Wildfires to Scotch whiskey at Sonoma International Film Festival

The five-day Sonoma International Film Festival will screen films from all around the world.|

21st annual Sonoma International Film Festival

When: March 21-25

Where: Various Sonoma Valley locations

Admission: Tickets start at $15 per movie

Info:

sonomafilmfest.org

Last October, writer and producer Stephen Most and director Kevin White were just wrapping up nearly four years of work on their 57-minute documentary film, “Wilder Than Wild,” about the increasing number and destructiveness of California wildfires, when disaster struck again.

“Finally, on Oct. 9 of last year, we thought ‘OK, we’ve got to finish this film,’ and we were ready to record the final narration of the rough cut,” Most said. “Of course, that was the morning we woke up with smoke covering the Bay Area and we learned about the Wine Country fires.”

So the filmmakers went back to editing room to add footage of the Tubbs Fire, which swept from Calistoga to Santa Rosa, through the Mark West Springs area, Fountaingrove, Larkfield/Wikiup and Coffey Park.

The film will be featured at the 21st annual Sonoma International Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday, showcasing 110 films - both fiction and nonfiction - from around the world.

“Wilder Than Wild” will screen at 11:45 a.m. Thursday at the festival’s Vets Bldg, 126 W. First St. W., and 7:30 p.m. March 24 at Andrews Hall, paired with “Going Home” by Jacob Langsner and Cameron McClellan, a 7-minute documentary about a family returning to the rubble of their hope after destroyed by the Napa fires last fall.

Most and White will attend both screenings. Most, 75, who lives in Berkeley, has been involved, one way or another in making more than 20 films.

His book, “Stories Make the World,” published last year, devotes a chapter to the making of “Wilder Than Wild.”

The starting point for the “Wilder Than Wild” film project was the Rim Fire in 2013, which burned 250,000 acres in the central Sierra Nevada mountain range, a damage total that has since been surpassed by later fires.

“The Rim Fire was a new kind of fire, the mega-fire,” Most said.

“We made the film not to tell the story of a particular fire, because the news media do that so well. We wanted to put that in the larger context that wildfires are becoming larger and of higher intensity.

“We thought the Rim Fire was a good example, because it was the largest forest fire in California history at that time.”

The film took so long to make partly because fund-raising went slowly. “A lot of potential fund-providers said, ‘What’s so relevant about fires in the woods?’” Today that question sounds like ironic humor.

“Fires kept increasing during those years, so we had a story we were building. So we just kept covering the story,” Most said.

The filmmakers interviewed top California fire control officials, firefighters and scientists, a theme emerged.

As droughts deepen, fire seasons and temperatures climb, greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires and urban wildfires worsen climate change, the film concludes.

In another film showing at the Sonoma International Film Festival, former Santa Rosan Andrew Peat addresses a topic that is less daunting but no less compelling than the danger of wildfires.

For his first feature-length documentary film, “Scotch: A Golden Dream,” Peat left Taiwan, where he has lived and taught at the college level since 1987, to go to Scotland and document the Scotch whiskey industry.

The filmmaker will be back in California for the screening of his 87-minute film at the Sonoma festival at 4 p.m. March 23 in the festival’s House of Shorts, 126 First St. W., and 5 p.m. March 24 in Andrews Hall.

“I am actually flying over from China. I wouldn’t for a smaller festival, but it’s my home area, with family and friends,” said Peat, 53, a 1983 graduate of Santa Rosa High School.

After high school, Peat did some undergraduate work at UC Davis, and spent a year on an exchange fellowship at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland.

“That is where I had my first experience with Scotch whiskey,” he said.

“The reason I chose to go to St. Andrews is my grandfather emigrated from Scotland, and I still have numerous relatives there.”

The film traces the making of Scotch whiskey and captures the passion of the people involved, from barley farmers to bottle makers, Peat said.

Another film with a local connection is the narrative feature “You Can’t Say No,” written by Hus Miller of Santa Rosa, directed by Paul Kramer and starring Peter Fonda, Marguerite Moreau and Hamish Linklater,

Billed as a “humorous look at the ups and downs of marriage,” the 91-minute comedy screens at 5:45 p.m. March 23 at Vintage House, 264 First St. W., and noon March 25 in Burlingame Hall, 252 W. Spain St.

“Empire on Main Street,” a 24-minute documentary film that follows the career of chef Crista Luedtke, who started four businesses in Guerneville, transforming the town into a hip destination, screens as part of the Documentary Short Program at 9 a.m. March 23 at Andrews Hall and 7:15 p.m. March 24 at the San Francisco Chronicle House of Shorts, 126 First St. W.

“The Push,” an 86-minute documentary about scientist and professional athlete Grant Korgan’s efforts to reach the South Pole despite a spinal cord injury, organized by team leader Tal Fletcher, a Marin County native, screens at 4:30 p.m. March 23 at Andrews Hall and 3 p.m. March 25 at the festival’s Vets Bldg, 126 W. First St. W. The film is paired with “Life of Glide.”

For a complete schedule and other information, visit sonomafilmfest.org.

21st annual Sonoma International Film Festival

When: March 21-25

Where: Various Sonoma Valley locations

Admission: Tickets start at $15 per movie

Info:

sonomafilmfest.org

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