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It would be incredibly hard to top the powerhouse slate of films that Mammoth Lakes Film Festival served up in their 10th year this Saturday.

Both hilarious, inspirational, and moving, All I’ve Got & Then Some follows a day in the life of Rasheed, a homeless stand-up comedian living out of his car in Los Angeles. Based on a true story, both the filmmaker and his on-screen persona adhere to the inspirational credo “today is the best day of my life.”  So much charisma and love on the screen makes this film a true delight, as directed and conceived of by Tehben Dean and Rasheed Stephens, and starring Stephens in a script based on a true story.

Having booked his first paid stand-up gig, Rasheed wings his way through an audition, helps out a supportive and vibrant street walker friend, Rose (a screen-grabbing performance inhabited by the talented Avise Parsons), rescues an adorable fellow car dweller from an attack, and traverses the metaphorical and literal minefield of Los Angeles.

Both super fun and inspiring, Stephens led the MLFF crowd at the film’s q and A in a rousing affirmation of “today is the best day of my life,” just as his film embodied that emotion.

Paired with this feature was a laugh-out-loud riff on fitness obsession in Beyond Failure.  Director and star Marissa Losoya is a winner in a fully relatable short about a woman who thinks she can hip thrust her way into a perfect buttocks and away from her negative internal monologue.

In a deeply serious shift to our viewing, Chloé Leriche’s Atikamekw Suns is a hybrid narrative and documentary.

The film hauntingly depicts the tragic true story of five young people from the Atikamekw First Nation community of Matawan, Quebec in 1977, found dead in a van submerged in a river. The cruel and apathetic response of legal authorities left the suspects responsible to walk free, whether the deaths were due to vehicular manslaughter at the least or a murderous act of racial malignancy.

Both poetic and devastating, the film reveals the loss and suffering of family members and the tribal community at large. The passionate and important q and a following the film included both Leriche and Sean Scruggs, the tribal historian of the Piute tribe of Independence, Calif., near the festival’s location. The erasure of tribal heritage and Native American trauma is a key and ongoing issue in both the U.S and Canada, and requires a spotlight.

 Mediha, from Hassan Oswald with a major creative assist from the brave and brilliant protagonist, Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad, is an incredibly important, astonishing film that depicts the amazing, inspiring bravery of its protagonist. Truly compelling and vital, this intense, brilliant film focused on its titular subject.

Mediha is a 13 year old from northern Iraq when introduced, a member of the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority, and survivor of a 2014 ISIS-orchestrated genocide. Through her astonishing video diaries, Mediha and her brothers create an intimate and intensely moving account of their grief and trauma.

In a q and a following this truly must-see film, Hasan, along with Mediha herself, talked about past, present, and future. Mediha is about to commence college in New York, and is heading toward law school, a once almost unimaginable future for the young survivor trapped in a relocation camp in Iraq after her rescue.

There is no way to describe how inspiring and magnetic Mediha herself is, or the film she embodies. The film is a perfectly realized portrait of this passionate burgeoning activist, sure to make her mark on the world, as one would hope her story will as well.

Enormous kudos to MLFF, Hasan, and of course, Mediha herself, for presenting this story and the ongoing crisis for the Yazidi people. It is as important and moving as filmmaking gets.

The film was paired with Cycles, a beautifully narrative take on a documentary short about a generous, caring, divorced mom who is helping to support her kids as an egg donor. The subject is the sister of co-director Tony Oswald, who created the film with spouse and partner Pisie Hochheim. The film follows its subject to a fertility clinic in San Diego, as she movingly grapples with the effects of her donation on both her body and mind.

As a perfect celebration and release from this day of awe-inspiring filmmaking, what could be better than a rousing karaoke celebration with DJ Maurice at Mammoth Lake’s Bar Sierra? Honestly, we can’t imagine a better conclusion to the day’s perfect programming.

Do you wish you were on a cinematic mountain high? It’s still not too late to attend. For more information, click here.

• written by Genie Davis, photos by Jack Burke

A fine Friday unfolded at today’s Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, the third day of this stellar fest in the scenic Sierras.

First though, a quick take on a film left out of yesterday’s reviews, Unnamed, a short paired with yesterday’s evening screening. The vivid story profiles the challenging life of a trans volleyball pro navigating discriminatory Iranian life.

We began our morning today with another Iranian entry, Winter Threshold, a  documentary feature depicting a pandemic period of stressful education and family life and a mother’s deep love for her son, Kasra. The film also turns inward to Mahsa’s dedication to her son’s education and the hope and loss embodied in her own marriage.

Directed with a careful eye for emotional detail by Soudabeh Beizaei, the reason’s for the father’s jail sentence are unclear as to political or criminal enterprise, but it remains an interesting view of Iranian life during Covid lockdowns.

