“One day, the sadness will end.”
– Margaret Lanterman, The Log Lady
From the sinisterly psychotic Frank Booth to the utterly wholesome Dale Cooper, David Lynch‘s work was filled with enigmatic and often downright odd characters. However, one of the most mysterious and endearing was Margaret Lanterman, Twin Peaks‘ Log Lady. Portrayed by the late Catherine E. Coulson, the Log Lady, with her ever-present chunk of timber and cryptic insight, was a fan favorite and an integral part of the cult TV series’ elaborate mythos, appearing in the original two-season run, the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the 2017 Showtime revival series Twin Peaks: The Return.
Sadly, Twin Peaks: The Return would mark Coulson’s final performance. Ill with cancer, the 71-year-old actress died in January 2015, just four days after reprising her iconic role. Coulson learned of her terminal diagnosis just weeks after Lynch announced the show’s return. Not wanting to let her director, her fellow cast members and thousands of loyal Twin Peaks fans down, she struggled to live long enough to bring the Log Lady to the screen for the last time.
Coulson’s life and final days are chronicled in I KNOW CATHERINE, THE LOG LADY, the new documentary from actor and filmmaker Richard Green, which will have its Hollywood premiere on April 17 as the closing night film of the American Cinematheque’s This is Not A Fiction Film Festival.
“When Donna DuBain told me what lengths David Lynch and Catherine’s closest friends went through to get her final performance as the Log Lady on screen, days before she died, I knew there was a great story there,” Green shares. “In their own words, Catherine’s friends weave a riveting tale of who Catherine was and how and why the show must go on.”
Following the American Cinematheque premiere, the film will screen throughout the U.S., including a weeklong run in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Theatre in Glendale, beginning May 9. I KNOW CATHERINE will have its New York premiere on May 1 at the IFC Center, with an encore screening on May 4. Click here for a full list of screenings.
