On Launching When the Wild Mountain Calls

To the Editor,

I want to thank Sierra City for the evening of July 12. When the Wild Mountain Calls — Stories From the Sierra Buttes was twenty-five years in the making, and this community gave it a homecoming I could not have scripted.

A film like this is never made alone, and that night proved it wasn't finished alone either. I want to thank Laurie Oberholtzer, Executive Director of Sierra County Land Trust, and Steve Carlton, SCLT's President, for their support and for sponsoring the event. Chris Campbell, Ranger with Sierra County Land Trust, jumped in to help with room setup. Michael LaMarca, SCLT's operations manager, kept the evening on task and moving as our MC and popcorn-maker-in-chief — no small feat with a room that full. Tammy Rangel, maintenance coordinator at the Sierra City Community Hall, made sure the hall itself was ready to hold everyone who came through the door. Sabrina, Mars, and Clancy provided soulful eats of chicken and beef enchiladas with beans and rice, a wonderful trio from Sabrina's at the Forks, and fed a standing-room-only crowd with genuine care. Greg Whatley handled the visual and audio, letting the film simply be seen and heard the way it's meant to be. And Jeremiah Padgett was at my side all day as my assistant, handling the dozen small things that make a large evening possible.

None of that shows up on screen. All of it is why the film could be seen at all.

Scottie Hart wrote something in this paper last week that I keep returning to — that the film made it "utterly, utterly obvious" that she wasn't alone in her connection to the Buttes. I understand that feeling more than I can say. Making this film, and finishing it in the town where the Buttes rise just beyond the rooftops, taught me the same thing from the other direction. I wasn't alone either. My father, who designed that ladder in 1964, stood beside me that night. And Sierra City stood with both of us.

Thank you for receiving this film with such generosity. It takes a mountain, a family, and a whole town to make a dream like this real.

With gratitude,

Patty Eacobacci

Nevada City