When New York filmmaker Ryan Sands came to Ashford last year for the Rainier Independent Film Festival, he had had writer’s block for a year. But in the cool mountain air and quiet green forests beneath Mount Rainier, in between screenings of his and other indie films, he found he could write – and write, and write.

That’s just one of the stories told about the film festival started three years ago by filmmaking husband-and-wife duo Win and Sarah Whittaker. Part of the famous mountaineering family, the Whittakers themselves decided they’d had enough of the indie-film rat race that they’d found at other festivals around the country. So they started one of their own by the mountain.

“I was born and raised around Mount Rainier,” says Win Whittaker. “We decided it would be neat to have a festival away from the crowds. They can be a bit overwhelming.”

And so was born the Rainier Independent Film Festival. Starting Friday, the three-day festival will screen around 25 films in three venues spread around the Ashford/Mineral area, along with opening and closing galas and a couple of filmmaker workshops.

There’s no theme, just an emphasis on good film, a focus leading to the description of RIFF by TIME magazine’s Rebecca Winers Keegan as “a rarity – a film festival actually focused on film.”

Plus, the location and small venues mean the festival also offers a calm atmosphere that both filmmakers like Sands and festivalgoers appreciate.

Films are screened in three venues: the 400-seat Mineral Events Center in a converted 1920s schoolhouse, the comfortable Nisqually Lodge and the tree-surrounded Forest Retreat cabin, both close to the Nisqually entrance to Mount Rainier National Park.

“It’s intimate, a chance for filmmakers and audience to bond a bit,” says Whittaker, saying that last year it attracted around 140 people to the opening and closing galas.

Filmmakers come from across the country. As for the audience, some are locals, some from Pierce County, others travel from as far afield as the San Juan Islands or Portland.

This year, the 25 DigiBeta and DVD films (selected from 150 submissions) have no central theme, just “what the selectors liked,” says Whittaker.

Eight are features, many are shorts, a few are documentaries. They include the opening feature “Spooner,” by Drake Doremus, about a parent-dependent used car salesman; and William Lappe’s “Bronx Paradise,” the story of crack dealer Wayne Gurman and his racist mafia-hitman best friend.

And for the first time in the festival’s history, there’s a mountaineering film – about climber Michael Bearzi, who died in the Himalayas in 2002.

“One of the things we often have to tell people, being Whittakers near Mount Rainier, is that it’s not a mountain-film festival,” says Whittaker. “It’s a film festival in the mountains.”

Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568

rosemary.ponnekanti@ thenewstribune.com-

Rainier Independent Film Festival

When:

June 12-14, opening film 6:15 p.m. June 12

Where: Ashford and Mineral

Tickets: $6 per screening/$20 one day/$50 full festival

Information: 253-370-3520, www.rainierfilmfest.com