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“For When You Get Lost,” an award-winning indie film featuring Humboldt County’s majestic scenery and tasty beers, will screen Thursday evening at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, followed by a Q&A session with director Michelle Steffes and screenwriter/co-star Jennifer Sorenson.

Described by Film Threat as “sincere, subversive, and entirely unique,” the movie was inspired by a real-life road trip that took Sorenson through the Pacific Northwest by way of Avenue of the Giants, Eureka and Arcata — with stops at several local breweries.

The Outpost reached Steffes by phone earlier today, and she told us that her low-budget feature debut, which nabbed multiple awards on the festival circuit, including the Comedy Vanguard Audience Award at the 2023 Austin Film Festival, will make its non-festival theatrical premiere in Arcata Thursday evening.

The plot is based on a trip that Sorenson took years ago in an effort to make amends with her father before he died. “And on the way she had these mini-adventures,” Steffes explained.

Early in her trip, Sorenson encountered some bikers who suggested she go through Avenue of the Giants and stop in Arcata and Eureka. 

“So on that trip she went to Lost Coast Brewery, and she was so charmed and taken with the area, she started feeling like life was being cinematic,” Steffes said.

Sorenson had worked at various breweries and beer festivals, getting to know a variety of people in the beer-making community, and when it came time to produce the film version of her story, the crew relied on some of those very same people.

For example, Meredith Maier, co-owner of Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville, has “a sassy, judgy cameo” role in the movie, as she recently noted on Facebook. She told the Outpost that a coworker volunteered her for the role after producers put out a call for someone with an expressive face.

“I have a one-word line,” Maier said via Facebook Messenger, adding a smiley-face emoji.

While Sorenson made her real-life road trip solo, for the movie version she gave herself an estranged sister to accompany her and help heal the family’s fractures. The pair makes a bit of an odd couple, with Sorenson’s character, June Stevenson, up for adventure while her sister Cami (played by Elizabeth Alderfer) just wants to get the trip over and get back to real life.

“We kind of call it ‘Sideways for beer,’” Steffes said, referring to Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning, wine-drenched drama-comedy from 2004.

During the production crew’s time here in Humboldt they shot scenes at Six Rivers Brewery, Lost Coast Brewery and Redwood Curtain Brewing Company, along with a few non-beer-related locations. (Look for a giant redwood hug in the teaser trailer above.)

Steffes described the movie as a “very low budget” labor of love. When Sorenson first brought her the script, she loved it but voiced skepticism that all its scenes — including shots at an airport, on a boat and in multiple breweries — could be filmed on a shoestring budget. 

“She [Sorenson] told me, ‘You haven’t met people in beer culture; they’ll be so supportive.’ And they were,” Steffes said. “They sometimes gave us food. We felt so supported. We absolutely could not have done it without the people in that world.”

With an all-women filmmaking team, “For When You Get Lost” also received support from the nonprofit Women In Film, and it was awarded a ReFrame Stamp for its gender-balanced production, according to industry website Celluloid Junkie. 

Steffes said she thinks there were still tickets available as of Wednesday afternoon, and she’d love to have locals come “pack the house” and ask any questions they may have for her and Sorenson. 

The show starts at 6 p.m. at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. Tickets can be purchased online or at the venue.