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Associated Press

Tourist attractions in South Dakota that appeared in the Academy Award-winning film Nomadland are seeing an increase in visitors.
Reptile Gardens animal park and Wall Drug Store, a sprawling, cowboy-themed roadside attraction, are both reporting an early bump in tourist traffic, the Rapid City Journal reports. Both were in Nomadland, which won best picture, best director and best actress Academy Awards.
The movie follows Fern, a 60-year old widow living in her van and taking odd jobs as she meanders across the American West.
Wall Drug Store has seen a 114 per cent increase in sales over 2019 while year-to-date for 2020 showed a 92 per cent increase, said chairman Rick Hustead.

“If it was up 10 per cent we’d be happy, but these are extraordinary numbers,” he said. “I think we’re going into a huge season.”
Reptile Gardens curator Terry Phillip said he spent an entire day filming with the crew. He believes the film will boost tourism for the whole state: “You can’t go wrong with that in any way, shape or form.” The state Tourism Department also anticipates a large number of visitors.
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“Overall, what you’ll find is we certainly noticed that film drives a great amount of inspiration for consumers,” said Katlyn Svendsen, global media and public relations director for the department.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether fame for another Nomadland location, the Western town of Quartzsite, in Arizona – where Fern begins her nomadic life – will translate into more tourists.
Regardless, Phil Bates, owner of the Main Trading Post, said that he planned to be ready to sell Nomadland-related T-shirts and tchotchkes to any of the newly curious who decide to make a pit stop in the small town near the California border. “I saw that it won,” he said. “It was like, son of a gun, that movie really took off.”

The filming in late 2018 did not seem to draw much attention from Quartzsite residents or disrupt daily activities, according to the Republic. The newspaper reported that most of McDormand’s scenes were filmed where the nomadic travellers camp in the desert, south of Interstate 10.
The town proper lies north of the freeway, though two Quartzsite businesses are shown in the film.
In one scene, McDormand dances with co-star David Strathairn inside the Quartzsite Yacht Club, a bar and grill on Main Street that features live music. But those wanting to visit will have to wait; the bar closed for the season in February because of staffing issues, according to its Facebook page.
MeMe Selleck, the Yacht Club’s owner since 2015, said the bar would reopen in October along with what she anticipates will be Nomadland merchandise for sale.

She no doubt will sell more memberships to the Quartzsite Yacht Club, each priced at US$49.99.
Donald Miller, who sings his Quartzsite Vendor Blues in the film, will be back at the club.
“With the movie and the big hype, I’ve been getting a lot of messages,” Selleck told the Republic. “I think it will be a positive for everybody in this town.”
In the movie, McDormand also takes in a performance by Paul Winer, who plays a melancholy boogie-woogie piano song in tribute to dead friends. That piano sits in a small music hall adjoining the Reader’s Oasis bookstore, also along Main Street.

A location scout for the film heard Winer playing and sent a video to the film’s director, Chloé Zhao, who decided to include him in the film, said Joanne Winer, Paul’s wife.
In the scene at the piano, Winer offers a musical toast to, as he sings it, “the friends who had to depart. The friends in our heart,” concluding, “Help me smile away the tears.”
Winer died in November, at the age of 75, after an illness that started to hit him around the time of filming, Joanne Winer said.

Paul Winer didn’t get to see himself in the movie, but he figured he would make the final cut after he received a check for US$1,000, Joanne Winer told the Republic. She also received an advance royalty check of another US$1,000 as Winer’s song, Next To The Track Blues, was put on the film’s soundtrack.
Joanne Winer said she was hoping for a Nomadland bump in business. She said that with the Covid-19 pandemic keeping away tourists this winter, particularly Canadians, her business was off 80 per cent compared to last year.


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American cinema

Nomadland: South Dakota seeing tourism boost from Oscar-winning movie; Quartzsite, Arizona hopes for the same magic

Frances McDormand won the Oscar for best actress for her role in the film ‘Nomadland.’ Photo: courtesy Searchlight Pictures/TNS

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA - JANUARY 31: A converted Sprinter campervan is seen in the Hummingbird Springs Wilderness Area on Bureau of Land Management land on January 31, 2021 in Quartzsite, Arizona. (Photo by Josh Brasted/Getty Images)CREDIT; GETTY IMAGES

Handout image of Paul Winer, who plays a melancholy boogie-woogie piano song in tribute to dead friends in Nomadland. That piano sits in a small music hall adjoining the Readerâs Oasis bookstore, also along Main Street.CREDIT: Twitter /@realSweetPie

North America, USA, South Dakota, Wall, Hustad's Wall Drug Store Complex. (Photo by: Bernard Friel/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)CREDIT; GETTY IMAGES

Frances McDormand and director/writer Chloe Zhao on the set of "Nomadland." (Joshua James Richards/20th Century Studios/TNS)

QUARTZSITE, AZ - FEBRUARY 25, 2021: Overall, shows recreational vehicles parked in the La Posa long term visitor area in Quartzsite, Arizona. Quartzsite is a town that grows thrice over in these winter months with snowbirds, and questions about who should and shouldnt get the COVID-19 vaccine have emerged. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)CREDIT; GETTY IMAGES

Nomadland director Chloé Zhao’s historic Oscars win censored in China, months after she was accused of insulting the country

Chloé Zhao shows off her Oscars for best picture and director for Nomadland, but the news went unheralded in China. Photo: AP

There was no mention of Zhao’s Oscar success by the People’s Daily or Xinhua News Agency. Photo: AP

Beijing-born Zhao became the first Asian woman to be named best director for her road movie Nomadland, which also picked up the best picture award. Photo: AFP

Earlier this year, Chinese netizens questioned whether Zhao, who was educated in the UK and the US, could be regarded as a Chinese citizen. Photo: Reuters

From Nomadland to Minari, an America in transition shown in the architecture of Oscars best picture nominees

Florian Zeller’s The Father, architecture is used to destabilise. Anthony Hopkins won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of an 80-year-old man whose memory is beginning to falter. 

The architecture in the Oscars nominees for best picture reflected the unsettled feeling of the narratives. Jacob and Monica’s house in Minari, a putty-coloured mobile home. 

From left: Steven Yeun, Alan Kim, Youn Yuh-Jung, Han Ye-ri and Noel Cho in a still from Minari. Photo: Josh Ethan Johnson/A24

Sound of Metal features musicians whose lives are entirely contained within the frame of an Airstream motor home. 

A still from Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Cassandra Thomas (played by Carey Mulligan) in a still from Promising Young Woman. 

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure


Stores and attractions have reported an increase in turnover since the film won three Oscars
Businesses in Quartzsite, Arizona that were also seen in the movie are preparing to stock movie-related merchandise



Businesses seen in the film, which won best picture, best director and best actress Academy Awards, are reporting significant increases in sales. Meanwhile, Quartzsite, Arizona, is hoping for the same effect.


United States