The Mountain Ark

The Mountain Ark follows Lissa Margetts through a single day at her wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary in Telluride. Fiercely independent and deeply connected to animals, she navigates moments of rescue, loss, and unexpected joy.

What is a more noble profession than saving the lives of injured animals on a daily basis. I was drawn to Lissa Margetts because she was impossible to reduce to a simple description. She was fiercely independent, resilient, funny, unpredictable, and deeply connected to the animals and people around her. Lissa had spent much of her life caring for creatures that could not care for themselves, often giving more than she had to give. With The Mountain Ark, I wanted to capture Lissa as she was—not create a traditional portrait of a wildlife rehabilitator. The film follows her through a single day at the Rocky Mountain Ark, where the ordinary can become extraordinary without warning. An injured animal arrives. A life is saved. Another is lost. Someone stops by. Lissa tells a story. There is laughter, frustration, grief, and then the work simply continues. That rhythm became the heart of the film. For years, the Rocky Mountain Ark was an internationally known wildlife rehabilitation center on fourteen acres outside Telluride. Lissa cared for injured animals there and, through her educational outreach, reached more than 100,000 schoolchildren. But statistics only tell part of her story. What interested me was the personal cost—and the extraordinary commitment—behind a life devoted to caring for animals. Lissa seemed to share something with the animals she cared for. She was independent and not easily contained. There was a wildness in her, but also tremendous compassion. Her relationship with animals did not feel sentimental; it felt instinctive. Ultimately, The Mountain Ark is about more than wildlife rehabilitation. It is about what it means to devote yourself to something outside yourself. It is about compassion, sacrifice, mortality, and our relationship with the natural world.