YOUR AD HERE »

5Point Film Festival: ‘Ten Years Out’ shares an artist’s healing process

Local artist Summers Moore is the subject of the short documentary "Ten Years Out," whcih premieres Sunday at the 5Point Adventure Film Festival.
Courtesy photo

IF YOU GO …

What: ’Ten Years Out’ at 5Point Adventure Film Festival

Where: Carbondale Rec Center

When: Sunday, April 22, 2 p.m.

More info: Sunday’s film program includes 11 total films, the 5Point Awards Presentation and some surprises. It will be hosted by Patty O’Connell; 5pointfilm.org

What: 5Point Adventure Film Festival

Where: Carbondale Rec Center and elsewhere, Carbondale

When: Through Sunday, April 22

How much: $30-$35 for film programs; $425 for All Access Pass

More info: 5pointfilm.org

After her husband’s death in 2007, Summers Moore found refuge in art.

In the decade that followed, Moore’s photography became a staple of exhibitions at venues like the Red Brick Center and the Aspen Chapel Gallery. Most viewers didn’t know Moore had turned to art for therapy in the wake of her husband’s death by suicide, didn’t know she was raising two young daughters and didn’t know the journey of healing this Missouri Heights resident — who first came to the valley to teach skiing — had been on.

Moore has opened up about that decade-long journey in a new short documentary film, “Ten Years Out,” which premieres Sunday at the 5Point Adventure Film Festival. It screens as part of the second annual “Changemakers” program at the festival, which curates stories about people who are making an impact on the world who embody the nonprofit’s titular five points: purpose, respect, commitment, humility and balance.



It’s a fitting venue. Moore and her daughters have been attending 5Point as a family for years. After the 2017 festival, inspired by what they’d seen, Moore approached 5Point program director Meredith McKee with a proposal.

“She said, ‘I would like to make a film about overcoming the odds and my art and my family. Do you think we can do it?’” McKee recalled.




McKee herself got behind the camera, making her directorial debut on what would become “Ten Years Out,” which she co-directed with Michael Stevens. As they dug into Moore’s story, they found a well of inspiration.

“She picked up a camera and started painting and sketching and the art helped her transform into an artist and guided her through the grieving process,” McKee said. “She’s one of the strongest women I’ve ever met.”

The filmmakers began by following Moore on a photo job at Bridging Bionics, the locally based foundation developing technology to help the paralyzed walk. They sat down for some long interviews with her. They tagged along on skiing and biking and paragliding adventures, and in private moments with her now-teenage daughters. And, of course, they documented her art-making process.

“It was very much following Summers and learning her story along the way,” McKee explained.

McKee is a new filmmaker, but she is a familiar figure in the valley and on the local ski hills. She worked in the marketing department at the Aspen Skiing Co. for eight years and caught the film bug while organizing film shoots on Aspen’s slopes. She left in 2014 to work as a producer at GoPro, and was lured back to the Roaring Fork Valley in early 2017 for the gig at 5Point, working alongside executive director Meaghan Lynch — a former colleague from her Skico days.

McKee had produced a Travis Rice snowboard segment for GoPro, worked on Warren Miller shoots in Aspen, but had never helmed a movie as a director. Moore was an ideal documentary subject and generous collaborator, she said.

“I feel lucky that the subject is Summers Moore, because she is an artist herself and she looks at this film as an extension of herself and her work,” McKee said. “She handed the reins over to us and said, ‘This is my story and I want you to tell it.’”

The film premiere coincides with a retrospective of Moore’s artwork that opened last week at The Art Base in Basalt, showing a side of her practice that many haven’t seen before. Titled “Healing Process,” it showcases Moore’s work from the past two decades including photography along with charcoal sketches and acrylic works centered on her long recovery through art.

Moore will give a talk about her life and work at the gallery Tuesday. The show runs through May 4.

atravers@aspentimes.com

Entertainment


See more