Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Filmmaker toasts transition on return to festival

When she was 14, Mari Walker fell while body surfing and hit the sand pretty hard, resulting in a hospital stay and surgery.

While recovering, her parents bought her a video camera, unknowingly giving her life direction.

At the time, Walker, now 29, was a sophomore at Hudson’s Bay High School, and she asked a teacher if she could make a documentary short about Buddhism for a project. The teacher agreed, and Walker filmed the short in her house, using a wheelchair as a dolly. While editing the project the night before it was due, a corrupted file cost her most of her work, setting her up for a sleepless night full of stress and tears.

“My parents thought that would be the end of my film career,” she said. “Instead, it made me realize that’s what I want to do with my life. I must have made 60, 70 projects in high school: short films, PSAs, things to promote orchestra shows.”

Walker went to Emerson College in Boston, where she studied film, and moved to Los Angeles, where she has directed, edited and produced various works. Now, she’s returning to her home county to show off three such projects, all of which are screening in the eighth annual Columbia Gorge International Film Festival, which runs until Sunday.

Walker has worked mostly on documentaries in her career, and said she really enjoys allowing people to tell their own stories. Two of the projects screening at the festival are documentaries: “The Tin Man Project” follows singer Barry Brandon as he performs and battles massive heart failure, and “Michelle’s Party” follows Lara Salmon as she paints four blood portraits. A third project, “Solitary,” follows a girl who moves back home with her aging father, and inside her childhood home, the ghosts of her past begin to haunt her.

“Michelle’s Party” is playing at 2:30 p.m. today in the drama room at Washougal High School, 1201 39th St., Washougal. “Solitary” plays Saturday at noon in the high school auditorium. “The Tin Man Project” screened Thursday.

This is the second time Walker has been to the festival, as she also worked on three projects that played there in 2012. Walker, whose films have appeared at more than 65 festivals around the world, said the Columbia Gorge is one of her favorites to attend.

However, the 2012 festival was also a turning point in Walker’s life. She was not taking care of herself, and didn’t think she’d live past 30, which she was OK with, just as long as she got to make one movie by then. A friend said he was worried about her and didn’t think she was happy. Walker broke down and admitted to herself she needed to make a change.

Soon after, she began transitioning from a man to a woman. While Walker knew that’s what she wanted, it wasn’t easy, even after receiving “near universal” support from family and friends.

“I was scared to go out, even if I felt like that was me,” she said. “I would open the door, and just stand in the door frame shaking before leaving the house.”

Not only is Walker in a happier place now, her transition has also forced her to look differently at movies, both others’ and her own.

“I recognized in my own projects, my own works didn’t focus on minorities as much I’m interested in now,” she said. “I want to push and find more diversity.”

She recently worked as an assistant editor on “Her Story,” a soon-to-premiere Web series following the lives of trans women and lesbians in Los Angeles. Walker also edited the trailer, which debuted online this week.

“Our country is getting more diverse, and it’s important to acknowledge that, especially in the media,” Walker said.

For Walker, she’s currently working on documentaries about Japanese-American internment camps and the legacy of “Deliverance” and how it affected the county it was shot in. There are plenty of other stories she hopes to tell, too.

“There’s something about watching real life people react to real life stories,” she said. “There are so many different types of stories to tell. The Human experience is wide ranging.”

Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.