The first full day of the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival included meaningful documentary shorts and the always stellar Mojave to Mammoth shorts line up. We saw two innovative features and their accompanying shorts with plenty more to come the next three days!
Starring Jerry as Himself
You know all along there’s a twist – the opening graphics say it’s almost completely true – but what that may be gets superseded by the very real horror of retired Chinese American engineer Jerry being scammed out of his life savings.
He believes he’s under investigation for money laundering at first and must prove innocence; then that he’s being recruited to help catch criminals – as an undercover agent helping police in Shanghai.
Law Chen’s film is billed as a documentary, but it is primarily a reenactment of a true and horrible occurrence starring the real and titular protagonist.
Living in Orlando, elderly, and parsimonious to a fault, despite three adult sons and his friendly but ex-wife being all a part of his life, he doesn’t confide his situation until too late.
And then another situation reveals itself – one I won’t reveal here, which is partially the twist, but ultimately Jerry has chosen to make this true story film both to warn other seniors about the dangers of being scammed and fulfill a lifelong dream of being an actor instead of the engineer he became. The story is a moving one, tensely and entertainingly told.
The film was accompanied by an experimental short called A Throwing Forth, evoking haunting family memories via a single window, colors, and image.
Unicorn Boy
Animated feature six years in the making chronicles a break-up and a coming into acceptance by a struggling non-binary artist vaulted into saving themselves and a unicorn kingdom. All this unfolds while protagonist Matty survives a break-up, explores how to love and examines the reasons why the world can be a dark place. Lush animation using varied techniques and a vibrant palette of color is well-matched by a sweeping emotional musical score. Varied cameo voice actors includes turns by Maria Bamford and Patton Oswalt as the unicorn kingdom’s king and queen in this tour de force by lead, writer, and director Matt Kiehl. The message: let your freak flag fly through rainbow animation that visually dazzles.
The animated short that accompanied this film, Eclipsed, is the short story of a world in which eclipses are the norm and the sun coming out is entirely unique. It well conveys anticipation and anxiety in its spaghetti-o’s-consuming and witch-like main figure.. Director Jamie Wolfe creates a bold experimental narrative.
- Genie Davis; photos: Jack Burke and film stills courtesy of MLFF