A Fine First Full Day at the 2026 Mammoth Lakes Film Fest 2026

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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

 

Mammoth Lakes Film Festival Celebrates Anniversary of Children of a Lesser God with Star Marlee Matlin

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The 2026 iteration of the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival began, as it consistently does, with a powerful and provocative film.

This year, it was a classic: the powerful 1986 romantic drama Children of a Lesser God, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.

Marlee Matlin’s Oscar-winning performance as a young deaf woman in love is an enormous highlight in the poignant love story between a woman who communicates solely by signing and a passionate teacher who believes she must learn to read lips and speak phonetically.

Matlin’s performance is brilliantly expressive, and a delight to revisit.

Even more delightful was an extended interview with Matlin conducted by MLFF director Shira Dubrovner. Matlin was also awarded the festival’s Sierra Spirit Award, focusing on her uncompromising commitment to presenting “deaf stories – which are universal stories.”

Dubrovner aptly characterized Matlin’s film performance as being “so raw and vulnerable and layered” despite being just 19 at the time.

Matlin relates that she had a supporting role in the Chicago company of the stage production of Childrenf of a Lesser God – her first paid role – when the film’s director Randa Haines tapped her for the lead.

“Randa is amazing she is an actor’s director, I learned from the best,” Matlin says.

Her first film role had her learning every aspect of filmmaking on the fly but with total commitment.

“I remember every scene we shot, the good days and bad days are all so vivid in my mind after all these years,” Matlin says.

After not having viewed the film in many years, Matlin recently watched it with captions burned in as they were at our MLFF screening. She feels that her role in the pivotal film led to her continued advocacy for the deaf community while the film itself was “a chapter I went through growing up on film.”

While the film was made from a “hearing perspective,” it still provided insight into living a rewarding life without hearing.

Matlin recently came full circle portraying a role as the mother of a young deaf girl in the 2020 award winner Coda.

Today, Matlin stresses the importance of “pushing for your own projects” in the film industry, laughing that “if i werent an actress i would own a candy shop.”

Following the screening and interview, Dubrovner and fest programming director Paul Sbrizzi presided over a lively after party with festival filmmakers featuring local brews and wine.

More outstanding films ahead!

– Genie Davis; photos by Davis and Cheryl Henderson

Here Comes the Shark – Jaws Celebrates 50th Anniversary at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

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With warm remarks by filmmaker Steven Speilberg, exhilerating soundtrack excerpts performed symphonically live and set to movie stills, dun-dun dun-dun dun– Jaws has arrived at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in mid-city.

It was a thrilling introduction to a well done exhibition at the museum, one that any movie lover should brave the waters filled with LA traffic sharks to experience.

The live musical experience of the Hollywood Studio Symphony – who performed the iconic John Williams score for the film originally, added to the enthusiasm of the audience before we even got a look at the beautifully realized multi-gallery experience.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary year of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures first large-scale exhibition dedicated to a single film is also the largest exhibition to have showcased Universal Pictures’ landmark summer blockbuster, which earned three Academy Awards® and was nominated for Best Picture.

Running September 14, 2025, through July 26, 2026 in the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Gallery, Jaws: The Exhibition breaks down famous scenes, offers interactive experiences, behind-the-scenes stories, and some 200 original objects on display.

Interactive experiences include the ability to pose as the arm buried in the sand dune on the beach; create your own dolly shot on your smart phone, operate a facsimile of Bruce the shark (the real deal hangs outside the gallery, spanning massive ceiling space over the escalator), or sit in the galley of the boat where the intrepid team of shark hunters bonded in the film.

Props and notes and even a camera are on display among many objects never previously shown to the public, some from the personal collections of Steven Spielberg and the Amblin Hearth Archive, the NBCUniversal Archives & Collections, and the Academy Collection.

 

According to Academy Museum Director and President Amy Homma, who gave her remarks at the press opening, “The Academy Museum celebrates film history and with this exhibition we can bring never-before-seen movie experiences to a public audience…[and] create a space where the worldwide community of Jaws fans can gather and relive the movie while giving new audiences the joy of discovery.”

