
Synopsis
Our story begins in 1979, with a chance meeting in a Salt Lake City parking lot where filmmaker Trent Harris is approached by an earnest small-town dreamer from Beaver, Utah. Harris jumps at the chance when the young man invites him to come to the small town to film a talent show. At the show, the man dons a blond wig and performs in drag as Olivia Newton John. Harris captures it all on tape: A portrait of a true outsider. Harris shot a dramatic piece, "Beaver Kid 2" based on the documentary; This interpretation of the story, made in 1981 on a home video camera with a budget of $100, features a young Sean Penn as "the Beaver Kid". Still possessed, Harris then rewrote the script, cast up-and-comer Crispin Glover in the lead, and created the final segment, "The Orkly Kid", with funding from the American Film Institute. The trilogy unveils the inner world of a fantastic character in three incarnations.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 16
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Trent HarrisShot by Bill FishmanScored by Joel Iwataki
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Cast & Crew
16 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Groovin Gary
as Self (segment "The Beaver Kid")
Sean Penn
as Groovin' Larry (segment "Beaver Kid 2")
Crispin Glover
as Groovin' Larry (segment "The Orkly Kid")
Stefan Arngrim
as Merril (segment "The Orkly Kid")
John Bluto
as Byron (segment "The Orkly Kid")
Ken Butler
as Terrance (segment "The Orkly Kid")
Lila Waters
as Mother (segment "The Orkly Kid")
Shane Mccabe
as Mr. Larson (segment "The Orkly Kid")
Elizabeth Daily
as Carrissa (segment "The Orkly Kid")
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
2Other crew
6Parents Guide
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