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

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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

 

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

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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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Day 5: Grand Finale at Mammoth Lakes Film Festival

Lots of laughs today as the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival drew to a close.

The short Horseshoe Theory hilariously proves that politics makes strange bedfellows indeed.  A weapons deal between a white supremacist and a member of the Islamic State becomes, well, a romantic comedy. Director and writer Johnathan Daniel Brown perfectly cast Jackson Rathbone and Amir Malaklou as the pair in a film that was “inspired” in part by The Notebook and You Got Mail.  The 3 day shoot included a scene with a $50 jerry-rigged rain machine. Brown attests that he’s currently working on a feature adaptation of the project. “We want to place it in a bigger world – and we’re pitching it as Brokeback Mountain with more killing. We’re also working on another short – we like to make gross stories about silly vulgar things that terrify people.” And make them laugh.

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The international premiere of narrative feature The Great Unwashed was also brilliantly hilarious. Set in London and Wales with an absolutely spot-on cast of British comedy and sketch performers and writers, the story of a millennial (Jon Pointing) on the run from killer hairdressers is zany and inventive. Joining his hippie older brother (and co-writer Nick Horseman) and his wife in the Welsh woods – plus random loony neighbors –  the film mixes comic mobsters with the affect of a murderous A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Director and co-writer Louis Fonseca, a former stand-up comic himself,  culled his stellar cast perfectly. Shot in two weeks “in less than a square mile of the forest” he notes that the “hippie story line came first, and then we came up on what is the opposite of that – hairdressers. We felt like we were at holiday camp, we had such fun and we didn’t sleep much.” The film includes attack geese and the presence of the Welch “Spirit of the Forest.”  Fonseca says his father was the official “goose wrangler – geese are nasty creatures ready to attack visitors. We did our goose shot in one take.” Fonseca and Horseman are currently writing another film set in Wales -about a war between ice cream vendors.

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Withdrawn, the story of a slacker/small time grifter/aimless college graduate stars Aaron Keogh – “I’ve been training for this role for 25 years or so,” he jokes – as Aaron, with writer/director Adrian Murray as his put-upon roommate.  From trying to solve his Rubik’s cube to trying to hack into another’s credit card account, Aaron is a character for our time: lost, adrift, addicted to video games and Internet news.  Played out in many long takes, Murray says his cinematic approach was in part imagined due to “watching the menu background on Lost DVDs, where characters move in and out of frame. I was watching the show while sick, and I wondered if I could do that as a film. ” Most of the dialog was improv, with a cast of friends who knew who was going to bring what to the game. Of the protagonist’s news viewing habits, Murray remarks “I wanted to put his struggle in perspective. In another part of the world he’d be building a bomb. I was also commenting on the cycle of news and the information and knowledge degradation and loss.” The short Pet Monkey preceded the film, a wild and quirky piece about a man who wants to buy his girlfriend a pet monkey while secretly harboring a shed full of stuffed and plastic monkeys. Actor Sky Elobar spoke about the single day shoot in Rochester, N.Y., in which he was promised one of the art director’s purchased monkeys as a souvenir but groused that he “never got one.” Elobar was found by director Eric Maira off his titular role in late night cult favorite Greasy Strangler.

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Last but not least, the festival presented the amusing and touching documentary Dina,  which focuses on a woman with autism and other mental health issues. She survived a vicious  knife attack by an ex-boyfriend to marry kindly but more severely autistic Scott. Winner of the Grand Jury award at this year’s Sundance fest, the story offers an intimate portrait of a relationship as thoroughly relatable as it is special.

MLFF’s delightful fest trailer, featuring stop motion animation, was discussed preceding the film by co-director/creator Emily Hoffman. She’d attended the festival last year and was thrilled to be invited to make the trailer. “We had such an amazing time last year when we went to the hot springs at midnight, we knew we had to make the trailer about the springs outside town. We made stop motion puppets and placed them in goo made from borax, glue, and paint.” Hoffman’s roommate Dan Dietrich created the music which involves manipulated notes made from a recording of his own voice.  “It’s an awesome, ephemeral thing,” Hoffman says. “We wanted to make it nice because you have to listen to the trailer so many times,” she says. Hoffman crafted the trailer with partner Ariel Noltimier Strauss.

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We only wish we could listen to it longer – but these were the last screenings of MLFF 2017.

