Santa Fe alumna co-produces a Sundance Selection, testifies how her Experiences in New Mexico have influenced her.
Muscle Shoals, a documentary that celebrates FAME Studios founder Rick Hall, was a 2013 Sundance and South by Southwest (SXSW) selection. Raji Mandelkorn, the Santa Fe, New Mexico alumna who co-produced the film, reflects on her time working on the production, and on studying in the Land of Enchantment.
“The memorable parts of production were the shoots with the cast and crew down in Alabama,” said Mandelkorn, a 2008 graduate of College of Santa Fe (now Santa Fe University of Art and Design) who began as production manager on the film but took over line producer duties after the first shoot. “We all worked really long, hard hours and we enjoyed it. Muscle Shoals [Alabama] really is a special place with sweet people. Production is a party, and everybody gets a little tense and excited about it. Relationships get stronger on those multi-channel, walkie-talkie productions by the river far from home. It’s nice to have a budget and work with talented people. Whom you work with is about as important as what you’re working on.”
Mandelkorn added that entertainment and cinema arts still have plenty of room for experimentation and originality, and she encourages young filmmakers to push the envelope every day. She said she’s particularly proud to work on projects that have social value.
Mandelkorn first traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2012 to bring witness to the extreme violence against women and children plagued by the mineral wars, lawlessness, corruption and small arms proliferation in the eastern part of the country. That visit has developed into a narrative music/film project called Listening to Buyungule. She traveled to the DRC again in 2013, where she focused on the Pygmies of Buyungule and young street musicians in neighboring Kigali, Rwanda.
Mandelkorn noted that her time studying in Santa Fe has greatly influenced her filmmaking today.
“I tell you, my applied education and skills, including written comprehension and verbal communications, photography, design, video, research and knowledge of programs like Photoshop and Final Cut, make me one hell of a valuable asset to a small, independent digital movie production company with funds and potential,” she said. “… It’s been really thrilling to have our movie, Muscle Shoals, get a theatrical distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures and go to theaters. But then to find out that it’s coming to Santa Fe just because Brent [Kliewer], curator at The Screen has to have it, well that is just full-circle, cherry-on-top, sweet serendipity—and a great review where it counts.”
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