LEWISTON — When local filmmakers and movie fans lamented the loss of the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival in March, Ramsey Tripp was among the people who helped create the Emerge Film Festival. For Tripp, a filmmaker who works out of a modest office overlooking Lewiston’s Lisbon Street, his role in the new festival broadened his existing status as a force among local filmmakers. The Sun Journal wanted to learn more about the soft-spoken film lover.

Name: Ramsey Tripp

Age: 41

Hometown: Born in Lewiston, raised in New Gloucester, live in Auburn

Single, relationship or married? I’ve been married for 14 years

Children? Seven

You helped create the Emerge Film Festival, which debuts in mid-June in Lewiston-Auburn. What’s it been like to be the guy working on a festival rather than a filmmaker showing his movie? Last year I worked for four months without a day off leading up to the film festival to make sure the film (“The Peloton Project”) would be finished and to get my regular work done. With the Emerge Film Festival it is a lot of work, but not as much pressure as having a tight deadline for a film.

What’s your role in the new festival? Officially I’m the vice president of the board and the art director for the festival. I’m not exactly sure what that means except that Sandy Marquis, Laura Davis and I are pretty much communicating every day, all day, to put things together for June.

Are there parts of being a filmmaker that have guided your decisions as plans for the new festival take shape? The biggest thing is collaboration. One of my favorite things as a filmmaker is to flush out ideas as a team, and I think we have done a great job of that with Emerge. We all came together with a mission: put on a great film festival for our community. Our decisions have centered around that.

Last year, you showed an early cut of your film “The Peloton Project” at the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival. The screening was a headlining event and even drew your executive producer, Patrick Dempsey, who sat in the front row. How important was that festival experience to you? For me personally it was huge on a number of levels. Having Patrick Dempsey come to the premier of a first cut was exciting and stressful. I mean, he has his name on this film, and what if he hates it? Fortunately he loved it and immediately set up a screening for us in Beverly Hills at United Talent Agency. So that was huge, but the other thing that I’ll never forget is watching the film with 430 other people at the Franco Center. That evening was electric to the point that I can’t describe it fully. It was probably the biggest reason for me to do whatever it takes to make sure our community has a film festival. I wanted other filmmakers to experience the excitement of that night.

What’s happening with “The Peloton Project”? After the UTA screening, we left feeling really good about what had taken place, and they had given us some good notes to work on. Because I was pretty much broke after that, I needed to get back to my production business. We weren’t able to get to the changes until this winter, which took us out of the film festival circuit longer than we wanted. We have just completed the edits and are working at getting “The Peloton Project” into festivals now. Stay tuned.

That film tells the stories of cyclists’ trek across North America, from Calgary, Alberta, to Lewiston. It also tells stories about people with cancer and their own, sometimes life-and-death treks. What’s been the reaction from audiences? People seem to really get it. We aren’t hitting people over the head with what’s taking place and trying to tell them what to think. Many said they felt like they were right there on the journey with the characters in the film. I’ve had people come up to me and tell me that when they went home the film really stuck with them, and they continued to mull it over days later.

Do you have more movies planned? Oddly enough, we have just begun pre-production on another cross-country film that will follow the life story and trek from Maine to California of a Kenyan runner who is living and training in Auburn.

What kind of movies do you like to watch? I like just about everything. Of course, I love documentaries, but I also enjoy a good shoot em’ up movie even though my wife will rarely watch one with me.

Besides serving among the organizers of Emerge, you will be appearing on screen as an extra in one of its big movies, “Richard³.” Any thoughts about your acting? Acting is a lot of fun, but one of the reasons I prefer directing and producing is because acting requires a lot of sitting around and waiting. When you’re directing, you’re always creating, solving problems and getting things done. That suits my personality better.

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