Emrys Ellis (Provided photo)

LAKE PLACID — This year, the Lake Placid Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 7 to 10, will feature a short, award-winning documentary that has deep connections to the local community.

The film, which was directed by Keene Valley native Emrys Ellis, is titled “Artifacts — Matt Horner” and it explores the unique facets of the ice climber turned rock artist, who lives and works in Jay.

Horner, who has turned his passion for scaling cliffs into the art form of rock carving, has created hundreds of stone sculptures over the last two decades.

While many are held in private collections throughout the United States and Europe, they are also installed at popular destinations here in the Adirondack region. His work can be seen at Keene Arts, the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, in Lake Placid at Teddy Bear Park and in front of the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.

The film was chosen as a finalist in the film festival’s short documentary competition called “Your Shorts Are Showing.” It will be presented at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8 at the LPCA, 17 Algonquin Dr.

Matt Horner (Provided photo)

The award-winning short-doc was a senior thesis project directed by Ellis, who grew up in Keene Valley, while he was studying film at SUNY New Paltz. After graduating in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in digital media production, he began working as an intern with Barbara Kopple, a two-time Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker based in New York City.

Kopple, who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, will also be present at this year’s festival as a member of Upstate Women in Film & Television. She is one of three distinguished female filmmakers who will share insights and answer questions at a forum called “Women in the Director’s Chair” at the LPCA at 11 a.m. Saturday.

When Ellis was given the thesis assignment early on in his senior year of college, he thought seriously about what he had to offer in a way that was deeply personal. He fondly recalled his earliest childhood memories of growing up in Keene Valley.

“We moved to the Adirondacks when I was 6, for my dad (Ben) to take a job in Lake Placid teaching English at the public high school,” Ellis said. “We had previously lived in Albany, New York, and my dad would take me on hikes in the Adirondacks when I was very young, so I already loved the mountains when we moved north.”

He also shared one of his most memorable childhood experiences.

“I would attend the Sunday farmers market at Marcy Field with my mom (Ariell), and I remember her introducing me to Matt Horner when I was just a little kid of 7 or 8 years old. He was always there, with a display of unique and unusual rock art, which I really admired. He made a big impression on me. He always seemed so mysterious, and I became a fan-boy.”

Regarding the senior film project, Ellis felt he wanted to share something especially meaningful and interesting in a creative and concise way.

“I decided to follow the thread of curiosity regarding this mysterious person who had fascinated me so much as a child,” Ellis said. “The subject just called out to me and warranted further investigation. It seemed spontaneous and almost effortless.”

But the film did take effort. It was created within a two-month time frame beginning in the autumn of 2023. Ellis brought his fellow film students — Mollie Zolean, Issac Rostan, Jude Ferran and Emma Boyle — to his home in the Adirondack Mountains.

Ellis’ friends had never been to upstate New York, and upon their arrival they were astounded at the beauty of the place where he grew up and drew creative inspiration. The crew spent four days shooting film and doing interviews with Matt, his good friend Chase Twitchell and fellow ice climbing guide Don Mellor, who are both featured in the documentary.

As for Horner and his cutting-edge artform, it all began when he was building rock walls for Keene Valley summer resident Burns Weston back in the early 2000s. The construction required precision placement of the stones, and to make one tight fit he had to do a bit of rock chiseling. This resulted in Horner looking at stone from a different point of view.

Inspired by the new perspective, he set to work chiseling a small bird bath, which in his words, “turned out to be pretty good.” Weston was impressed and encouraged Horner to pursue stone sculpting as an art form.

From that moment on, Horner drew artistic inspiration from nature as he spent time in the Adirondack rivers and mountains as a licensed fly-fishing and rock-climbing guide.

“My climbing inspired me because I was constantly studying and seeking out the most compelling lines on each cliff I ascended,” Horner said.

In addition to mountaineering, he also found himself communing with nature as he fished.

“I observed how, over eons of time, water naturally sculpted stone into distinctive forms and shapes. Nature is the best artist,” he said.

Horner then began to collect rocks and stones for their individual characteristics of color, natural curve and shape. He brought them back to his studio where he studied each one until it spoke to his creativity — and then he chiseled away until the sculpture within the stone was revealed.

The evolution of his creativity over the past several years has led Horner to add impactful dimension to his sculpture by including organic and inorganic matter forms, such as wood, steel and even light, to the stone. The results are bold, edgy and thought provoking.

You can follow the evolution of Horner’s art by visiting matthornerstonework.com, on Instagram at matthewdhorner, on the Keene Arts website at keenearts.com and on Facebook.

“The Artifacts — Matt Horner” documentary is exceptionally captivating, not only because of the scenic beauty of the Adirondack High Peaks region, but also because it portrays one of the most imaginative, creative and skilled sculpture artists of our time. If you can’t make it to the film festival, the documentary can be viewed on YouTube.

Adirondack Film support

The board chair of the Lake Placid Film Festival is a program of Adirondack Film. Board Chairman Gary Smith said his organization is pleased to support all upstate artists and endeavors to help regional filmmakers to make a living from where they live.

“Toward that end, we have created the Greater Adirondack Film Commission to provide scouting, permitting, procurement and guide services throughout the Adirondacks and the Champlain Valley,” he said.

For more information on careers and development training opportunities in upstate New York, visit adirondackfilm.org.

“We thank all our upstate filmmakers for their contributions to the Lake Placid Film Festival, and for the enjoyment and creative energy they bring to our region,” Smith said.