It was a bittersweet day Saturday for the cast and crew of the Cass-based movie “Angel’s Perch.” The group gathered at the Artist’s Gallery in Green Bank for the shoot for the movie about a man who returns home to assist his grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

The movie was written by J.T. Arbogast and is based on his own grandmother, Dess Kane, and her struggle with the disease.

“Polly,” the grandmother character, is portrayed by Joyce Van Patten, a veteran of stage and screen.

Van Patten said her three weeks in the county were a wonderful “vacation” from the hustle and bustle of the city.

“You are in the middle of nowhere, there’s no cellphones and I enjoyed conversation,” she said. “It’s lovely. Everybody wants to talk. People don’t do that enough, so it’s a very nice thing.”

Although she had a very strict shooting schedule, Van Patten said she enjoyed the parts of the county she visited.

“It’s beautiful, it’s been a really wonderful experience,” she said. “I rode the ski lift on the mountain [Snowshoe Mountain Resort]. That’s my big thing I did.”

Van Patten said she was attracted to the movie because of the way it dealt with Alzheimer’s.

“It’s a very delicately written, interesting script and it’s about something that is affecting so many people,” she said. “People aren’t making movies about it. It’s a subject that they’re not really dealing with, maybe as a secondary part of the story, but this is really the story of somebody watching somebody they love [go through this]. We tried to find as much humor as we could. I hope we’ve been successful.”

Filming for the movie began in the county September 3 and ended Saturday, September 22.

Van Patten was joined by actresses Ellen Crawford, Ally Walker and Ashley Jones, as well as several locals including Homer Hunter and his band, Dwayne Kinnison, Mike Holstine and Michael Kane.

Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com