Welcome to the first full day of the 2026 Mammoth Lakes Film Festival.
Two terrific shorts blocks made up our daytime viewing.
Narrative Shorts Block One ran the gamut from the ominous to the hilarious.
On the ominous side was Kralik, an Italian dramatic short about a father and son on an isolated farm, with the father’s fears of being murdered by his son closing in. The film was a dark and effective fable from director Alessandro Marchiori Rocca.
Chaika is a blurred, black and white vision of an elderly Russian cosmonaut stranded in remote, agricultural Cuba. Is her mission real or a delusion? This dreamy Columbian film from Ingrid Paola Bonilla Rodríguez leaves this question mysteriously open ended.
U.S, filmmakers Gabriel Bernini, Alexandra Jade offer a mix of humor and the ominous in UFO in which an unhappy couple attempt day-to-day normalcy even as a UFO hovers over their home.
Conceived after the devastating 2025 fires in Los Angeles, the high tensions from that time period plus an experience with a harassing neighbor led the couple to”monetize our lives” after a planning session at a Toluca Lake diner. Shot on Black Magic, with a UFO image developed with the assistance of Google images, the film is a funny/eerie way to express the disintegrstion of “normalcy.”
In The Strange Performances at the Church, sibling rivalry and the surprise success of what could be a disastrous live-stream concert are on display by writer/director Ray Smiling.
He notes that “I like to use different formats -digital film, go pro and effx 30 all mixed together and have a reason for using each one.”
Drawing out and out laughs was the frenetic fun of Nicky and Mike are in Beach Formal. Set on Coney Island, two friends get sidetracked by the amusement park scene en route to a friend’s wedding – at which, one was supposed to officiate.
A joyous potential pilot and truly delightful film from Talia Light Rake was a favorite for me. Too Romantic details the musical collaboration between two influencers and its unexpectedly turns romantic turn which leads to many likes if not true love.
According to Rake, “it’s a love story with magical realism about the power of love – a rom/com that breaks between a bright start and a darker, handheld approach to the second half with an impressive practical effect to conclude a film that begs to be continued.
The afternoon’s documentary shorts block were equally strong: Gold Man offers a few days in the life of the ‘Gold Man of Bihar.’ The Indian icon of wealth and good luck poses for photos wearing five kilos of gold jewellery every day. Director Rishi Chandna ably captures element of satire and fleeting fame.
Hyodo’s Paradise lets sex doll and mannequin collector —and museum owner – discuss his lonely life and suburban Tokyo museum. Both touching and spooky, Hydro’s life is movingly portrayed by director Jacque Rabie in this entry from Japan.
Canadian director Dylan Paffe’s Going Nowhere Fast reveals the private life and emotional complexities of three adults with traumatic brain injuries.
.As a primarily narrative filmmaker creating his first documentary, he “wanted to make Wuthering Heights with comedy, but it turned out differently among these autonomous adults” one of whom is his aunt.
Jar of Time is a long-form work depicting the life of one of the last nomadic Pomaks in Bulgaria, on their search for fertile grazing land and their navigation of a more regukated age.
Director Nevena Semova is well connected to “the Bulgarian Muslim community from childhood visits to the region, when the last Pomaks disappear, with new, strict regulations on food safety, the way they have lived for generations is disappearing.”
The Mojave to Mammoth shorts ick brought a mix of narrative and documentary films to screen. including the documentary My Grandfather was a Mountainclimber from UK director Tabitha Ellis, and a narrative short about a fateful meditative hike in the woods, Reunion, in which two high-school classmates reunite for a coincidental comeuppance.
Filmmakers Kyle Montgomery and Judd Myers worked together previously on commercial shoots and successfully convey “rising tensions and an ambiguous bullying back story.”
The lush Materia is an experimental short that vividly transforms stones and gems and even human hair into macro and microscopic images of texture, light, and connection between all aspects of the natural world by Canadian filmmaker Alisi Telengut.
300 is a beautifully constructed story of tackling and abiding in nature to overcome grief by a professional skier and guide, Miles Clark.
Filmmaker Liam Abbott relates that it was “like a found footage story, a challenge in editing the story of processing grief after losing a brother at age 13, and his mother years later.”
The title refers to Clark’s commitment to skiing “up to 5 ski resort runs or just surviving back country skiing” for 300 days over the course of a year after his mother’s death to cancer.
Abbott culled footage from over 12 hours of interview footage and “many terabyte’s” of ski footage.
Bears in Hot Tubs was a deeply touching and humorous film about having bears as pool loving neighbors in the hills of Los Angeles.
The film, which credits subject Maddie Bear as co-director with Claire Musser, is dedicated to Maddie’s deceased child Cubby, and to “learning how to live side by side with and learn about the individual creatures” who are neighbors to humans.
What Lies Unseen – Convict Lake explores rewarding volunteer clean up efforts beneath the trash-ridden surface of Convict Lake in Mono County. Director Colin West was part of the crew working under the auspices of advocate Jenny Revera who welcomes continued clean-up support from volunteers at jenny@cleanupthelake.org.
We finished our filmgoing with the improvisational feature comedy Danny is My Boyfriend, that ably expresses the pure creative delight of a group of friends just enjoying making a film together.
There was no script, a pervasive sense of zany joy, and an extended cameo by former Silence of the Lambs “girl in the well,” Brooke Smith.
Lucy Sandler & Mechi Lakatos as co-directors stressed that “fun is the thing that is usually a missing part of the filmmaking process but not here.”
The loosely woven comedy tells the tale of Lucy, who moved back in with her mother after a bad breakup, and her new boyfriend Danny’s request that she dog-sit while he’s away – when a stranger recognizes the three-legged dog as her boyfriend’s pet.
Concluding the full day: late night happy hour at Mammoth’s Distant Brew, serving up tasty IPAs, sours, blondes, and more to a thirsty and convivial group of filmgoers and makers.
– Genie Davis; photos: Davis and Cheryl Henderson
