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Carbondale hosts outdoor odysseys
5Point Film Fest takes it outside
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With “A Dozen More Turns,” director Amber Seyler is out to educate the public about avalanches and general winter sports safety. The filmmaker will be at the 5Point Film Festival opening Thursday.
Courtesy still
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May 2, 2008
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| For more information about the 5Point Film Festival, taking place May 8-10 in Carbondale, check out next week’s Options section or visit www.5Pointfilm.org. |
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CARBONDALE, Colorado — Starting Thursday, filmmakers from around the country will come to Carbondale for the first ever 5Point Film Festival. The three days of outdoor movies and roundtable discussions will be based around the festival’s five guiding principals: respect, commitment, humility, purpose and balance. Here’s a look into two of the movie maestros who will be on-hand opening night.
RA Beattie, director of “Destinations” (18 min.)
Age: 25
Lives in: Aspen (born and raised)
Favorite film: “The Big Lebowski”
Favorite cinematic moment: “When a filmmaker is able to take something from everyday life, something that’s ordinary that we take for granted, and turn it into art.”
Number of films directed: three shorts, two longer pieces, all in the fly fishing genre.
What brought you to film? “You know, it’s funny. I used to run around with a camera when I was younger, shooting stuff, but I was never very serious.”
As a freshmen at the University of Puget Sound, he became more focused on the craft. It was about that time that editing software and cameras became much cheaper and accessible to a young filmmaker such as himself.
“We put together a little film. I mean it’s embarrassing to look at now, but it was great for us at the time, and was a stepping stone. We were creating our own "style" and started to break away from what had been done in the fly fishing industry.
We were trying to make fly fishing entertaining to fishermen and non-fishermen alike, make it interesting and make it fun."
After graduation, Beattie took off with his camera to look for unique fish and locations.
“I went all over the place. Started out in Europe and filmed all over, then went to the Seychelles and shot down there. And then went down to the Amazon and filmed Peacock Bass. We started to put together films based on these travels.”
His first short film, “Angling Addiction,” was a byproduct of these travels, and won an award in the Drake Magazine Film Festival. That first award gave his career a boost and encouraged him to continue onward.
What’s your current film about? “The film Destinations, that is showing in the 5Point Film Fest, is really a short hybrid of three films that we have in production. It starts off in Europe, transitions to Alaska, and then ends in North Carolina. The film is obviously about fly fishing, but it’s really about the lives and stories of the people that live and fish in these areas. Our films take you to remote destinations and show you an inside look at unique fisheries and the people who live there.”
“At the end of the film Destinations, you realize fishing is probably the least important part of the film.”
Why fly fishing? “That’s been my passion since I’ve been pretty young. I’ve been guiding fly fishing in the valley since I was in high school. I usually spent every waking moment doing something related to fly fishing in one way or another. Creating fly fishing films is a way of merging my two passions, fly fishing and film.”
You are working on a film about Alaska (titled “First Descent Alaska”) at the moment, do you have a message in this film? “That’s one (a question) we've talked about quite a bit during the production process: What do we want to say with this film? Specifically, the Alaska film talks about low-impact, leave no trace wilderness travel. It is about traveling through a true wilderness and the implications of human impact on an untouched place, and it also examines the motivations behind wilderness travel.”
Why make movies? “I love the storytelling process. When we create a film we don’t have story boards. We don’t have a shot list set up. It’s cool to go to a place where you don’t have expectations, and you don’t know what you’re going to shoot or what story you’re going to tell.
What’s the most important thing in your life? As a filmmaker: “Creating a finished product that inspires people to get outside and a follow a passion.”
As a person: “Easy, family.”
Amber Seyler, director of “A Dozen More Turns” (30 min.)
Age: 36
Lives in: Bozeman, Mont. (originally from Seattle, Wash.)
Number of films directed: This is her first. Formerly a molecular biologist, she came to a graduate film program five years ago.
Favorite film: “No Country for Old Men” (that just seemed fresh in her mind, she said)
Favorite cinematic moment: She wasn’t sure about specific moments, but two movies changed her life irrevocably.
“For some reason, when I saw the movie ‘Wild at Heart,’ the David Lynch film, it made me feel like I could be myself, more creative.”
“When I saw this television documentary on manatees, it made me realize I wanted to go into natural history documentary filmmaking. I’m not sure why manatees did it.”
What’s your film about? “It’s an avalanche documentary, but it’s not what I like to call ‘avalanche porn.’ It’s not avalanche after avalanche after avalanche and people skiing out of avalanches.”
“It tells the story of three friends who went on a hut trip three years ago and triggered a slide with really disastrous consequences.”
(She made it for the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center based in Bozeman)
What do you want to say with this? “There are so many people in mountain towns who love to take risks and do risky sports — and I love it, too. This film is to help recalibrate people’s risk-taking decision making and save some lives.”
Why make movies? “Well, there are so many factors. I’ve always been a reader. I read everything. I love storytelling.”
“There are so many amazing things about science and wildlife. How can I make it accessible? How can I make it interesting for people?”
“Finally, I just decided I can really tell people’s stories. I can get people involved. I just don’t want people to have any excuses for being ill-informed about science and the natural world.”
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M/CLOUDY 43°
