Opening Night at the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival: Damsel — Not in Distress

Posted on by Diversions LA

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It’s opening night at the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, and the first night of our daily coverage of this stellar, growing fest. As festival director and founder Shira Dubrovner remarked while introducing the opening night film, “This is the 4th year of the festival…we’re here to stay.” Along with programmer Paul Sbrizzi, Dubrovner has a wide ranging slate on tap for this year’s edition of MLFF — so drive on up to Mammoth and join us. There are tickets to many events still available at the box office.

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Tonight’s opener, Damsel, premiered at Sundance in January, and it is a quirky, twisty, fresh delight. Set in the old west, the titular damsel, Penelope, ( a galvanizing Mia Wasikowska) is not in distress and does not need rescuing, but that doesn’t deter her persistent former-beau Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson) from trying, aided and reluctantly abetted by Parson Henry (played to lonely perfection by co-writer and co-director David Zellner, who shares writing and directing credits with his brother Nathan).

Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson appear in Damsel by David Zellner and Nathan Zellner, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Adam Stone. All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or 'Courtesy of Sundance Institute.' Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.
Photo above courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Adam Stone. 

Devious twists and turns edge between comedy and tragedy – a lot like real life, but with a touch of ironic whimsy and abrupt bursts of violence. The Zellner siblings share some of these traits with two other related filmmakers, the Coen brothers, but their take is fresh and on point. One of the most delightful aspects of the film is its complete unpredictability, signaled from the very first scene, when an exhausted minister gives up the cloth to Henry, before wandering off into the desert. Henry is as reluctant a preacher as he is an accomplice to Samuel’s “rescue” of Penelope.

The film plays on Western tropes and turns them in a surprisingly feminist direction; it touches on current mores and offers a gentle send-up of classic Westerns. But best of all it is dark and funny, dry and yet edgily sentimental. It’s no small thing to wonder where a film or even a scene is going, feel a jolt of adrenaline-producing surprise, and have that sensation occur repeatedly while watching. Lush and at times eerily symbolic cinematography, plus strong acting all around, make this film a winner, and a nicely outside-the-box opener for MLFF.

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Following the screening, an opening night party at the Sierra Nevada Center served up Blue Moon and St. Archer beer, Black Box wine,  and munchies including Swedish meatballs and crunchy cheese tots.

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With a full day of programming tomorrow, no one needs snow as a reason to head to Mammoth.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Jack Burke

 

Forestiere Underground Gardens: Fine Folk Art in Fresno

Posted on by Diversions LA

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A California Historical Landmark and an artistic and architectural treasure, the Forestiere Underground Gardens is a miracle of folk art.

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Akin to the Watts Towers and Nitwit Ridge, it is the vision of a man who could craft anything, and didn’t let a little problem like hard and unyielding soil destroy his vision of a California Eden.

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An hour long tour takes visitors through the well-preserved tunnels and caves created by Baldassare Forestiere, a Sicillian immigrant. His underground rooms, courtyards, and passages include producing fruit trees and vines some now 90 years old.

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Always a digger, Forestiere immigrated first to New York City where he excavated subway tunnels. He moved west in search of his dream of a perfect climate and a rich orchard; first to Orange County, then to Fresno, where he bought 80 acres for what was then $80 in the early 1900s. But the land he purchased was hard as rock, too difficult to break through the hard pan surface to plant, particularly in weather that in the summer could soar to 120 degrees.

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So instead, he dug below, far below, creating an underground haven similar in temperature and construction to large wine cellars or catacombs. His dream evolved: he decided he wanted to create an underground resort with 50 rooms.

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He dug for over 30 years; but his dream was unrealized in full: after surgery for a hernia he contracted pneumonia and passed away. His brother Giuseppe knew what the property meant to his brother and saved ten acres from development, opening it to tours and the public.

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Today, viewers can explore the ballroom where a terrazzo floor was laid; Baldassare Forestiere‘s ingenious water piping and bathtub, his irrigation for underground fruit trees that are still thriving, his kitchen, with clever nooks and crannies, mosaic decorative work,  and more.

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It’s a wonderful place, full of smart touches from rotating cabinets to expandable tables; a glassed in pond that could be viewed from a lower level of the caverns and on the floor above.

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Giuseppe’s now-80 year old son Rick and his children still work on preserving the gardens, and the rather magical memories Rick has of sleepovers at his uncle’s place have been passed through the generations.

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It may not have become a luxury underground hotel, but it is a special luxury to visit the place, to see a wonderfully realized artistic vision. Think of it as installation art that has reached the highest pinnacle of success; something to be lived in, treasured, and preserved.

“To make something with a lot of money, that is easy; but to make something out of nothing – now that is really something.”

— BALDASSARE FORESTIERE

You want to see this brilliant space, it is art and architecture and crazy vision and faith realized all at once. Faith possibly above all.

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Just get on the 99 and go. The tours are warmly given, the gift shop may have fruit available from Forestiere’s own trees.

On you way back to LA, stop at a Basque restaurant in Bakersfield and eat an inexpensive feast, and raise a glass of beer or wine in a toast to Forestiere – and the power of persistence, and the strength of a dream.

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Genie Davis; and Forestiere Underground Gardens

 

Susan Amorde: She May Have Lots of Baggage But She’s Going Somewhere

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Susan Amorde has a lot of baggage. Or rather, her art includes many works that feature suitcases, trunks, and briefcases as a part of sculptures that travel the distance – evocative, edged with mystery and a dark magic.

