A South Whidbey resident will soon see her first and only film on the silver screen in the Village by the Sea.

At the age of 75, Jennifer Townsend took the plunge into directing and producing a documentary about the 1991 feminist film “Thelma & Louise.” Based on an independent research project she conducted over two decades ago, Townsend’s flick explores viewers’ reaction to the provocative motion picture.

“I was just totally blown away by it,” Townsend recalled of her own response. “I’m sitting there in the theater in Seattle and the film ends and everyone’s filing out of the theater and I’m just sitting there in a daze, like I could hardly move. I almost never see a film more than once in my whole life, but I saw it four more times.”

“Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise,” Townsend’s 2017 documentary, is coming to the Clyde Theatre in Langley at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 10. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and after the 87-minute film, Townsend plans to host a Q&A with the audience.

In 1991, Townsend wanted to find out if other people had had similar experiences with the film written by Callie Khouri, which explores themes of female friendship and freedom on the open road. It’s also a story any woman on earth knows all too well, when it comes to confronting the threats of sexual harassment and assault from ill-intentioned men.

Townsend composed a press release that ran in several newspapers and magazines advertising her research project. She received countless postcards and phone calls from strangers around the country asking for her to send her survey questions. In a time before Google and the prevalence of email, communication was slow-going.

“During that waiting period, every newspaper, every magazine, I swear, the entire country had articles about ‘Thelma & Louise,’” Townsend said. “It was so controversial. People were up in arms about it. Some people hated it, some people loved it.”

She intended to write her own article based on answers to her questionnaire, but it soon became a saturated market. She also got writer’s block.

“It just didn’t seem right to be paraphrasing what people were saying,” she said. “You could sort of feel the emotion when you read it, and I wanted people to see the emotion.”

So she put the materials aside in a box until several years later.

“Finally, when I retired, I thought, ‘OK, now it’s do or die. Now I either take this stuff out and do something with it or it’s never gonna happen.’”

Tracking down the people who had participated in her questionnaire years ago proved to be tricky, even with a search engine on her side this time. She reached out using the phone numbers and email addresses she found online, but sometimes, people would think she was a scammer or wouldn’t believe they had taken the survey in the first place.

“Eventually I found enough people that were happy to be in the film and trusted me that this was going to be a good project,” Townsend said. “And I think that took a lot of guts, quite frankly, especially for a first-time filmmaker.”

As she soon found out, it wasn’t as easy as turning on a camera and pressing play. Townsend encountered several challenges along the way as she dove headfirst into learning about filmmaking as a newcomer to the industry.

“How in the world do you make a budget for a film when you’ve never made a film before?” she said. “How do you know what it costs for anything?”

She worked with a cameraman, an editor, a composer and other specialists to bring “Catching Sight of Thelma & Louise” to life. Her award-winning documentary ended up premiering at several film festivals around the world, including one in South Korea. Her film was shown on public television in Finland and Sweden.

She also ended up winning more than a few famous admirers, including Khouri, the screenwriter for “Thelma & Louise” and actress Geena Davis, who portrayed Thelma in the film.

“When you’re starting with ground zero, it’s just that much more difficult,” Townsend said. “It’s turned out to be very rewarding and I’ve had so many women come up to me and hug me and say, ‘Thank you so much.’”

Just like the two title women in her favorite film, Townsend has had quite the adventurous life, with years of solo traveling around European and Asian countries. She also raised four children as a single mother while attending law school.

In 2020, she was prepared to travel again as her documentary was going to be shown internationally. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic may have put an end to that, but she’s just as excited to see her film premiere in Langley, which she now calls home.

She advises people not to think they’re too old if there’s something in the back of their mind that they’ve been considering doing.

“Go for it,” she said. “Don’t talk yourself out of it.”

Jennifer Townsend with Geena Davis, who played Thelma in the 1991 film “Thelma Louise.” (Photo provided)

Jennifer Townsend reviews survey responses from over two decades ago. (Photo provided)

Jennifer Townsend with the Best Female Film Director award from the Santa Cruz Film Festival. (Photo provided)

Jennifer Townsend with the Audience Award for Best Documentary from Cinema at the Edge film festival in Santa Monica. (Photo provided)

Langley resident Jennifer Townsend is the director of the 2017 documentary, “Catching Sight of Thelma Louise.” (Photo by Kira Erickson/South Whidbey Record)