The Long View...

When geology, engineering, photography, natural science, and archeology share space in a documentary with a life-long personal history involving the Sierra Buttes, expect lyric visual/auditory poetry.

That’s what the SRO audience got at the local premiere of the film “When the Wild Mountain Calls” at the Sierra City Community Hall last Sunday night. Filmmaker and storyteller Patty Eacobacci has been impacted by the Buttes since before she can remember, and her film, 25 years in the making, captures many special aspects of that rocky outcropping… but most of all, her deep sense of place resonates in every word, every image.

Patty’s tale began with the “ladder” her father was instrumental in constructing in 1964 to reach the then-recently-rebuilt fire lookout, but that fact is just the hook for the deeply moving, compelling love story she appropriately subtitles “Stories from the Sierra Buttes.” She says, “I thought I was collecting stories about a landmark. Instead, I found myself collecting stories about connection.”

There is much to say about Patty’s history with the Buttes, and probably much to say about the film as art… assessments that are mostly above my pay grade. There is gorgeous imagery. There are fascinating facts. There are well-told narratives. But for me, the big hit was emotional.

OMG, somebody else relates to that ridge of rock the way my spirit does. I have long tried to explain to foothills residents that when I make the turn at Bassett’s and see the eastern face, as if for the first time… something important, deep inside me, shifts... Rises in Glory… Settles in Peace…

I have never been sure anybody “got” what I was on about.

A thousand thanks, Patty, for investing two-and-a-half decades in capturing that experience so clearly, for making the deep connection to place palpable. And for making it utterly, utterly obvious that I am not alone.

Where can I see it?

“When the Wild Mountain Calls” is available for viewing at Sierra County Land Trust.

Or see the trailer on YouTube @pattyeacobacci

Information about upcoming plans for the film is available on Instagram: @SierraButtesLove.