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Suspended from the ceiling, or weighted on the floor, this luggage isn’t easy to unpack.

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From sculptural works made with vintage suitcases to beautiful figurative works in clay, wax, bronze, and plaster, Amorde’s work is moody and emotional; she takes viewers on a journey that is both spiritual and literal. She takes on the metaphorical idea of baggage, and how what we carry with us emotionally can become what we are in life. Her work is often witty, with a double entendre rooted within its sculptural nuance. Below, for example, from her Dick and Jane series, is “Woe is Dick.” Amusing, scatological, and brilliantly anguished, this is a fresh take on what could very well be toxic masculinity as it affects its “owner.”

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What travels through all of Amorde’s work is a muscular strength, a determination and a sense of a discovery. What is it that we find so precious, that we we must take with us everywhere we go? What is it that we find a necessity to bring with us, to pack away, to shape our journey through life, to shape us?

With “Mort’s Briefcase,” below, from her Baggage series, the artist juxtaposes the mixed media of a key and a wall hook with a beautiful sculpture of a man with his open brief case, standing on a small trunk. So much here: the secret content of the receptacle on which he stands; how his body has morphed into a series of objects – the key symbolic of the things he has long locked away.

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Other, smaller keys are attached to his arms. Such weight: why do we lock away our secrets, and how do they continue to impact our lives even if we keep them out of sight? Amorde has said that “We as individuals, as well as society and culture, have baggage that we carry around and that either enhances or impedes our daily lives. I incorporate the figure with sculptures of suitcases or use mixed-media to explore how we feel about  ‘baggage’ and what it looks like.”

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At times, what Amorde seems to be telling the viewer is to really look inside that suitcase, to emotionally unpack. In other works, she’s showing us the richness of everything we carry, the wildness and passion of even our most fraught memories. There is a darkness and an edge to some of her works, as with her stunning “On the Edge,” below. Here a woman is weighted down, trapped under lock and key. She has literally become the baggage she carries and is in torment from it.  Is her freedom just a flick of a lock away?

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Weighted with an anchor and chain, the suitcase below is emblematic of more than just one individual, symbolic of modern life itself. The more we have to do, the more we may gain or lose, the more we have to hide. And whatever we’ve kept hidden gets heavier, and heavier, until what we are dragging with us might very well take us to the bottom of the sea and leave us to drown there. “Route 66 Anchor and Chains,” below, has an interesting title. Route 66, after all, was where we were to get our kicks, not our chains.

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And once sunk under the sea, perhaps we are still “Drowning in Indecision,” the title of the work below.

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Amorde’s series of water portal sculptures are especially beautiful, the liquid sections of each piece feel illuminated with light. Perhaps once we drown what we carry we can finally be made free. Or perhaps we are still on the hook for our burdens.

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Her “Wounded Baggage,” above, is classically framed, shot through with bloodied arrows. We can try to kill the demons that we carry, but yet they bleed.

One of the many fascinating things about Amorde’s work is how many questions her art raises. She gives us no pat replies: we are finding insight more than answers.

This is an artist ready to travel, taking viewers on a long and internal journey with her and her art.  To quote The Beatles “Boy you gotta carry that weight/carry that weight a long time.”

Amorde’s profound, anguished, and rich art might just help lighten the load.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Susan Amorde, Genie Davis

 

It’s Time for a Mammoth Memorial Weekend: The Mammoth Lakes Film Festival Enters 4th Year

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Running May 23rd to May 27th, the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival enters its 4th year with a stellar line-up of narrative features, docs, and shorts.

The eclectic programming mix and the pristine mountain setting makes the perfect combination for a Memorial Weekend celebration, and a great way to start the summer for film lovers.

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This will be our 3rd year in attendance, and each year brings exciting film surprises that we just haven’t seen anywhere else, as well as some festival-circuit favorites, and an always-fresh tribute to a filmmaker or filmmaking talent. Programming director Paul Sbrizzi notes “MLFF focuses on films that have powerful, innovative artistic voices.”

It’s not too late to plan a trip north, and with Damsel opening the fest and Love, Gilda closing it, there are plenty of reasons to make the drive. Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska star in David and Nathan Zellner’s comedy-laced homage to classic Westerns in Damsel;  the moving Gilda Radner doc takes a moving and intimate look at the beloved comedienne in a film by Lisa D’Apolito.

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Other standouts look to be a black comedy about love, Birds Without Feathers, in it’s west coast premiere; The Queen of Hollywood Boulevard, a dramatic thriller about a proud LA strip club owner’s spiral into violence; docs such as Crime + Punishment, exploring illegal quota practices in the NYPD, and Minding the Gap, a poignant look at three skateboarding friends among so many other films on tap. Foreign features such as Spain’s mind-bending Barren and Empty the Sea, an international premiere; and the dark but hilarious Norwegian Vidar the Vampire are also a part of the line-up. With exciting out-of-competition Spotlight films, a wide-ranging collection of short films including docs, animation, and narrative, not to mention the presentation of the fest’s annual Sierra Spirit Award to actress Melissa Leo, (below) there is a lot for film lovers to be excited about this year.

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As fest director Shira Dubrovner explains “In four short years, we’ve already begun to establish MLFF as a must-attend festival.” And we would agree.

For more information, visit MLFF’s website for a complete schedule.

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