Although Covid took the live music and the chocolate-dipped ice cream, the Mountainfilm festival is once again returning to Ojai Valley School.
Since 2015, OVS had hosted the Mountainfilm documentary film festival at the Lower Campus every year up until the pandemic. The films were shown on a giant screen set up at the big field at Lower Campus, drawing sizable crowds with food trucks, a beer garden and, of course, world class films.
The films are collections of thrilling adventures, including everything from riding wild rapids down the Grand Canyon to taming wild mustangs and heading out on strenuous mountain horse camping adventures. The films attempt to inspire young outdoor enthusiasts and provoke climate activism
The film fest has become the largest fundraiser for the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy.
With 2,000 people coming to the festival in 2019, it had given the OVLC a large fundraising event while giving OVS the opportunity to reach out to the community, with many visiting parents having discovered the school through the festival.
This year, OVLC held a series of small socially distanced Moutainfilm screenings, as well as an online streamed event.
But the OVS Parent Club at the Upper Campus wanted to do more.
Being that OVS has been open for in-person instruction since October of 2020, Parent Club co-chairs Jennie Prebor and Cindy Carver led the charge to bring the event back to OVS, shifting the venue this year to the Upper Campus.
“It will be really fun to have Mountainfilm back at OVS, this time at the Upper Campus field, which is a beautiful setting for an outdoor movie night under the stars,” said Tracy Wilson, the school’s director of advancement and admission.
The private showing of the Mountainfilm documentaries will take place on Saturday, Nov. 13, on the sports field at the Upper Campus for OVS students and parents to come and watch under the beautiful night sky.
“We wanted to bring it back.” Mrs. Carver said of the Parent Club’s push to bring the film festival to OVS. “We wanted to have the real thing, or as close as we could get to it.”