Caleb Hearon brought his most personal project to date to the Toronto International Film Festival this month, premiering “Trash Mountain,” a dramedy he co-wrote after the unexpected death of his own father sent him searching for a way to process the loss.
Hearon stars as Gavin, a gay comedian living in Chicago who returns to his small hometown in rural Missouri after his estranged, hoarder father dies, leaving behind a house packed with a lifetime of accumulated belongings. Zooey Deschanel plays Abbi, Gavin’s half sister, and Jacki Weaver plays their grandmother, with the three tasked together with clearing out the property while confronting years of complicated family history along the way. Kris Rey directs from a script Hearon wrote with Ruby Caster, drawing directly on Hearon’s own relationship with his father, which he has described as difficult but ultimately loving.
Hearon said he began writing the material as a way to work through his grief long before he considered turning it into a film, and that he resisted leaning too heavily on comedy even in scenes built around loss. He told audiences at the film’s premiere that he wanted to push past his reputation as a comedic performer and show a different register as an actor. Deschanel, drawing on her own approach to the material, spoke about the emotional weight objects can carry once someone has died, framing the film’s central conceit of sorting through a hoarder’s possessions as a way of holding onto a person who is no longer there.
The production came together quickly and cheaply, shooting for just 18 days in rural Illinois during the winter, with the cast and crew working through the kind of scrappy, location-hunting conditions typical of low-budget independent filmmaking. Hearon recalled convincing Deschanel to join the project despite the modest circumstances, joking that he warned her everyone involved would be working for next to nothing in the cold.
“Trash Mountain” had its world premiere in the festival’s Centrepiece section, with Colin Trevorrow producing. The film also features Kyle Marvin, Jaboukie Young-White and Holmes in supporting roles, and has drawn early praise from festival audiences for Hearon’s dramatic range in what marks his feature screenwriting debut.
