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Diversity marks Mammoth’s 3rd Annual Film Festival |
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Friday, 04 December 2009 |
Opens Dec. 9; runs five days
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Celluloid treats ranging from inspirational to thought-provoking grace the line-up of long and short films at Mammoth’s own film festival, which plays out in its third year over five days beginning Dec. 9.
New at the international winter film festival this year are two categories – Green and Extreme/Action Sports – in addition to the four traditional categories of Drama, Comedy, Documentary and Foreign. There will be five separate film competitions and a total of nine awards, including Best Picture.
One man’s run
The main Feature Film competition is an elimination-style tournament, voted on by the audience. One stand-out, “My Run” (Tim VandeSteeg, USA), recently won the Audience Award for documentary at the 2009 Austin Film Festival.
The 85-minute documentary is narrated by Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton and tells the story of Terry Hitchcock, who finished 75 consecutive 26-mile marathons in the same number of days to bring attention to the hardships faced by all single-parent families. It is an example of an extraordinary achievement by an ordinary human being.
“I wanted to make an inspirational film, where people struggle and they fight through it,” explained VandeSteeg in a phone interview with the Times.
He has threaded footage of Hitchcock during the actual 75-day run in 1996 with fresh interviews and exterior footage of his own. “We went through eight states, five days, 3,000 miles, back and forth,” the director said. “To be honest, it was a blast.”
The director is especially grateful that Thornton readily agreed to lend his voice to the documentary after he approached him through a mutual contact. “He thought it was a great story. He was like the nicest possible guy, a real person,” VandeSteeg said. “It was actually one of the high points in my film career.”
Hitchcock lost his wife, Sue, to breast cancer when their three children were still young, and raised them on his own. Ten years later, he felt his life was beginning to settle and he wanted to make a difference for other single parents – and to reconnect with his children in a different way.
The film notes that 35 million people head single parent families. Knowing he would need media attention to make an effective statement, he decided to run from St. Paul, MN to Atlanta, GA, where the Olympic Games were being held in 1996. Though the attention this generated wasn’t as big as he and his team had hoped, it was big enough. “I didn’t know what I was really asking for,” he admits in the documentary.
The endurance challenge he took on against all odds will no doubt inspire Mammoth’s community of runners and other athletes. “You have to convince your mind that you’re having fun,” Hitchcock explains in the film. “It’s not really a physical run; it’s an emotional and spiritual run.” He was 56 at the time of his run and carried on with training even after he had a heart attack. He had no running experience at the outset and suffered from high blood pressure.
The film unsentimentally depicts how all but one in his training team, his oldest son Chris, dropped out along the way because of unanticipated basic challenges such as keeping Hitchcock’s feet dry (wet socks had to be changed 15 times a day, for example). In this sense, the film is a superb portrayal of the human realities of extraordinary outcomes.
Also in the feature film tournament is “A Sea Change” (Barbara Ettinger, Norway), about a life-long sportsman and well-informed environmentalist who is impacted by a New Yorker article about the effect of excess carbon dioxide in the ocean. Mindful of his grandson’s planetary inheritance, he seeks to learn more so that the world’s acidifying seas are not bereft of fish.
On the road
Three road trip flicks also grace the tournament. “Easier With Practice” (Kyle Patrick Alvarez, USA) takes on an unpublished author who sets out on a road trip with his younger brother and is entangled with a mysterious woman in a phone relationship. What will happen if he meets her in person?
In another road-trip film, “Ready or Not” (Sean Doyle, USA) finds four college buddies on the adventure of their lives, stranded in Mexico after a Las Vegas bachelor party, trying to making it back across the border for the wedding. And yet another involves the abduction of a grandmother.
In “Carried Away” (Tom Huckabee, USA), a young man is upset to find that his granny has been placed in a nursing home. After taking her away, he is pursued across the country by his father and brothers.
Well-known star James Brolin lends his presence to “Bitter/Sweet? (Jeff Hare, Thailand), about an engaged renegade coffee mogul who meets a beautiful Bangkok executive, and their prospective coffee deal turns into something unexpectedly much more.
Another veteran actor, Stacy Keach, stars in “Chicago Overcoat” (Brian Caunter, USA), where the fates of an aging hitman and a washed up detective converge in one last job and the settling of an old score.
In another crime-themed film, “I’m Not Harry Jenson” (James Napier Robertson, New Zealand), a novelist takes a vacation from his latest true crime book and finds himself with a dead fellow traveler and blood on his hands.
The multi-narrative drama “In/Significant Others” (John Schwert, USA) navigates through the different lives of one city’s residents, each of whom is connected to the same local homicide investigation.
No tournament would be complete without at least one romantic comedy. At the 3rd Annual Mammoth Film Festival, “16 to Life” (Becky Smith, USA) playfully explores small town teenager’s angst about sexual inexperience on a pivotal birthday.
And certainly no tournament would be complete without a nod to philosophy and visions for a better world. The story of Mumammad Iqbal, a turn-of-the-century South Asian poet/philosopher, is explored in “A Message From the East” (Sean Fahey, USA). A dialogue is opened between the East and West, in hopes of annihilating the notion of a class of civilizations to embrace a shared humanity.
Other films include “Bottleworld” (Alexander Smith, USA), an ensemble comedy revolving around a liquor store where a new employee falls in love with the store manager’s daughter, then becomes obsessed with another employee’s plans to terrorize the store on a holiday, and “9000 Needles” (Doug Dearth, Philippines), where a 40-year-old stroke patient seeks rehabilitation in Tianjin, China, after the American health care system fails him.
The Mammoth Film Festival is rapidly growing in recognition and praise, according to the independent movie magazine “MovieMaker,” which placed it on its list of Top 25 festivals in North America. Founder of the festival, Meng King, envisioned it as a venue to bridge art and commerce through film. Deena Kastor, an Olympic medalist and local Mammoth resident, starred the inaugural year’s winning film, “Spirit of the Marathon” (2007).
For a complete list of competition films, screening times, ticket information, and a schedule of other hosted events, see www.mammothfilmfestival.com. All-access Festival Passes will be available for purchase online and at the event.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 12 December 2009 )
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