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The documentary film Segara Gunung (Between the Mountain and the Sea) takes place 8,000 miles away in Bali, but the West Coast premiere is coming to the Moreland Theater on June 6. The film’s composer Benjamin Wright wrote and recorded most of the score in his Sellwood home studio.
“It’s a great story about the power of persistence across cultures and religions in a place that everyone associates with vacation,” Wright says. “It’s a different view of Bali.”
Between the Mountain and the Sea follows a family grappling with the sudden death of the family patriarch, Puspa, and his daughter trying to continue his unfinished environmental projects and keep her father’s legacy alive. Proceeds from the screening will go to the charity Rice for Bali, which provides rice, housing, English classes, clothing and more for people in isolated mountain regions of Indonesia.
Wright also co-produced the film, which is directed by Stephen R. Coleman. Coleman shot Between the Mountain and the Sea over about three years and sent Wright the dailies.
“He did a lot of beautiful scene footage with the drone and capturing the sights and sounds,” Wright says. “I immersed myself in that and was inspired in that way.”
Coleman and Wright last teamed up on the 2017 documentary Project Cold Days, which chronicles the homeless population in Ottawa, Canada, struggling to survive winter in the coldest capital city in the world.
Wright has been in the music business for about 30 years and has been a composer for film and television for the latter half of that time. In addition to the documentaries with Coleman, Wright composed the music for the FX show Louie as well as the 2022 horror film #FLOAT.
Between the Mountain and the Sea had its U.S. debut in April at the New York International Film Awards and has also screened throughout Indonesia. The Moreland Theater event includes a question-and-answer session with Wright after the screening.
Between the Mountain and the Sea screens at Moreland Theater, 6712 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-236-5257, morelandtheater.com. 7:30 pm Thursday, June 6. Tickets are $10, available here.