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Jack Burke

 

Mammoth Lakes Film Festival Day 4: Sierra Spirit Award Recipient John Sayles and More

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With a triumphant screening of John Sayles’ Baby It’s You, an extended q & a with director Sayles, star Vincent Spano, and Sayles’ life and creative partner Maggie Renzi, day 4 of the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival was packed with film pleasure.  Day 4 also brought  the documentary Olancho and the narrative dark comedy Neighborhood Food Drive.

Olancho tells the story of talented Honduran musicians who perform and record songs for members of a local drug cartel, and songwriter Manuel’s escape to the U.S. Involving footage of life in the Honduran region of Olancho, terrific portraits of Manuel, his band, and his family all make for a fascinating look at a relatively isolated portion of Honduras, as well as its music. First time filmmakers Chris Valdes and Ted Griswold taught school in the region in 2010. According to Griswold, “We taught for over two years, and some of the children we were teaching were kids of the narcos. We knew enough people that when we came back to film, people knew our intentions were good. At first we didn’t realize how important the connections we made were to keeping us safe, such as Manuel’s father  – but these relationships helped us a lot and got us out of situations that would have otherwise been dangerous.” Valdes adds “In Olancho, death is a part of everyday life. I taught 6th graders, and not a day went by without someone saying who they’d found dead on the street. You don’t think about it until you come home, and your mom at Thanksgiving says ‘that’s hairy.'”  Following the travails of Los Plebes de Olancho lead singer Manuel, as well as the wild exploits of accordian player Orlin,  viewers get an insightful look at Olancho’s world.  An elegaic short about life in Havana, Paloma, preceded the film.

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The witty short Crown Prince directed by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik opened for the narrative Neighborhood Food Drive. Crown Prince played with the concept of a prince from Luxembourg set loose in New York City. Burch notes that the cast was “all comedians” and she wrote “character bios but then let the actors do improv based on that.” Shot in a glossy black and white, the piece was a fun crowd-pleaser. The directors are currently working on a feature project. Neighborhood Food Drive, directed by Jerzy Rose and co-written by Rose, Mike Lopez, and Halle Butler, is an exceedingly dry dark comedy about a struggling Chicago restaurant, its deluded owners, a naive intern,  her waiter boyfriend, and their professor/couples counselor hosting a fundraiser.  What comes together is less a charitable event than a disaster. Peppered with in-jokes, a fun/scary synth horror score,  and “hall of mirrors strangeness,” as writer Butler attests,  the film lives up to Rose’s hope that it would be “like nothing anyone would ever have seen before.”

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The screening of John Sayles’ classic Baby It’s You was as enjoyable as it was still cutting-edge after all these years. The film was made in 1983, but its strong performances and tight, smart, emotionally real script by Sayles are still fresh. The high school to college love affair is deftly portrayed, and the direction is emblematic of Sayles as a true “actors director.”  After the screening, co-star Vincent Spano presented the Sierra Spirit Award to Sayles. “John Sayles exemplifies the spirit and dedication of remaining independent. He has a dedication to getting films done his way,” Spano says. In graciously accepting the award, Sayles added “You don’t do these things alone. I write, direct, and edit most of my movies, but you are working with so many talented people – my favorite part of the job.”  Producing partner Maggie Renzi has worked on 14 of Sayles’ 18 features.  “We were very lucky,” Renzi says. “There used to be an art house audience and our movies fit into that niche, and then VHS happened, and you could fund anything. It was a very lively independent marketplace; you could get money for $3-million movies. Now you cant get money for $1 million movies.  It’s much harder for filmmakers today.” Sayles notes that on the positive side, access to filmmaking equipment and skilled filmmaking personnel is much easier today.  As to Baby It’s You,  which was the only film Sayles has ever done screen-tests for “”When Vincent came in, I said that’s the guy. He was just right for the part. A week before we started shooting, Paramount wasn’t sure about their actors and wanted people of their own. But I held my ground.” He also held his ground in regard to story, rejecting a studio re-edit and ending up with the film he’d wanted to make, albeit one that received limited release at the time. Spano  points out “He has a lot of faith in his actors. The character, the story, it’s there on the page, and it was pretty certain who the characters were. He gives you everything you need.” Likewise, Sayles was impressed with the work of cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who recently passed away.  “He was the best operator I ever worked with…I never had to look in the camera after the third day, he got what I wanted.”

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With an after-party at the local nightspot Rafters – and live music by Jelly Bread,  day four of the fest that rocks the Sierras drew to a close, promising more fine films tomorrow.

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  • Genie Davis; Photos: Jack Burke