Q&A with Executive Director Shira Dubrovner and Director Of Programing Paul Sbrizzi
Tell us how Mammoth came about? Give us the enticing origin story, full of adventure and intrigue...
Shira: I have always been a lover of the art form of storytelling, which led me into filmmaking and live theatre. I was working in Los Angeles in independent film and at a small professional theatre and just wasn’t happy and feeling lost in a big city. I spent some time in my early 20’s in Mammoth Lakes and always wanted to move back. I truly woke up one day with a voice telling me to move back to Mammoth and start a theatre there. When I came back in 2007 I knew the place was special and would be the perfect landscape for a film festival. I had to focus on getting the theatre started, and it took about 7 years to get it to the point where it is a well-oiled machine.
We were now ready to introduce the community to my other passion - which is independent film. I knew since being out of the scene for a while I needed to connect with someone knee deep in it. So I called my friend I met years ago in film school and reconnected with Paul Sbrizzi. We partnered up a year ago and with his expertise and my tenacity here we are.
What sets Mammoth apart from other destination fests?
Shira: Location itself – Eastern Sierra, is a geologically wondrous place, and its proximity to Los Angeles and Hollywood. So many film lovers and industry professionals have second homes here or love coming here on vacation. It gives them an opportunity to reconnect with nature so they can get back to the basics and reinvigorate themselves artistically and spiritually. It is a truly inspiring place.
Paul: In terms of programming vision, we're less beholden to reputation and really just looking for films with a well-realized, original vision. We want to champion filmmakers who have an ability to look inwardly and find that raw inspiration that can take viewers to a new place.
There can be a tendency toward the humorless in indie film and we've sought out films that find notes of irony and the surreal even in the context of weighty drama. In our documentary programming we sought out films that, regardless of their subject matter, root their stories in rich and complex characters.
How do you perceive MLFF championing indie film in the years to come, and what's that blueprint this year?
Shira: We are working with building relationships with film artists and will continue supporting them by inviting them to participate in future film festivals with their expertise and acumen. We are pushing to create the connection between the community and the filmmakers. The majority of our filmmakers are global in scope – Shanghai, Belgium, Spain, and France, to Atlanta, Lexington, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Durham, Toronto, Montreal – and over half of them are attending the festival, including the filmmakers from Chicago, Atlanta, Switzerland, Sao Paulo, and New York. So this really is about the community as a whole, the big, big community, and our local community that has strong, strong ties to one another. We live in the mountains here. Small community with a big mountain, and big dreams.
Paul: We have a fundamental belief that unique and personal films have a potential to connect with a wider audience; that there's a false or overstated dichotomy between indie and mainstream films in that sense. We make an effort to connect each film in our program to its potential audience.
How are you working with and for the local communities?
Shira: The town of Mammoth Lakes has been ready for a film festival for ages and the timing now is perfect, the community has offered tremendous support as sponsors to ensure its success. We’ve partnered with the Town of Mammoth Lakes and Mono County. We also have three films shot here and would like help support filmmakers by inspiring them to not only consider the landscape for future films but jump-start their inspiration. We are also taking the filmmakers to the Ghost Town of Bodie, which is one of the top 5 Ghost Towns in our county. On the drive they will pass Mono Lake and the north entrance to Yosemite. We hope that all the filmmakers leave our festival inspired and driven to continue on to making great films.
Why should filmmakers keep Mammoth on their radar?
Shira: I think by how our first year is shaping up -- with the level of support and the level of films that are programmed - we are definitely serious contenders and we want to be here in many years to come.
Paul: We look beyond what happens to be on trend at the moment; we're a festival that puts artists first, creating a playful space where striking images and radical ideas can go skiing through fresh powder. The best filmmaking has an revolutionary spirit embedded it its DNA; our festival is committed to recognizing that spirit, recognizing its importance to our culture, and putting on a really fun and rewarding event, full of great people and opportunities for genuine human connection, allowing that spirit to radiate into the public consciousness.
