The Jefferson Agrarian

Mt. Shasta’s Mark Oliver, who directed the recent Voices Between the Mountains documentary with teens from Siskiyou County and a grant from the California Council for the Humanities, has finished another film called Viajero, and is premiering it December 2nd at Galería Tomás Chávez Morado at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico.

In 2007 Oliver taught a course in Environmental Art at the same University, and he was invited to exhibit a new work this year. Viajero, a 50 minute experimental narrative, follows a traveler, (‘viajero’, Spanish for traveler) through the terrains and landscapes many of us here in Jefferson would recognize. Shot in Siskiyou County and the high desert near Susanville, Oliver began thinking about the project over two years ago and originally wanted to make something about the travels of Joaquin Miller.

As the movie script developed, it took on more of an experimental feel, paralleling many of Oliver’s fifteen previous films. Oliver worked primarily with Casey Whirl developing ideas and content, and many times it was just Oliver and Whirl in the field doing the shooting. Other important characters show up in Viajero, played by Mac Magill of French Creek and Brian Santos of Mt. Shasta.

To finish the piece for the Guanajuato exhibit, Mt. Shasta’s Kim Merlino put together a terrific original soundtrack. Oliver and Merlino plan to screen the film this winter in Mt Shasta along with the release of a new music CD by Merlino- so stay tuned.