Meet Me At The Mountain – “BIG HIT” at Sprout Film Festival
SPROUT FILM FESTIVAL
Culture! Disability! Talent!
“Making the Invisible Visible”
Meet Me At the Mountain, the first of its kind interactive multi-sensory adventure, was a “BIG HIT” at this year’s Sprout Film Festival. Mark Andrews, Author, Director and Executive Producer introduced MMATM, the opening movie for each of the three shows for this year’s festival. Thursday, March 11th there was a 10am matinee performance at new Monticello High School Performing Arts Building. Friday, March 12th a matinee performance and a 7pm evening performance were provided at the Martin Luther King – Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School.
In addition to the three local film makers who were featured, the Spout Film Festival featured films from (Australia, Spain, Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, Canada, and the United States)., For each of the shows, approximately 150-200 individuals – students, parents, families and professionals from area special education programs, and community based programs such as The Arc of the Piedmont, Region Ten, Virginia Institute of Autism (VIA), Innisfree Village, Piedmont Regional Educational Program, Parent Resource Center, the Charlottesville Therapeutic Recreation Program, Very Special Arts of Virginia, Lighthouse Studios –On Common Ground of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, to name a few, filled the auditoriums.
The enthusiastic crowd, cheered, sang, laughed and clapped to show just how much they enjoyed ALL the movies that were presented at this film festival. According to Andrews, “When the crowd is tapping their feet and singing along with the Troublesome Creek String Band (Dick Harrington – Music Arrangement, Guitar/Lead Vocals | Judy Chaudet – Banjo | Lorie Lichtenwalner – Bass, Vocals | Rick Martin – Fiddler | Bobby Read – Music Production and Mixing), this is a good indicator that they are enjoying themselves.”
Moreover, feedback from the visitors at MMATM information table was very favorable. “Everyone raved about the Barb Wallace’s beautiful watercolor illustrations and the creative interactive media by Steven Collins. Several people expressed an interest in Peggy Westfall’s — Sign Language format and there was interest in the two Braille options made possible by Braille transcription efforts of Ricki Curry.”
Andrews goes on to state, “The important messages conveyed in Meet Me At The Mountain, need to be shared! Our target audience is individuals, families, homes, schools, libraries, hospitals and rehabilitation centers, Wounded Warriors and Disabled Veterans, and environmental organizations. First and foremost, the goal of the MMATM – Education Project is to achieve widespread national and international distribution of the Meet Me At The Mountain publications and interactive DVD.”
Events such as SPROUT make this possible. “I want to express my heartfelt thanks Sara Blech, from the Piedmont Regional Education Program (Parent Resource Center) and Anthony DiSalvo, Founder/Executive Director of SPROUT for featuring Meet Me At The Mountain the the SPROUT Film Festival.”
Filed under: Meet Me At The Mountain