East of the Mountains (film)
2021 film directed by SJ Chiro
East of the Mountains is a drama film directed by S. J. Chiro that premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in April 2021. It opened in September 2021 in US cinemas. The film is based on the novel East of the Mountains by David Guterson.
Plot
Retired cardiologist Ben Givens lives in Seattle and has recently became a widower. After being diagnosed with cancer, he decides to end his life. He tells his daughter Renee he's going bird hunting on the dry steppes east of the Cascade Mountains for a few days, or, as he puts it: "I want to go back to my old stomping grounds."
Ben drives to Eastern Washington with only a few belongings, his dog Rex, and a shotgun. On the way his SUV breaks down, but a couple of young rock climbers give him a ride to his destination. It was in this general region where he met and courted Rachel, the woman he would later marry, and the landscape is full of powerful memories which come back to haunt him.
Cast
Tom Skerritt as Ben Givens
Jule Johnson as Young Ben Givens
Levi Ralston as 10-Year-Old Ben Givens
Mira Sorvino as Renee Givens
Annie Gonzales as Dr. Anita Romero
Wally Dalton as Aidan Givens
Dylan Boeshaar as Young Aidan Givens
Donna Dannenmiller as Rachel Givens
Victoria Summer Felix as Young Rachel
Diego Collie as Derek
Lauren Du Pree as Christine (credited as Lauren Dupree)
Nick Sage Palmieri as Kevin
Sharva Maynard as Bea Harden
Robert Fuentes as Roberto
John Paulsen as Bill Harden
Thurman Kellogg as Wright Givens
Kevin Cole as Himself (voice) (credited as DJ Kevin Cole)
Ozzy as Rex The Dog
Production
Thane Swigart adapted Guterson's novel for the film by.
“East of the Mountains (film)” enters the record as 2021 film directed by SJ Chiro. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what East, Mountains and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“East of the Mountains (film)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, East, Mountains and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106548437. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2021.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “East of the Mountains (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow East of the Mountains (film) primary sources, East of the Mountains (film) archive and East research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “East of the Mountains (film)”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “East of the Mountains (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.