Photo courtesy of The Mountain Film Festival
Written by Emilie Kefalas
Skateboarding down steep mountain roads wearing nothing but a helmet for padding sounds as intense and insane as it looks. Only James Kelly is crazy enough to practice such an extreme sport. Kelly is the star of “James Kelly – Burn it Down,” a four-minute film directed by Jack Boston which appeared eighth in a lineup of eleven films on Friday’s opening night of Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour: Savannah.
The Mountainfilm festival, otherwise known as Telluride Mountainfilm On Tour, advertises itself as a celebration of the “indomitable spirit,” using the “power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world,” according to the event’s pamphlet handed out prior to the screenings. Over the course of the festival’s weekend-long events, Mountainfilm certainly lived up to its mission.
One of America’s longest-running film festivals, Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour travels year-round to over 100 locations on five different continents. Each film shown is selected from the screenings at Mountainfilm’s annual festival in Telluride, Colorado. This will be the event’s 38th year in Telluride, and it will continue to grow as it takes its message and movies globally.
Mountainfilm’s tour stop in Savannah started last Wednesday night with a showing of the Oscar-winning documentary, “Racing Extinction.” A total of 22 films were shown in a weekend-long festival leg of Telluride’s national tour. The ambiance during Friday and Saturday nights’ viewings exuded adventure, excitement and empowerment balanced with solitude, bittersweetness and intrigue.
This year marks Savannah’s seventh year as a spot on the Telluride Mountainfilm tour. During Savannah’s first year as a host for the festival, the screenings were held at the Jepson Center and roughly 200 tickets were sold.
On Friday, Telluride Mountainfilm On Tour: Savannah kicked off its inaugural night of short films promptly at 7 p.m. to a full house at the Trustees Theater. The following night, the balcony had to be opened to accompany the large audience, a first in the event’s history.
Chair of the Mountainfilm on Tour in Savannah Board of Directors, Zelda Tenenbaum, introduced the first night of screenings, thanking her fellow board members and a handful of the event’s 51 sponsors.
Director of the Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour, Henry Lystad, presented the films both nights of the festival, giving the audience a brief synopsis of each one before the lights dimmed and the speakers boomed with the sounds of wind, water and wonder.
Started in 1979, Mountainfilm showed its first environmental film in 1980. Lystad said the event continues to grow at a rapid pace, as he prepares to travel worldwide with Mountainfilm this year. Savannah continues to be one of his favorite places on the tour. “I’ll tell you what, this town feeds me the best,” he said to an approving crowd.
Each show on the tour is custom made, according to Lystad. Both Friday and Saturday’s showings started off with thought-provoking messages of conservation and environmentalism. Film lengths varied from three minutes to forty, but each one was strong enough on its own, not one fell flat with the audience.
Notable film highlights included, “What’s Motivating Hayes,” a look at the work of UC Berkeley biologist Tyrone Hayes. Dr. Hayes came onstage following the film’s screening Friday night for a brief Q&A panel.
After Saturday’s showings, the director and star of the film, “The Thousand year Journey: Oregon to Patagonia,” Kenny Laubbacher and Jedidiah Jenkins participated in the festival’s second Q&A, discussing Jenkins’s year-long bicycle journey from the northwestern United States to South America.
“The Important Places,” explored the dynamic of a father/son relationship. The moving, “I Am Able,” told the inspiring story of how a young man, Frederick, overcame a physical handicap and is now helping others to do the same. “We Are Fire,” showed the incredible courage and resilience of the pink sari women of the Gulabi Gang in India.
As a collection, the themes of these films were, at large, summed up in three ideas: inspiration, strength, and perspective. The former was quite literal in some cases. Whether filmed from the top of Fitz Roy or in the valley of the Colorado River, each story shared a unique perspective for those who do not know the rush of the Pacific’s surf or the empowerment in standing up for what you believe in the face of adversity.