The film was paired with a German- made lengthy short subject about the difficult journey to the U.S undertaken by a Guatemalan immigrant, in a visceral film from German director Alan Rexroth. The 32 min. short #WAY_Aurelio is part of a quartet of films about one’s place in the world.

Narrative Shorts Blocks 3 was a lively mix of themes. A stand-out for me was the beautifully shot and movingly realized story as a father, separated from his estranged wife, spends a weekend camping with his eight year old, emotionally precocious daughter.  A  Tidy House poignantly depicts the breakdown of her father and the young girl’s caring emotional support. Lushly  shot and emotionally perfect.

The Year of Staring at Noses hilariously chronicles filmmaker and star Karen Knox’s nose job over a three year period, with directors Knox and Matt Eastman using a faux audition for The Bachelor as the impetus for alter ego Samantha’s nose job, undertaken as a quest to find love. Witty and wild, the film quotes and makes good use of the famous Goddard quote about the three elements to make a film: a girl, a gun, and a camera.

Gabriel Bellone’s 1 minute hand-cranked 16 mm piece is his emotional, double-time take on his own mother’s decision to call the police on him with a falsified story about his behavior – at age 10. The short piece Mom is conceived of as part of a broad story about policing, and is intense.  Bellone not only shot on 16mm he edited on a Steinbeck for a raw, gritty look.

Directed and written by Louisiana filmmaker Arcos, Quilly is a richly involving story about a toxic and cyclical relationship that in part hinges on the couples relationship with a crudely handcrafted stuffed animal, their pretend-child. Funny, dark, and intimate, this is a short that makes viewers want to see even more. Arcos has presented other exciting entries at previous iterations of MLFF, and is consistently evocative and resonant as a filmmaker.

Jared Greenberg’s The Girl Who Cried is both a tacky laugh track sitcom, horror story about the gaslighting of a sexual assault victim, and a dog – picture the 2010s FX series Willardgone horror in a fun genre mashup.

The Mojave to Mammoth shorts series is a favorite of mine of MLFF, shaped by local area filmmakers. This year, entries featured three docs and two features.

Documentary screenings included the intense and moving 109 Below. Directed by Nick Martini, the film relates the hazardous stories of rescue volunteers who help climbers lost or in trouble on frigid Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. A rescue in 1982 changed two climbers’ lives, with one of those rescued losing his legs but going on to do incredible work at MIT developing prosthetic limbs. One of the rescuers tragically died saving him. The film Is a moving tribute to these heroes on the mountain.

Tracing History was also deeply moving and beautifully shot as a mother and daughter explore their heritage in the area between Reno and Mono Lake. Chinese American filmmaker Jalena Keane-Lee leads views on a journey of reclamation touring the railroad sites built under extremely hazardous conditions by their ancestors generations earlier.

In the thrilling Never Again, director and climber John Cramer takes viewers on a personal journey along a perilous new route up Mt. Morrison’s extremely dangerous north face. While Cramer and two friends initially claim they’ll never take that route again, they nonetheless return three times to challenge their ability to find a better way up to the peak. Amazing images in an adrenaline elevating tale.

Moving in to narrative shorts, Intruder, directed by and starring Cal Arts masters program student Abbs Stoiber, illustrates a literally present shadowy figure of anxiety and doubt tormenting a college student attempting to find her wings. Stoiber is not only a local filmmaker, as a pre-teen she attended acting programs taught by festival founder Shira Dubrovner.

Extinction Story Origin Story, shot in moody and loving black and white and directed by Terrie Samundra, offers a spooky story of a mysterious event changing the world in which two school friends live, as their LA playground becomes a haunted desert that includes footage shot near Fossil Falls. The production was a family affair featuring Samundra’s daughter and goddaughter, with her husband shooting the lustrous film on 16 mm.

The Other Profile from French director Armel Hostiou explores the idea of truth and lies, fake and real, and the myths of storytelling itself that arises when he pursues the creator of a Facebook account that purports to be him and invites women to audition for his next film, supposedly set in the Democratic Republic of Congo.When Hostiou goes in search of his double, he learns new layers to the real and the fake in a country in which the presidents and even the cemeteries are fake. In the bargain, his fake self becomes his co-director of the film the unfolds, creating a mind-bending take  on what constitutes the truth. The film screened with a short that we didn’t have the chance to view.

The Complex Forms is an absolutely stunning film from Italian filmmaker Fabio D’Orta. If Antonioni and Fellini made a horror film together it would be this beautiful and dread-seeped story set in an ancient villa where desperate people have an opportunity to make a great deal of money by temporarily selling their bodies to mysterious entities in exchange. With escalating horrific appearances by these monstrous aliens, three roommates plan their escape. Eerie and gorgeous, D’Orta is a force to be reckoned with creating seamless digital special effects, shooting in richly evocative black and white on a Black Magic 4 that he has made appear like classic film. D’Orta and program director Paul Sbrizzi conversed and translated in Italian.

The feature was accompanied by a poetic short,  Chrystel Egal’s Freerunner which was amazingly filmed on her iPhone also in black and white. Accompanied by a graceful narration, the film depicts Simon Nogueira, a French Freerunner, Parkour champion and poet. With “invisible wings,” he dances he dances on rooftops, in awe inspiring acrobatic moves. The piece is just one of many studies of unique individuals created by Egal.

The evening ended with a filmmakers bowling party at Mammoth Rock n’ Bowl for great conversation plus pizza and beer. Best fest indeed.

It’s not too late to join in the festival experience and fun – for more info and to buy tickets, click here.

– written by Genie Davis; photos by Jack Burke 

 

Our first full day at the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival offered an eclectic and exciting mix of films.

We started our morning with Narrative Shorts Block 1.

Among my favorites was Messy Legend, an hilarious and perfectly realized story of a party girl on the streets of Montréal for an elusive “one last night of party ‘til you drop.” The filmmaking team of James Watts and Kelly Kay Hurcomb created an indelible character played by Hurcomb. Accompanied by a terrific original sound track from the duo’s musical project Voyeurism, this is vibrant, shoestring filmmaking at its best.

Also quite wonderful was Bridge/Keeper from Sinclair Rankin. This film offered an ethereal connection between an inspector of structures and an aging, musical bridge which became a character in its own right. It’s also a beautiful elegy for a real life soon to be demolished bridge between Brooklyn and Queens.

And speaking of elegiac, there was the richly poignant Portuguese film Ode. A grieving father and mother mourn the passing of their son from a hate crime and their lack of acceptance of him when he was alive. As recipients of a balloon that their son blew up as his last act, the couple communicate their true feelings of loss through its haunting  presence. Set at Christmas time, this was a lovely, somber story.

Also in this shorts block, Hyun Kim’s animated short Hills for the Head, in which a young man is forced to run a marathon by his therapist in an analogy to his mental health.

From China, the complex Burning Moon told the tale of Ying, accompanied by her husband and his boss’s mistress Qiqi, returns to her hometown for her sister’s wedding. It’s a story of female oppression and rebellion, couched inside an eerie series of shifting relationships.

Runaway mixed cinematic mediums in the study of Alexia, a runaway who left behind video footage revealing hateful scenes from her parents’ marriage, and her crush on another girl.

Next up, we viewed the documentary feature Union, in which recently fired Chris Smalls took on the behemoth that is Amazon in an effort to unionize at an Amazon warehouse near JFK airport in New York. While serving as a rallying cry for unionization, the compelling film also depicts the internal challenges of organizing amid Amazon’s intensive effort to prevent  employees from joining the union and conflicts among union members.

Immersive and galvanizing, the film also reveals the difficulties of managing the expectations of unionized members and the continued roadblocks enacted by Amazon to prevent meaningful change. Stellar work from filmmakers Stephen T. Maing and Brett Story.

We began our third film block with the short Chomp, paired with the feature Welcome Filmmakers. These experimental horror films did not compel me, so we switched to the other festival programming option, the often mystically lovely narratives short films screening in Narrative Shorts Block 2.

 Ciela was a gorgeous work of magical realism from Mexico, in which an imaginative young girl imagines a stuffed octopus come to life and given magical powers. A truly lovely film from  Mauricio Sierra.

Mothers and Monsters was a surreal, spooky story of an upper class woman hosting a surreal banquet in which her guests are served cabbages containing perfect babies – all except her. It serves as a haunting take on motherhood from Canadian director Édith Jorisch.

A ribald cross between Cabin in the Woods and Mean Girls unfolds at a bachelorette party in the darkly comic Isaac from Samantha Carroll.

Mirage, a mysterious revenge film from Iranian filmmaker Atefeh Salehi, follows a hitchhiking woman on a journey with a truck driver who reminds her of past abuse.

Two other entries in this block of shorts were not viewed.

Finally, we saw the harrowing, exceptional documentary feature, Inheritance. Filmed over a ten year period in a small, decaying Ohio town, filmmakers Matt Moyer & Amy Toensing explored the ravages of addiction, the bonds of family love, and the hope for a better future for the intelligent Curtis, who grows from age 12 to 18 during the course of the film’s depiction of five generations of his extended family. Grandma and family matriarch, Cheryl is another key protagonist in this riveting film.

Do check out the story behind and continuing from this film on the filmmakers’ website, INHERITANCE the film | documentary film.

And before calling it a night, there was a generous late night party at Distant Brewing in Mammoth Lakes – delicious beers and fantastic brew staff plus an opportunity to mingle with filmmakers, fest staff, and sponsors.

It’s not too late to join in the festival experience and fun – for more info and to buy tickets, click here.

• Written by Genie Davis; photos by Jack Burke