Celebrating its 10th year of stellar cinema, Mammoth Lakes Film Festival opened tonight with a visceral, important film.
Lucy Lawless of Xena:Warrior Princess fame directs a compelling documentary which has justifiably wowed audiences at a cadre of film festivals this year.
Never Look Away is a wild ride, telling the story of a woman who commanded so many to view the human story of war, involving and riveting her viewers as she skewered expectations as a gutsy CNN camerawoman traversing the globe in perilous times.
Both the stories she revealed and her own personal story are passionate and haunted.
Margaret Moth grew up in an abusive New Zealand home, immigrated to Houston, Texas. There she embraced a punk/Bohemian lifestyle, dropping acid, playing music, and taking lovers, including a 17 year old high school dropout, a relationship essential to both of them for decades.
Grabbing a camera on her many global travels, Moth covered the Middle East for CNN in the turbulent 80s and 90s, putting her life on the line, partying hard, and developing new friendships and loves that were as essential to her life as water.
Her penchant for putting her life on the line to depict horrifying scenes of war with compassion eventually caught up with her. Covering the siege of Sarajevo in the early 90s, she was shot in the face by a sniper.
While the tragic injury severely disfigured her, she endured 25 surgeries to regain as much normalcy as possible – and went back to work.
Lifelong friends admired her, lovers helped or distanced themselves, and her visual stories awakened many to the horrors of war and loss. Her bravery and empathy were only halted by cancer, leading to her death at age 59.
The persistence of a CNN colleague in telling her story and the wistful recollections of her lovers through the years inform the film with personal footage that round out the story of this consummate visual journalist.
Presenting this film as an opening night Spotlight event, MLFF appropriately gifted viewers with a fine film about the power of the moving image, something this festival is well-known for.
Helmed as always by festival director Shira Dubrovner and director of programming Paul Sbrizzi, 2024 looks to be an incredible year of cinematic storytelling.
Rounding out the night, the festival’s opening party presented a tasty spread of hors d’oeuvres and local craft beers, wine, and Yerba Matte along with its signature conviviality in introducing new and accomplished filmmakers to an eager audience – all in the beauty of snowy California mountains.
What are you waiting for? It’s Memorial Weekend, spend it taking in super films amid the pines. For more information and to purchase tickets or passes, click here.
– written by Genie Davis, photos by Jack Burke