Senior Exhibitions Curator Jenny He, who also spoke at the opening noted that “It has been absolutely rewarding to engage with so many outstanding collaborators to tell the story of Jaws through an exhibition, which is as thoughtful and revelatory as it is immersive and thrilling. All of us at the Academy Museum are deeply grateful for the invaluable support and insight we have received, working with Steven Spielberg’s personal archive at Amblin, the collection at Universal Pictures, numerous private collectors, and many of the Jaws filmmakers.”

The exhibition leads museum visitors through the structure of the film in six sections: “The Unseen Danger,” “Amity Island Welcomes You,” “Sunday at the Beach,” “The Shark’s Rampage,” “Adventure Ahead,” and “Into the Deep.” The final gallery of Jaws: The Exhibition explores the enduring impact of the film.

From scene set ups to learning about the team behind the film, location scouting, and the film’s famous dolly zoom effect, visitors will uncover terrific information amid a visually resonant series of original set decorations and props, production designs, a Moviola used by editor Verna Fields, and even have a chance to play the musical notes that signal the approach of the shark.

The delightfully immersive and experiential exhibition highlights the impact of the film on motion picture industry itself and pop culture, and brings viewers into the world of movie making as well as drawing them into the enduring allure of the film itself, from the dangerous great white shark to the efforts of the town’s chief of police (Roy Scheider), a young marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) to destroy the terrifying creature before it kills again.

As a thrilling adventure and as a remarkable feat of filmmaking – Speilberg remarked with wit about the great difficulties faced while filming on location, from rough seas to regattas showing up in his framing; and to the stress of being 110 days past the original shooting schedule. But what a reward for suffering the unexpected indignities of shooting at sea.

The Academy Museum is the largest museum in the world dedicated to global cinema and the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking. While you visit the brand new Jaws exhibition, be sure to also take a look the other stellar exhibits on display, from the world of Cyberpunk to the set designs of Barbie and Beauty & the Beast, the filmmaking of Bong Joon Ho, a glowing room of golden Oscars, and an astonishing collection of well known props and costumes from Captain America’s shield to Spiderman’s disguise.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

 

A Purrfect Show – Natural History Museum’s Cats Pounces Into LA

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Fierce! The Story of Cats, now at the Natural History Museum through February 18, 2026, brings an immersive, intelligent, and fun view of the fabulous feline to Los Angeles.

Saber-toothed cats had pretty impressive bicuspids!

Along with learning that the La Brea Tar Pits were once home to lions, and that cat friendships and mousing expertise long pre-dated the Egyptian culture’s deification of cats, the exhibit revealed not only cat history, but cat breeds, cat physicality, and cats as art and vestiges of good fortune.

There are clips from cat media (of course including last year’s Academy Award-winning Flow), video of Chinese New Year lion dancers, and even a gigantic sculpture of a Japanese “lucky kitty.”

Flow, above.

What and how cats see, below.

Add your kitty to the carousel of pretties…

In its West Coast debut, the show also features clever cat facts and silhouettes of kitties on the exhibition gallery walls; the ability to enter photos of your own cats as part of a slide show of domestic kitties; and a variety of cultural cat objects.

Seeing the size of various cat claws up close, and cat teeth, and cat fossils, the viewer gets a look at the evolution of cats, the array of feline family cousins and descendents. There are hands-on facts and fun, audio exhibits, and perhaps best of all, a wide ranging display of both taxidermied cats, art depictions of cats, and yes, stuffies of cats, all revealing the beautiful and diverse creatures that make up the feline family tree.

Learn how cats leap, all about their vision, their supple skeletal structure, the differences in fur, the commonalities among feline types.  Hear them roar, hear them purr, consider the reason cat claws contract, and the joy of a playful kitten.

From protecting crops to balancing the eco system in the wild, from predatory hunting skills to the healing sound of a purr, this lovely, multi-room exhibition (plus a gift shop with a lot of fun kitty-lover treats) is informative, fun, and packs a potent message about how important it is to protect cats great and small, their habitats and their homes.

The Natural History Museum is located at 900 Exhibition Blvd. in Los Angeles; open hours are 9-5 Monday-Sunday; Fierce tickets are $12 above the regular museum entrance pricing of $18 per adult admission. Go ahead, take a leap.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis