|
|
Winner of
the Taos Mountain Film Festival's "Best Environmental film" Award
|
PRESS
Taos Mountain Film Fest
Taos Mountain Film Fest goes over the edge.
By Paul Maldonado
Thursday, October 5, 2006
(excerpted from the Albuquerque Tribune)
The Taos Mountain Film Festival is geared up for a weekend of globe-spanning adventure for its sixth season.
"This represents the fun, enjoyment and pleasure that those of us who go to the mountains get," said Director Jonathan Slator, who founded the festival in September 2001.
The festival kicks off this afternoon with a showcase of short films shot entirely on cell phones and wraps up Sunday evening with the best of the fest.
"Land Out of Time" takes the issue of oil and gas drilling in Northern New Mexico and the rest of the Rocky Mountain West and turns it into high drama. It's awash in stunning cinematography. (It was photographed by the Emmy-winner Greg Poschman.)
The midsection of the movie focuses on the region of Aztec, N.M., and visits with Chris Velasquez and Linn and Tweeti Blancett, fifth- and sixth-generation ranchers desperately trying to hold the line against the oil industry. And we meet Ray Sanchez, a visibly conflicted branch chief with the Bureau of Land Management.
Sanchez says of the locals defending the "last bastion" of open land: "They're fighting tooth and nail for it. I'd do the same."
Energy analyst Randy Udall lends common sense to the issue: "The Rockies are being asked to be the cavalry that rides to the rescue of a failed energy policy." He senses a rebellion at the grass-roots level.
Such an uprising against drilling at the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana in the late '90s brings the film's drama to a climax. We see a rancher, teacher and lawyer join with others as U.S. Forest Service supervisor Gloria Flora agonizes over her decision.
Director Mark Harvey said he intentionally edited out statistics in favor of the human element.
"This is an emotional issue," he said. "To hear someone telling their story about how these gas wells are hurting them is a lot more interesting than just a bunch of numbers."
The movie is bookended by scenes of World War II hero Tom Bell, who lost an eye in the war and has been a longtime environmentalist in Wyoming.
"He's a warrior fighting for democracy," Harvey said. "And he believes our democracy's in crisis."
"Land Out of Time" debuted last week with two sellout screenings at the Aspen Filmfest and will have its New Mexico premiere Saturday evening in Taos.
Back to Press Page
|
|
