HIFF
I AM A TOWN
In his directorial debut, photographer Mischa Richter trains his lens on the year-round characters who call Provincetown, Massachusetts, their home. Here, he and his friend, actress Emily Mortimer, an East End resident and HIFF mainstay who served as one of the documentary’s producers, talk about the transporting power of film.
The lifestyle of Provincetown is filled with freedom, but requires solitude.
RAY ROGERS: The movie feels like a love letter to the community of P-town. You spent roughly five years making it. I’d love to hear from both of you about why it’s important to tell these kinds of stories. MISCHA RICHTER: I made it because I personally felt like I wanted to express myself, about this place I grew up in and really love. I also thought about what is going on in the world today and what’s going on in America. Provincetown is the first landing place for the Pilgrims; they wrote a contract [the Mayflower Compact] that’s the root of the Constitution in our harbor right here. So I felt like a lot of what is happening here in town is rooted in those original ideas of what we were going to make this country. I felt like a lot of the rest of America was losing that, and we’ve somehow maintained that—welcoming immigrants into the community to become part of the community, successful and sustained. EMILY MORTIMER: I’ve always felt from the moment Mischa
RR: It does feel very meditative, with the lingering on these seascapes and objects. The viewer has some quiet time with these people and this place. EM: Yes, I really feel that the experience of watching the film is similar to the experience so many people have in that place. This kind of calm feeling of time slowed down, and experiencing life at a totally different pace. What’s so interesting about it is that Mischa’s always said there’s a kind of pain in the beauty of it too. The choice to be 90
Mischa Richter
started filming to especially now, it’s a kind of tonic, almost like medicine for this kind of crazy moment. There was something about assisting with the film; it just felt like an escape, but in the best way. It’s this incredibly poetic meditation on a place that has meant so much to Mischa. Like all the best things, when you’re able to describe your personal feelings about a place or a person, it becomes universal.
