My first job when moving to Rangeley almost twenty years ago was at the Saddleback daycare center with Lori Rogers and Deb White. They were officially my first two friends and I cherish the memory of those fun times with them at Saddleback. Over the years I have had many different types of jobs at Saddleback from working in the restaurant to administrative office work, to skiing the mountain to measure fuel consumption, and even years after as a volunteer to teach kids to snowboard for “Ski Tuesdays.” I, like hundreds of others treasure my connection to the mountain. So, when I heard that “More Than a Mountain: A Short Film on the Story of Saddleback” was accepted into the Maine Outdoor Film Festival (MOFF) I was pleased as punch. I congratulated filmmakers, photographers and co-owners and founders of Maine Mountain Media, Paul Friedman, and Spencer Mendell.

Mendell, “We’re really excited we got accepted. We’re through the roof. I mean our first documentary, our first and longest.”
Friedman, “We’re really, really flattered that everyone’s giving it the positive attention.”

I also spoke to Nick Callanan, Director of the MOFF, who told me the decision wasn’t a difficult one to make. Callanan, “That was a really strong film. Obviously the story of Saddleback touched a lot of people and it was told really well. The interviews that they conducted showed a lot of research and it was edited well, so our screening committee loved it.” He also shared his own personal endearment towards Saddleback, “I’ve always thought so highly of Saddleback and it’s awesome to see the resurgence getting chronicled in this wonderful film.”

Andy Shepard, General Manager of Saddleback had this to add, “The story of Saddleback Mountain and its remarkable community – The Saddleback Family – is an important one for our times. The mountain is more than a ski resort, it is home to generations of families that have leaned on the camaraderie, through good times and bad. It is also the story of the role the mountain played as the leading employer in the region. Saddleback is truly more than a mountain and Maine Mountain Media did a masterful job of capturing the essence of the story.”

This documentary, just short of 40 minutes long, fluctuates seamlessly between dramatic saga and love story and so has all the ups and downs of any great theatrical piece worth watching. However, what I also love about it is the appropriate and natural balance of the piece. Filmmakers Paul Friedman and Spencer Mendell artfully cut between glorious expansive aerial shots, up close powder action shots, archival films and animated photos, and successfully interwove down to earth interviews that are both sincere and succinct.

While it was their longest project to date, the team has worked and known each other for years and it obviously contributed quite a bit to the successful outcome of the finished product.

They met at the University of Maine in Farmington (UMF), Friedman with a concentration in business and economics and Mendell in outdoor recreation administration. They quickly became fast friends due to their common interests. Even though they grew up in different states- Friedman in New Hampshire, and Mendell in Vermont, they had remarkably similar backgrounds that lent to their eventual forming of Maine Mountain Media.

Friedman “Both of us had backgrounds in photo and video but no formal training. We grew up very separately, but our paths were actually very similar. Both of us skied and went to the skate park with our buddies and for whatever reason we both happened to be the friend of the group who got interested in video. We both have boxes and boxes of 8mm tape and camera gear and fisheye lenses because we wanted to do all the cool skate video stuff for our friends. So, by the time we got to college we both had quite a bit of video experience, just nothing formal. Through college we both continued that, but purely as a hobby. We both got jobs doing video and photography, again very informal, and it just sort of grew and we sort of just learned on our own how to do this, how to do that, and then now over the years YouTube culture has really started to take over and you can get a lot of informal training and pick up a lot of things along the way, as long as you’re willing to take the time.”
They both wound up getting jobs at Saddleback at a youthful age working in the terrain park and then interning in the marketing department with Joanne Taylor. In typical Saddleback style they wore different hats- event planning, snow reporting, posters, outdoor recreation administration and not surprisingly they put out weekly videos. These videos and the raw footage they shot back about ten years ago wound up  being a great resource.
When Andy Shepard, General Manager of Saddleback got wind of the existence of this footage and also heard from Jim Quimby and Jared Emerson, who sang the praises of Friedman and Mendell, Shepard reached out.
Mendell, “Andy called us and said I’d like to do a piece about the mountain reopening, and I’d like you guys to film the process. We were like “Absolutely! This is right up our alley. We love and care about Saddleback deeply. We love filmmaking and this was just the perfect opportunity to do that.”

