domino effect

Says Prudence Mabhena, “In Zimbabwe, when a disabled child is born, the family thinks, ‘Oh, here comes a burden.” From that unlikely start, rose a star, and the award-winning Music by Prudence tells that tale with a soundtrack that resonates on many levels. Beyond her musical story, however, runs a parallel tale, which Prudence shared at Mountainfilm in Telluride in 2011. Watch Prudence share this story, which we at Mountainfilm also call The Domino Effect.

If Mountainfilm has affected or impacted your life, please share your story with us.

The question I ask after every festival is: What sort of impact did this year's edition of Mountainfilm in Telluride make? Of course the answer is never simple to quantify because intangibles, such as inspiration, are tough to measure.

We do know that many people in our audience have experiences at the festival that they describe as "life altering" or "attitude adjusting," but I’d like to know what that means in more concrete terms. 

For example, one of my favorite Mountainfilm presentations was around 2004 when Rick Ridgeway, Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin spoke about their journey to western Tibet, an expedition they concocted at the previous year’s festival.

I know that Mountainfilm played a key role in catalyzing that wild adventure, but I also know that the festival impacts people in a variety of other ways, as well. One woman wrote me that Mountainfilm inspired her to run for city council because "I've decided that instead of fighting the government, we need to be the government. Hopefully, I can have an impact locally, at least."

Last year Dr. Rick Hodes, who works with Ethiopian children who suffer from tuberculosis of the spine and whose story is told in Making the Crooked Straight, won the Moving Mountains Prize. His medical program was awarded $5,000, and with it he was able to help a young patient named Meiraf. Meiraf attended this year's festival, and read a moving letter to a full crowd at the Palm Theatre. It's another example of what we call the Domino Effect of Mountainfilm; using inspiration to truly make positive change. For those of you that missed it, here is Meiraf's entire letter: