Canadian fans film documentary about making of A Christmas Story
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 | 12:17 PM ET
CBC News
Jordie Smits recreates a scene from A Christmas Story. (courtesy Tyler Schwartz and Jordie Smits)Curiosity about the behind-the-scenes stories and locations where director Bob Clark shot his cult holiday classic A Christmas Story has inspired a documentary by two diehard fans of the film.
Tyler Schwartz and Jordie Smits spent the past two years researching, interviewing and filming the documentary Road Trip for Ralphie, a chronicle of their travel to the film's locations.
Filmed in Ohio and in Ontario, the 1983 original continues to appeal to audiences today. "It's so funny. It's so down to earth," Smits told CBC News on Tuesday morning.
"It's a real story about a family at Christmas time. It's not idealized in any way," she said.
Both fans of the film since childhood, Schwartz and Smits live in the Niagara region. They met as adults and discovered their shared appreciation for the movie, which wasn't initially a success but has since gained cult status among holiday films.
The two had long heard local lore about the nearby locations, like Toronto and St. Catharines, Ont., where the film was shot. They decided to find out exactly where and see if they could still track down artifacts dating from the film shoot.
"We had so much great fortune," Schwartz said, including discovering the actual school where scenes were shot — just days before it was slated to be gutted.
Officials allowed the duo to remove the chalkboard shown in the film and recreate the "tongue stuck to the frozen pole" scene outside.
"That's sort of where the whole journey began," Schwartz said.
The two filmmakers would eventually go on to track down the fire truck featured in the movie (still proudly owned by a firehouse in the village of Chippawa, Ont.) as well as a treasure trove of Christmas Story costumes stuffed inside a Toronto warehouse.
"We have day jobs. This is what we did on our spare time," Schwartz said of the documentary, essentially a labour of love.
The duo also brought the blackboard, costumes and other memorabilia they recovered to Cleveland to be added to the collection of A Christmas Story House — which another of the film's uber fans, San Diego resident Brian Jones, purchased on eBay for $150,000 US, restored and opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 2006.
Though it took years for A Christmas Story to join the canon of beloved holiday films, Jones has even started holding annual conventions for cult fans, Schwartz and Smits said.
"It's a little bit kitschy and I think that's why people are starting to like it," Schwartz added. "It's had something for everyone."
