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Mammoth Film Festival, take one. Action! |
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Saturday, 10 November 2007 |
By Lara Kirkner
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
For those of you who have been following the bouncing ball of the first annual Mammoth Film Festival lately, the official and final word is that yes, it is happening, just on a smaller scale.
Event producer Meng King chatted with the Mammoth Times last week about the ups and downs of getting this event off the ground. King admits that he relied too heavily on sponsors this year, so when $85,000 of that sponsorship money was moved to next year's event, King found himself needing to scale back and self-finance.
“Many of the sponsors decided to hold back until next year when Mammoth has established air service,” King explained.
The predicament has, however, put him into a position to ease into the festival this year, and he has begun referring to the 2007 event as the “soft opening” of the Mammoth Film Festival.
The event will still run from Nov. 15-18, but tickets will be free and instead of screening approximately 64 films, King plans to screen between 10 and 16.
With plans changing within the last month a venue became King's greatest dilemma, but a solution was found at the end of last week. The festival will primarily screen films at the Forest Ranger Auditorium in the old Visitors Center on Hwy 203, next to the new Welcome Center. Some overflow screenings may be held in the Village.
“Right now we have more product than we know what to do with,” King said.
The competition element of the festival will still take place, but again, on a smaller scale than was anticipated earlier in the year. Instead of having filmmakers creating a short film while in Mammoth with a theme to be judged on, citizens of Mammoth Lakes will be asked to watch more than one of the films being screened and then take a vote on their favorite film. It will be a testing ground for what type of competition format Mammoth can handle.
King stressed that the Mammoth Film Festival is very feature-film oriented, but that this year many documentary films have been submitted. King is torn on how many documentaries to screen, claiming, “The documentaries don't do anything for the festival, but documentaries are usually not seen by the world and the people of Mammoth may not have any other opportunity to see these films, which are very good.”
King is contemplating screening the documentaries but not making them a part of the competition.
The Opening Reception for the festival will be held at 8 p.m. at the Side Door Cafe on Nov. 15. There will be parties at Lakanuki and the Auld Dubliner on Friday and Saturday nights, and King hopes to provide live bands for those who attend. On Sunday morning there will be a closing brunch at a location to be determined.
Another part of this year's festival will be something that King calls “fireside chats.”
“These will be intimate film seminars and workshops that will encapsulate Mammoth with their casual feel,” King said. The chats will take place in the Village at locations to be determined.
King hopes to grow this year's four-day event into a seven or 10-day event in years to come, and claims that even if air service does not make it to Mammoth next year, given Mammoth's history with commercial flights, the second annual event will be easier because his feet will already be wet.
Check the Mammoth Film Festival's Web site, www.mammothfilmfestival.com, for updates on the event.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 November 2007 )
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