Southampton Arts Center – Mountainfilm On Tour Screening, Sunday, August 25th, 7 PM

Mountainfilm on Tour Southampton – An evening of short docs – film lineup 

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Asking Less – Pete McBride
The Colorado River is one of America’s most valuable and iconic rivers. Photographer and author Pete McBride has been following this river for over two decades. He shows us the stark reality of our water crisis within this river and the remarkable beauty and resilience of this ephemeral source of life.
(USA, 2024, 4 min.) 

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Dancing Warrior – Rachel McDonald & Peter Goetz
On windswept hills surrounded by the bluffs of the Lakota Badlands sits the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. For the native youth, living here can be a struggle — the teen suicide rate is among the highest in the country. But many have found hope and purpose in the unlikeliest of places: the traditional sport of horse racing known as Indian Relay. The film follows one teen racing team named Dancing Warrior, who come together to compete and support each other as they face the challenges of life on the reservation. This short film is a coming-of-age story of Lakota teens as they find strength in tradition and passion in competition.
(USA, 2024, 10 min.)

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I am the nature – Taliesin Black-Brown
I am the nature is a poetic documentary honoring the philosophy and cultural expression of the Achuar people from the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Narrated by Chumpí Washikiat, a local leader, the film dives into the insights of a man who has walked between worlds, echoing ideas of unity, empathy and harmony.
(USA, Ecuador, Brazil, 2023, 5 min.) 

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Cham – Raunak Kapoor & Gen Liu
Every winter, monks across India travel to the Thiksey Monastery to participate in a ceremonial dance called Cham, a sacred ritual transporting viewers into the divine realm. Dancers wear masks and use a deep, resonant chant to purify the environment and dispel negative forces. (USA, India, 2023, 7 min.) 

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Near the River – Darby A. McAdams

In the tourist town of Livingstone, Zambia, a group of local men who make their living portering kayaks aspire to become safety kayakers on the Zambezi River. However, the proposed Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Scheme threatens to flood the famous rapids of the Zambezi and eliminate river-related jobs.

(USA, 2023, 11 min.) 

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To Scale: Time – Alex Gores
On a dry lakebed in California, a group of friends attempt to build a scale model of time: a true illustration of cosmic evolution and our place within it. Over miles, they lay out tiny lights representing important moments in the history of the universe: the Big Bang, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs and the beginning of human civilization. The result is time represented by distance and the recognition that although we are alive for the briefest moment — in this demonstration, the width of a hair — our lives are a gift from the universe that we must spend wisely.
(USA, 2023, 10 min.) 

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The Silverback – Andrew Ackerman
It’s no surprise that we call a group of gorillas a family, since we share 98% of our DNA with these creatures and can’t help but see something beautifully human-like in them. African safari guide Richard De Gouveia is deeply familiar with the primal draw we feel towards gorillas. The Silverback follows De Gouveia along his journey marked by tragedy and self-discovery, as he connects lessons learned while tracking wild gorillas to his own life, where he strives to be a loving father and partner in tandem with his rewarding career as a naturalist guide.
(USA, 2023, 15 min.) 

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The Ugandan Quidditch Movement – Ben Garfield

In Uganda, a sport is driving social change. That sport is quidditch. After a chance encounter with a Harry Potter novel, a dedicated teacher brings the magic world of chasers, beaters, seekers, quaffles, bludgers and the golden snitch to the students at Good Shepherd Primary School in Katwadde Village. As they train for an upcoming tournament, the quidditch community they create helps the kids smash taboos about gender, learn teamwork and overcome poverty.

(USA, 2023, 15 min.) 

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The Rock Pool Waltz – Marlon Denning

Directed and created by 14 year-old Marlon Denning, The Rock Pool Waltz is the story of the unlikely friendship Marlon discovers while looking to nature for connection during the solitude of COVID.
(Australia, 2021, 8 min.) 

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The Shit-thropocene – David Garrett Byers

Thousands of years ago, human brains evolved to seek to acquire unlimited resources. No longer a survival adaptation, this tendency, turbocharged by the speed and ease of online shopping, now results in closets full of cheap, fast fashion, the making of which exploits workers and harms the planet, and most of which quickly ends up in a landfill. The film recounts outdoor clothing company Patagonia’s quest to fix a leaky pair of waders and their contrarian philosophy of creating durable garments that last a long time.The Shit-thropocene is a wacky and darkly funny look at how we got here and asks if there is a better way to fill the modern-day hole in our caveman hearts than by buying shitty products. (USA, 2024, 26 min.) 

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Desert Wings ( 4 min.) 

Image credit: Dancing Warrior