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Young director a focal point in Mountainfilm

James Marcus Haney is only 27 yet he has two feature films under his belt, both of which will be shown as part of this weekend’s Mountainfilm festival. But his road to success was not a traditional one. The selection of two music films at the festival wasn't either.

 

Marcus Haney was a senior in college at the University of Southern California. The lineup for Coachella in 2010 was full of big names. She and Him. Atoms for Peace. Jay-Z. Marcus was a broke college student. All of his friends were going, and so was his crush. He had to go.

 

And as the film major was driving to the festival with his friend Adam and a guy they met on Craigslist, they figured out how they would sneak in. Wait until night, then jump a fence and pose as members of the media. With cameras hanging from his neck, Haney spent the night sleeping under a semi-truck.

He snuck into Coachella. Then Bonnaroo. Then Glastonbury.

 

Soon after, Mumford and Sons, one of the biggest bands around right now, invited him on tour to film them.

 

A missing college degree, a few music videos and a contract with HBO later, Haney is one of the biggest young directors in the industry. That footage he compiled on his adventures became his first feature film, “No Cameras Allowed.”

 

But movies about music aren’t exactly what you’d call Mountainfilm’s forte, after all. It’s called mountain film for a reason.

 

One of the reasons Haney will be here is because of Gena Buhler, the executive director of the Wheeler Opera house. She was part of the team that picked the films that will be shown this weekend.

 

“I walked out of it so jazzed," says Gena. "So excited. I said ‘We’re gonna make this happen. Here’s what we’re gonna do,’ and from day one started talking about it.”

 

Haney has gone on tour with bands to film them, to be out of frame and get the shot. But now he is the one who is on display.

 

“It’s so much less stressful," says Haney. "When we’re doing film festival runs, all I’ve got to worry about is not offending anybody at a Q&A and that’s about it.”

 

Haney says that if he hadn’t snuck into hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of music festivals, he would have no idea where he would be. He is just happy to be where he is at now.

 

“I definitely am lucky to have jumped the right fence at the right time, and it was a lot of things lining up outside of my control.

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