Made in Jefferson by Jeffersonians, the film Voices Between the Mountains will screen at The Flying Lotus in Mt. Shasta this Saturday, October 11th at 8:00PM.
Funded by the California Council for the Humanities, Voices Between the Mountains is part of the larger Youth Digital Filmmakers project, the signature program of How I See It, which engaged youth in eight communities in California in making films about issues in their lives and communities.
The young people, mentored by humanities scholars and experienced filmmakers, produced amazing films on a variety of topics, from the legacy of genocide in Long Beach and a quest for gay history by LGBT teens in the San Francisco Bay Area to the challenges of growing up in rural Siskiyou County. All the films were screened locally and three were selected for showing at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, a huge validation of the young filmmakers’ efforts. Distribution efforts by the CCH are now under way to bring the films to a wider audience.
It is so unfortunate that the Mt. Shasta Film Festival organizers shunned Voices Between the Mountains from this year’s offerings. They really missed an excellent opportunity to actually premiere a film that was made locally – something that has never happened at any previous MSFF. In fact, at last count out of the thirty-one feature films being offered in this year’s film festival, seventeen are fully available at NetFlix. The MSFF organizers would have done well to pass on the well-worn Being John Malkovich (1999), and instead engage Jeffersonians and out-of-town festival goers with our own Siskiyous feature film.
Film director Mark Oliver writes “Voices is a film about Siskiyou county’s past and present, seen from the perspective of local youth filmmakers. The film highlights the cultural history of Siskiyou County, and explores the circumstances that led to our current Jeffersonian culture. Voices helps outsiders see that California is not all beaches and malls – it gives a feeling of what life is like here in rural California – especially for teens.”
The film is well-made, and highly entertaining. We reviewed it back in June, when it was released. The following was a review of that screening:
“Your intrepid Jefferson Agrarian attended a screening of the rough cut on Thursday evening, June 5, at the Stage Door in Mt. Shasta. It’s a seriously hilarious 75 minute film, with superb narrations by Mount Shasta High School students Bettina Dubrosky, Marissa Adlard and Kevin Oliver. The film retains it’s focus and perspective throughout, and, unlike the recent Indiana Jones flick, the time we spent watching it really flew by.”
“The Jefferson Agrarian highly recommends that you take advantage of (this film). Congratulations to the filmmakers and project organizers – this film is a real gift to our community.”
FLYING LOTUS
315 “A” S. Mt. Shasta Blvd. (upstairs)
Mt. Shasta, California 96967
(530) 926- 0527 * 925-8019
Click here for printable poster.
Support Local Jefferson Art!
10 responses so far ↓
1 Tiger // Oct 10, 2008 at 7:25 am
“The MSSF organizers would have done well to pass on the well-worn Being John Malkovich (1999), and instead engage Jeffersonians and out-of-town festival goers with our own Siskiyous feature film.”
Plus Neil Young Heart of Gold. Way to push the envelop, msff! I can just imagin the geezerhippiesh*t gathering for that’n.
2 Herr Claus // Oct 10, 2008 at 8:06 am
It’s an unfortunate aspect of many film festivals that they tend to ignore strong local work in favour of anything from out of town and especially Hollywood…but somehow they still think they’re independent and cutting edge. Why don’t they get it?
Heart of Gold…mein Gott. Says it all right there, doesn’t it? If I want to watch Neil Young, his work is readily available. Show something I haven’t seen before.
3 Film Freak // Oct 10, 2008 at 9:20 am
I have attended independent film fests for years, Cannes, Telluride, Sundance…they all now have mini (indy) festivals that run alongside the major one, showing films just as good as the official selecions. I think the one that plays at Sundance is called Moondance. Mt Shasta is lucky that another venue has offered a projector… so for us traveling from Ashland and points beyond will have a chance to see this locally made film. What could be more interesting! Looking forward to it!
4 donnie // Oct 10, 2008 at 12:34 pm
The current crop of film festivals (it is an industry, kinda soft-franchised) is like a traveling road show, or circus coming to town. Many of the same films making the rounds. The well-worn and recycled (sub) standards, aside, many of the films are worthy, very worthy, and should be seen, but not necessarily form the core of a local film festival.
Actually, film is sort of a mis-nomer (or whatever), since most of this stuff is on DVD.
Oh, well. It may sound ‘low-brow’ to some people, but a true local film festival could be based upon local, or at least regional, creative content. Yeah, you can see a lot of that on public access, and it sucks. But not everything, and given the current access to cams and editing software; volume increases probably mean greater chances for gems (particularly in the short range, because keeping folks engaged for 90+minutes is not easy, but 3 to 15 minutes is another matter).
A true community based art event, hundreds of short films, for little direct cost in terms of the videos themselves. More participant oriented and less passive spectacle. Sounds good to me.
5 LarZ // Oct 10, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Donnie, you’re out of your element.
Sounds like a weekend watching content available on YouTube.
Although, I agree with the community based participatory concept. And yeah, watching compressed video on download is not as nice as on a big screen (particularly with a friends).
And once the concept got established as an annual event, then creators might actually be inspired to put a year into projects for the festival, sort of competitive expressionist model, like ‘that thing in the desert’, only without the dust or need of a rental truck.
Have to agree about having films in the festival that are available through the local video outlets or Netflicks. Kinda, what is the point? Unless, cinematographically, they really need to be seen on a big screen, in a first rate theater.
Well, that is another issue, too.
L
6 Bo Bo // Oct 10, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Fact is that there was a film made here last year by our teens, directed by a local filmmaker! Not an easy task, and not one that was respected by our “local film experts”! go figure?
7 donnie // Oct 12, 2008 at 6:16 am
note to editor: you left the significant “I” out of the MS-I-FF
8 LarZ // Oct 14, 2008 at 7:16 am
Yeah, that “I” is important.
Central to the entire concept.
L
9 Allison // Nov 7, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I do hope the film gets more attention….
There is a film festival that is accepting submissions, according to their website. It is the White Sands Film Festival in New Mexico….Maybe it is worth a try? Here is the link….
http://www.wsiff.com/
10 Mt. Shasta Filmmaker Premieres New Film in Guanajuato, Mexico // Dec 2, 2008 at 11:00 pm
[...] 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 [...]
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