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Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival sells out for third year |
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Saturday, 12 December 2009 |
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
The 7th annual Wild and Scenic Environmental Festival was a sold-out event in both Mammoth and Bishop early this month, as it has been for the three years Friends of the Inyo has hosted it in the Eastern Sierra, according to Director Stacy Corless.
“It went great. We had full houses both nights,” she said in a phone interview. “The Bishop night was more environmental justice and human interest stuff. The Mammoth night, the films were more focused on wildlife issues.”
She said “March Point” was an unexpected hit in Bishop. Three teenagers in recovery from drug abuse from the Swinomish Reservation in Washington State were enlisted by filmmakers Tracy Rector and Annie Silverstein to bring together filmmaking and alternative education.
Like many young people, Travis, Nick and Cody didn’t know much about their ancestors’ history and are sent down a path of historical investigation that helps transform their own lives.
In interviews with tribal elders, we, too, learn how tribal lands were taken away by the federal government in the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, leaving the Swinomish with basic health care, some fishing rights (tainted more recently by the presence of a Shell oil refinery) and a small reservation.
Mammoth’s half of the festival opened with “Goldfish,” an amusingly told short film that explores an elementary school girl’s belief that “all drains lead to the ocean” because of what she saw in the film “Finding Nemo.”
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” a school principal quips when the child’s plan to save goldfish by flushing them down a toilet doesn’t work.
A highlight of Mammoth’s festival was “The Last Descent,” about the damming of some of the world’s last wild rivers in the developing countries of India, Nepal and Uganda. It is effectively tied in with damming efforts in California, and the Sierra Nevada in particular, in the early part of the 20th century.
The filmmakers get into those places where rivers still run free and point out that the mistakes made in California – such as the damming of the Tuolumne and the flooding of Hetch Hetchy – do not have to be repeated in developing countries.
“Some dams are good, but we’ve overdone it,” said David Brower in one informational clip that punctuates the gorgeous footage.
Corless pointed out that a victory was scored this year with the protection of the Owens River Headwaters as a wild and scenic river. “It protects that section of the Owens from ever being dammed or diverted,” she said.
The film makes clear that John Muir’s lost battle to save Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park inspired subsequent generations to save other rivers – a fight that continues today.
The film shows how at the White Nile in Uganda, dam proponents promise jobs for the local communities, but locals interviewed for the film say that only 10 percent have actually come from the local population.
Another inspiring highlight was a short film, narrated by Robert Redford, about the creation of Belgium’s first national park, Hoge Kempen, spearheaded by biologist Ignace Schops who developed the park from the bottom up in one of Europe’s most densely populated areas. The World Conservation Union is considering using his model for other places.
Corless said she chose that film for Mammoth because of the way private industry, regional governments and local stakeholders came together, much like MLTPA efforts in Mammoth in planning the local trail system in the public lands/urban area interface here.
Another film explored how 19th century hard-rock mining policies are still employed in the 21st century at the borders of such national parks as Yosemite, Arches, Canyonlands, and the Grand Canyon, and should be updated.
“Basically mining companies are allowed to mine our public lands with no benefit back to the public,” Corless said. “Gold prices are soaring right now, so this isn’t an issue that’s going away. Mining is a part of our history – yes, we all use these metals – but we have to change the way that companies are allowed to use our public lands.”
A visually poetic local addition to the festival was “Winter in the Woods,” shot in Mammoth’s backcountry by David Huebner, who was caretaker of Reds Meadow Resort for three winters.
“I got to live in a dream world, sharing two of them with my girlfriend,” he narrates. “There is a bliss, a smile we carry with us always and everywhere because of those years.”
Last but not least, a 10-minute short by Bristlecone Media illuminated the work done by Friends of the Inyo.
“We wanted create a film that starred Eastern Sierra’s public lands and help people understand what it is that we do,” Corless said.
Inyo is a Paiute word meaning Dwelling Place of the Great Spirit. Friends of the Inyo defines that locally from Mt. Whitney to Death Valley, Topaz Lake to Owens Lake, and the Sierra Nevada crest to the White Mountains.
Through speed shots augmented with carnival music, the audience gets the idea of how millions of annual visitors in the Eastern Sierra can impact the landscape. Volunteers are then seen picking up trash at Convict Lake, dismantling campfires, and building trails. The importance of the next generation in protecting and conserving this beautiful land of extremes from the ground up was emphasized.
“We need young people who care about wild places,” the film concludes. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 19 December 2009 )
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