Director and Brigham Young University graduate Cole Webley said his debut feature, Omaha, has been met with emotion from audiences, especially dads.
Omaha premiered at the festival on Jan. 23. Webley, a father of four himself, said he has had men crying on his shoulder after seeing it. At first, he thought the film reminded them of a past traumatic event. Actually, it touched on emotions they carry deep inside as fathers.
“The movie just kind of triggered something in them,” he said.
After the festival, Webley hopes the film can maintain that effect. “We’re at a place where people love movies, which is Sundance, and I am holding out hope that even when this is shared with that cynical world outside the bubble of Sundance, there will be some softened and warmed hearts,” he said.
Before Omaha, Webley directed short films and commercials. He said a feature film was a learning curve. “You just have to give yourself the patience of having a longer period to figure out the movie,” he said. “That could be three weeks, that could be six weeks, there’s no timeline for that.”
His patience paid off. The film has become an audience favorite.
In Omaha, a father (John Magaro) takes his children, Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and Charlie (Wyatt Solis), on a road trip across the country after a family tragedy. Despite the father’s efforts to make the spur-of-the-moment trip seem like a vacation, Ella begins to realize not everything is as it seems.
“They are headed to Omaha. What waits for them? We don’t know,” Webley said. “We experience the reality of what this journey might mean through the eyes of Ella.”
A number of scenes were filmed in Utah, where Webley said he came of age as a filmmaker.
Filmgoers might recognize scenes in Helper, Utah, and the Bonneville Salt Flats, where Webley recalls working as a film loader on one of his first commercial shoots.
As he made his way to the cast and crew party after the Omaha premiere, Webley rode through Kamas, where he shot his first short film. “I was immediately transported,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I had an actor out in that field digging with a shovel.’ ‘Oh, look at the gas station we shot at there.’”
Webley and director of photography Paul Meyers, ASC, were given permission to use the Helper home featured in the film after knocking on the owner’s door. “He made it usable for the shoot,” Webley said. “He just bent over backward, and now he’s so tickled that the movie is in Sundance.”
Along with familiar locations, Utah audiences will see powerful performances.
Webley said Magaro gives the father new life every time he’s on screen. “He plays this father who really has to walk this tightrope act of empathy and grief and torment and dwindling mental health if you will, and this crisis of moments,” Webley said. “And he does it so eloquently.”
Wright and Solis were the ages their characters are in the script, 9 and 6, during filming. Both deliver emotional performances. “I think these kids will look back on this experience not only being proud of the movie but as one of the best five, six weeks, hopefully, of their young lives.”
Robert Machoian, known for his 2020 Sundance film The Killing of Two Lovers, wrote Omaha. While a fictional story, it was inspired by actual events. “Robert is so gifted when it comes to getting down to intrinsic humanity,” Webley said. “He doesn’t care about your social class. He strips away all those things that society has placed on you, on us, and he just gets to the core of everybody’s humanity.”
Outside of Omaha, Webley has several projects in the works. His next film will be larger in scale and, for a change, feature only adults in the principal cast.
Webley said Omaha will stay in the minds of audiences for a long time. “I just want it to be a movie that can wash over you, and you can feel our concern, our love, for fathers,” he said.
Magaro’s last words will especially resonate. “Remember that, and see what it means to you,” Webley said.
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