Lead actor, writer, and co-producer Terence Chen (left), producer Kacey Montana (center), and lead actress Kendall Leary pose on the set of their film “Meet Cute in Manhattan.” The film will show at Rockland’s Strand Theatre at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16. (Photo courtesy Kacey Montana)
Kacey Montana, a member of the Medomak Valley High School class of 2012, is hoping for a packed house at the Strand Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 16, where she is planning a local screening of her first feature-length film.
Montana produced the film, titled “Meet Cute in Manhattan,” with her business partner Terence Chen, who also wrote the script and plays a leading role in the movie. Together, Montana and Chen are the co-founders of Tiger & Dog Productions, a New York City-based production company through which both cinephiles channel their creative energies.
Though Montana made her career in film in New York City, she began her journey in the Midcoast, where was involved in local theater since her youth.
“I grew up doing all sorts of theater, like at The Waldo Theatre (in Waldoboro), at the Lincoln Street Center (in Rockland),” Montana said.
As a child, Montana liked to be on stage. At the age of 10, after performing in a number of local plays, she had her first experience acting in a short film produced through the Maine Media Workshop. From then on, Montana was hooked on film.
“I said, this is the most amazing thing ever,” she said. “I love it, I loved the feeling.”
After attending local schools, including Friendship Village School, the Riley School, and St. George School, Montana began high school at Medomak Valley High School. She was acting less but remained interested in film, and studied education at Plymouth State University with the intent to become an on-set tutor for child actors.
After graduating, however, Montana took a more hands-on role in filmmaking than she had planned. Initially, she worked as a production assistant, absorbing as much information as she could from her environment and collaborators.
It was while working as a production assistant at Paramount that Montana and Chen would meet.
The pair immediately hit it off, and built Tiger & Dog Productions off of their shared visions and aspirations to create independent films. They have worked together ever since, and “Meet Cute in Manhattan” is the company’s first big film. Chen initially shared the script with Montana in 2021, and progress has moved quickly ever since, Montana said.
Bringing the film to the big screen after nearly four years of work is exhilarating, Montana said.
Terence Chen (left) and Kendall Leary are pictured in a still from “Meet Cute in Manhattan,” a romantic comedy produced by Medomak Valley High School graduate Kacey Montana. Since performing in local theaters as a young child, Montana has aspired to make films. This film, which Montana and Chen produced together, will show at Rockland’s Strand Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 16. (Photo courtesy Tiger & Dog Productions)
“Film crew tends to end up like a family. You go on set, and you’re all coming together to make something beautiful,” Montana said. “That’s always been my favorite thing about film – that family feeling of doing it together.”
“Meet Cute in Manhattan” is a romantic comedy that follows an actor, Jason, played by Chen, and an architect, Nora, played by Kendall Leary, through an unlikely journey. After a chance meeting on the street, the pair are unexpectedly cast in an ad campaign featuring couples.
“He takes her to an audition, and it’s for real couples only. They have 10 minutes before, and they’re not a real couple, but they pretend, and then they get cast,” Montana said.
As Jason and Nora’s relationship develops, the film explore themes of strong relationships and the importance of finding the right person – “your person,” as Montana put it – who will support and uplift you through life’s challenges.
“The idea is that, especially in places like New York, when there’s millions of people, you could be on the subway or on the street or in a coffee shop, and you could walk past your person, basically, and not even know it,” Montana said. “Then, in one moment, you know, your meet cute, you could run into them, and it could change your life.”
As a romantic comedy, the film both plays tribute to and playfully subverts the genre, Montana said. The film is packed with references to beloved romantic-comedies of the past, like “Singin’ in the Rain” and “When Harry Met Sally.” Plenty of rom-com Easter eggs are tucked away in the film for avid watchers to discover, Montana said.
The movie also assesses cinema from an insider’s angle, both through Chen’s character Jason’s work as an actor and the ad campaign he and Nora are cast in. This premise, Montana said, allowed the team to focus attention on the behind-the-scenes world of filmmaking.
This includes the biases and prejudices at work in the world of cinema, including discrimination faced by Asian American actors like Chen and his character. Montana said it was important to the entire team to be “blunt” about the realities of racism and discrimination in the world of filmmaking.
“I really hope that (the film) brings a little bit more attention to what Asian actors have to go through,” Montana said. “So I think just bringing that in, and especially to communities like Maine, where we’re not as diverse, it’s like getting (audiences) to see that.”
Film, said Montana, is a good medium for communicating complex realities because it is accessible and immersive. This makes the medium uniquely well-suited to helping people understand what others are going through, she said.
From left: Assistant Director Mackenzie Jamieson, Director Karen Morey, and Producer Kacey Montana laugh on set for the film “Meet Cute in Montana,” which will show at Rockland’s Strand Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 16. The film is the first feature-length movie that Montana, a 2012 graduate of Medomak Valley High School, has produced. (Photo courtesy Kacey Montana)
“I’ve always loved telling stories, and this is the medium that I chose to go forward with to tell stories,” she said. “I think it’s just beautiful when you can take a story you’ve heard and put it on the screen so everyone else can see it.”
Montana also said she loves cinema for its ability to inspire joy, which was also a central goal in the creating of “Meet Cute in Manhattan.”
“We wanted to make something that will make you laugh, and maybe cry a little, but make you laugh mostly … bring back joy, bring back humor, and just go and have a fun night at the movies,” Montana said.
Tiger & Dog Productions led a crew totaling about 80 people to produce “Meet Cute in Manhattan,” Montana said. The movie was directed by a recent film school graduate, Karen Morey and shot mostly on location.
This included one overnight session in Grand Central Station, which Montana said was a particularly memorable experience.
“It was one of those moments when you’re standing in there, in this huge space where thousands of people walk through every day, and it’s just you and your crew,” she said. “It was a very surreal moment getting to be in there.”
The production company is already working on future films and series, said Montana. Now back in Maine full time, Montana also hopes to apply her background to helping tell important stories from her home state.
“There are so many great stories from Maine that just aren’t heard,” she said.
In addition to showing “Meet Cute in Manhattan” in theaters, the Tiger & Dog Productions team is working with a corporate distributor in hopes of getting the film out on a streaming platform. Ultimately, the team hopes the story will bring a smile to watchers’ faces this Valentine’s Day season.
Chen, Morey, and Leary will join Montana at the Feb. 16 screening at The Strand, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
The theater is located at 345 Main Street in Rockland. Tickets will be sold in person, with the box office opening at 2:30 p.m. and the film to begin at 3 p.m. For more information and other showings, and to view the trailer – which was released Wednesday, Feb. 12 – find “Meet Cute in Manhattan” on Instagram at @meetcuteinmanhattanmovie.