The entire project from start to finish took about a year which is pretty impressive considering the fact that it wasn’t their full-time job and that going through photos, films, articles and coordinating interviews is a very time-consuming process.
Mendell, “We decided we wanted a variety of voices. We wanted people who had been working there for generations all the way down to people who were recent members of the Saddleback community, which is obviously a very welcoming community, so it doesn’t take very long to get ingrained into it.
People from like the mayor of Portland or people who had been here like Kit Caspar who had been teaching there, for gosh, decades. Or then as you saw Jim Quimby, whose father helped install the previous chair and whose grandfather helped to install the first chair. So, you know he’d been part of that for like generations. Jared Emerson, same thing- generations. So really cool to get everybody’s story. We went back after all of that and figured out what we needed for visuals and so for like the archival historical footage we looked everywhere for a time machine, but we couldn’t find one so instead we just dug through Jim Quimby’s storage. So, he did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of history. He told us the story; we sort of dug out the pieces we knew we wanted.”
Historical film footage from Saddleback from 1967-68 contributed greatly and that in itself took Mendell about a week alone to edit and I’m happy to report there was also some valuable Highlander clippings he got from Quimby. Mendell, “I went through each one and just sort of picked out some of the highlights that I thought would be important and to go along with Jimmy’s story there and then animated all of them.”
Arduous work making a documentary, but the outcome was well worth the effort. Friedman, “This is by far the biggest single project we’ve worked on. No doubt about that. It was exciting. It was the blood, sweat and tears type of project. You work and you work, and you work and then you’re sick of it and then you sit, and you watch it and then you’re re-inspired to just do it again. I mean because this project is so close to our hearts, you know, this mountain means a lot to us we can also sort of put ourselves in the shoes of the people who this mountain means even monumentally more to them than it does to us. So when we see the footage of the people talking about how important this is to them or when you see the tears well up in someone’s eyes, all of that really hit us right in the heart and it was really inspiring to just keep pressing through.”
Mendell and Friedman were both very appreciative of not only the opportunity to work on such a film, but also the support they received during and the positive feedback after. Friedman had this to say, “I think he (Andy Shepard) did a really kind thing reaching out to us and giving us the opportunity to do this project and not only that, but he had a bit of a vision for this project as well and the same thing with the guys from Arctaris. Those guys really worked side by side with us as well and they gave us a ton of creative freedom on this project and just really helped.”
I don’t think anyone would have predicted they would be in the Maine Outdoor Film Festival when they were teenagers shooting video or even when they set out to make this documentary, but some things, like for example the reopening of Saddleback were just meant to be. Friedman, “For us, all we ever wanted back in the day was to get you know those awesome ski shots, you know just powder shots, powder shots. You know trying to convert 19-year-old Paul and Spencer’s glamour shots into a little bit more of a cohesive story that would translate to not just a few viewers but all the viewers; it was definitely a big team effort on everyone’s part- and definitely the major players, you know Jimmy, Jared, Andy. Those guys definitely get a lot of the credit on this project. They helped sort of steer us in the right direction. They helped put us in touch with the right people to talk to and when all is said and done it was a great project that when we sat back at the end, we were really proud of it and a great opportunity.”
Mendell agreed and added, “We love it. The people that we interviewed love it and it means A LOT. When we finally had the final draft done, Paul and I sat down, and I mean I cried watching this movie and I put it together. And we have gotten so much positive feedback from everyone in the community, and I don’t think I’ve heard one negative thing.”
Friedman, “They say there’s only seven stories though some writers would say there’s only one story and I think this has got it all- it’s got the love and the passion, and it’s got the loss and it’s the rekindling of the spark again. I don’t think anyone who skis at Saddleback doesn’t love it. There’s no way to deny that it is a love story. I think when you talk to anyone about Saddleback, you’ll get the same common thread that it’s just all about the community. It’s all about the people who ski there and people’s attitudes and what it feels like to be there. Saddleback is absolutely the pinnacle of that feeling- you have to just be there to really feel it. Like Spencer said, the number of people who gave positive feedback was overwhelming. Every member of the Saddleback community is lucky to have found it. It’s a great place to be.”

For more information about the Maine Outdoor Film Festival (MOFF) you can visit their website maineoutdoorfilmfestival.com and follow links to when and where you can get a big screen outdoor viewing of More Than a Mountain. At this time tickets are available for the July 30th on the Eastern Promenade in Portland. Let’s get a gang of us to go!

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