'Log Lady' documentary about fascinating actress Catherine Coulson to be shown in Detroit

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15-04-2025

'One day my log will have something to say about this.'
The wonderfully weird, often cryptic Log Lady spoke these words to Agent Dale Cooper in a 1990 episode of 'Twin Peaks,' the groundbreaking drama from director David Lynch that was the indie auteur's great gift to television.
This week, Cinema Detroit, which had to leave its Midtown location in 2023, and Stadt Garten, a bar in the city's Midtown neighborhood, are partnering to screen 'I Know Catherine, the Log Lady,' a documentary about Catherine Coulson, the fascinating actress who played the unforgettable character.
The collaboration could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship (to quote 'Casablanca,' not the Log Lady).
For the past two years, Cinema Detroit has been operating as a pop-up venue at various sites like Hamtramck's Planet Ant. Teaming up with Stadt Garten will allow the indie theater 'to return to the area where we operated for 10 years, which is centrally located for a lot of our audience, and to have multiple shows in a week,' says Cinema Detroit co-founder and programmer Paula Guthat.
Mark Beard, who founded Stadt Garten, describes himself as a longtime film enthusiast. The collaboration with Cinema Detroit is a way for him to take action and do something positive for the Motor City film community, which also has endured the demolishing of the Maple Theatre in Bloomfield Township in 2024 and Royal Oak's Main Art Theatre in 2022.
'I've always wanted a place for the community here at the building, no doubt,' says Beard of the 1880s mansion on Second Avenue that is home to Stadt Garten. 'And this seemed to be the best way at present to provide something that's good.'
The 'Log Lady' documentary will be shown Wednesday and Thursday at 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. in an indoor screening room at the location, which has a 91 inch projection screen. Like regular patrons of the bar, moviegoers will be able to order from an ample menu of wine, beer, non-alcoholic drinks and snacks.
'The goal at present is to do this indefinitely,' says Beard of the weekly screenings. 'Our hope will be to add outdoor cinema at some point once we raise enough funds to get that done.'
Stadt Garten calls itself "an exploration of Germanic food and beverage culture in an urban wine and beer garden." With indoor and outdoor seating, it offers a generous array of wines and beers from Germany and other nearby European regions and snacks in a setting that is 'chill, charming, gemütlich' (that's pleasant and cheerful for non-German speakers).
Beard says the concept for the bar arose from a road trip through Germany and other countries that he took a decade ago with his friend Ryan Patrick Hooper, the writer and host of WDET-FM's 'In the Groove' weekdays at noon on Detroit's NPR station.
According to Guthat, Beard and the rest of his staff 'really understand what we were doing with Cinema Detroit as a seven-day-a-week independent arthouse movie theater and they understand what we are doing now.' They also share an understanding of the process of curation, in her case of movies and in his case of wines.
Beard says he is happy to leave the artistic decisions to Cinema Detroit, but he hopes that there will be room for future screenings tied to Stadt Garten's European flavor. Two summers ago, he recalls, they tried an outdoor screening with the fast-paced 1998 German thriller 'Run Lola Run.'
Guthat sounds enthusiastic about the possibility of such themed events. 'I'm looking at a variety of films to pair with the wines,' she says, noting that she has tried 'some of the most amazing wines there' as a patron.
'I Know Catherine, the Log Lady' tells the story of Coulson, who rose to cult fame as Margaret Lanterman, aka the wood-carrying Log Lady on 'Twin Peaks.' Born to a father who worked in public relations for Disney, the actress had many credits in TV, movies and the stage. Her performing roots ranged from the avant-garde 1960s hippie scene of San Francisco to her long association with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Coulson became lifelong friends with Lynch around the time he was making his breakout movie, 1977's "Eraserhead." She worked as an assistant cameraperson and assistant to the director on the film and went on to work on the camera team of many more movies, including "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."
The documentary ends with Coulson's diagnosis with lung cancer and the race to finish shooting her role as the Log Lady for 2017's "Twin Peaks: The Return" limited series for Showtime.
"I Know Catherine, the Log Lady" features the final appearance in a film by Lynch, who died in January.
'(Coulson) and Lynch were friends for decades and they thought up the Log Lady character while they were making 'Eraserhead,'' says Paula Guthat. 'She just had this amazing creative life that I think Lynch enthusiasts in particular will be fascinated by.'
Tickets for the 'Log Lady' documentary screenings are available online at cinemadetroit.org.
Cinema Detroit also plans to continue its pop-up screenings at other venues. On May 11, it will have a screening of "Everybody Loves Touda" at Planet Ant in partnership with the Arab American National Museum's Arab Film Festival.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [e-mail].
9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Stadt Garten
3980 Second Ave., Detroit
Tickets are $12 general admission, $17 admission plus donation. Seating starts 30 minutes before showtime.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'I Know Catherine, the Log Lady' documentary to be shown in Detroit