Arts and Entertainment
December 21, 2023
From: Banff Mountain Film FestivalSchedule:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2024
Desert Wings
(2023, USA, 4 min)
Filmmaker: Nathan McBride, NVisualMedia
Advisory: Coarse language
Paramotoring is a niche, largely undocumented, and little-known flying sport. This piece brings it to light in a rightfully epic way. Shot over 6 days, with multiple paramotor pilots, Desert Wings highlights some of the most dramatic desert landscapes in the American Southwest.
Soundscape
(2023, USA, 14 min)
Filmmaker: Timmy O'Neill, Sarah Lee Steele, Well Travelled Collective
Creative Excellence Award
Soundscape shares the sightless experience of climbing a mountain via echo location, touch and imagination. Soundscape features Erik Weihenmayer, a global adventure athlete and author who is fully blind, as he ascends a massive alpine rock face deep in the Sierra Nevada. Using expert camera work from Mikey Schaefer and emotive, novel animation from Scott Hassell and Mitch Pond to bring to life a concept by adaptive climbing pioneer Timmy O'Neill, the film is a surprising and soulful adventure.
The Blackcountry Journal
(2023, USA, 10 min)
Filmmaker: Mallory Duncan, Patrick Elmore, Uhuru Mountain Collective
Best film: Snowsports
A skier contemplates his connection to skiing and the mountains. As he hurries through the streets of L.A., his path takes a turn after bumping into a jazz musician who helps him discover the correlation between jazz and skiing—an expression of art, skiing, and black culture.
Georgia Astle: Flip the Switch
(2023, Canada, 3 min)
Filmmaker: Scott Secco, Scott Secco Films
If you don’t have role models to look up to, it’s harder to progress as a rider. Georgia Astle grew up chasing her older brother. “If he could do it, I could do it,” she figured. She got comfortable “flipping the switch” and pushing against the clock. Watch Georgia Astle explore some of British Columbia’s most striking landscapes, on a search for terrain to push her riding, inspired by a rising tide of female freeriders around the world.
Canada Vertical (Tour Edit)
(2023, Canada, 35 min)
Filmmaker: Laurent Poliquin, Nicolas Roulx
Advisory: TBD
After years of preparation, a team of highly motivated Quebeckers set out on one of the longest wilderness expeditions ever documented. Stage one involves skiing in relentless polar conditions from Ellesmere Island to the Northwest Passage where the challenge was reaching the mainland. Cue canoes for a 2,000 km journey across Nunavut and NWT until they reach the first dirt road available where bikes are waiting to be pedaled 4,000 km to Point Pelee in Ontario.
Leo & Chester
(2022, Canada, 8 min)
Filmmaker: Andrea Wing, Aline Mayerhoffer, MMGY Origin
Best Film: Mountain Culture
Leo, a sought-after rock star with a promising career, turns his back on the industry to pursue a life on the land with a herd of buffalo.
Earthside
(2023, USA, 33 min)
Filmmaker: Kaki Orr, Rob Wassmer, Aidan Haley, Christina Lustenberger, The North Face
Advisory: Coarse language
In 2022, Hilaree Nelson, Emily Harrington, Christina Lustenberger, and Brette Harrington embarked on an expedition above the Arctic circle with a vision to climb and ski first descents on Baffin Island. What they found was a celebration of where they’ve been and of where they’re going - and the trip’s success was contingent not on what they skied but the time they had together.
Near the River
(2023, USA, 11 min)
Filmmaker: Darby McAdams, Ashley Peel, Rush Sturges, McAdams Films
In the tourism town of Livingston, Zambia, a group of local men who make their living portering kayaks aspire to become safety kayakers on the Zambezi River. The proposed Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Scheme threatens to flood the famous rapids of the Zambezi and eliminate river related jobs.
JANUARY 13, 2024
SATURDAY MATINÉE 1 PM
Fuego
(2023, France, 7 min)
Filmmaker: Pierre Henni, Kilian Bron
An ode to escape and adventure travel, Fuego is a new mountain biking masterpiece. From Guatemala to Peru via Bolivia, the team scoured the most beautiful spots for two months bring back breathtaking images. Kilian Bron rides from the foot of the Fuego volcano the day before its historic eruption, to the colourful facades of Barrio Chualluma in La Paz, through the geological formations of the Valle de las Animas to an unforgettable meeting with the Cholitas Escaladoras.
The Best Skier You've Never Heard Of
(2023, Sweden, 8 min)
Filmmaker: Marcus Ahlström, Mattias Fredriksson, Stellar Equipment
Adrien Grabinski needed a change. After a successful ski racing career that took him from the Alberta team to the Canadian national team as a junior, he ventured further west. He discovered his true calling at Shames Mountain, a remote little co-op non-profit ski area near Terrace, B.C. The mountains, the snow, and the big lines first captivated him, but the local ski community truly stole his heart.
ONE DEGREE #Peru
(2023, France, 15 min)
Filmmaker: Alex Lopez, Riding to Explore
ONE DEGREE is kitesurfing adventure at the crossroads of outdoor sport and activism showcasing the changes our environment is currently experiencing. Embark on this journey looking for places to ride on some of the highest alpine lakes in the world in the Andes. Stunning high-altitude cinematography brings you the colors of the high mountains and their turquoise lakes as the viewer is confronted with the causes and consequences of the disappearance of glaciers.
Subterranean (Tour Edit)
(2023, Canada, 40 min)
Filmmaker: François-Xavier De Ruydts, Jenny Rustemeyer, Cold Fingers Films
Advisory: Coarse language
Best Film: Adventure
In a remarkable year, two gritty teams of hobbyist cavers are poised to break records for the longest and deepest caves in Canada. After discovering a flooded underground chamber, Katie, a daytime accountant, becomes obsessed with returning to the Bisaro Anima cave in the Rockies to push the caving depth record. At the same time, a passionate Vancouver Island team is attempting to link two tunnel systems to create the longest known cave in the country. From abyssal, muddy crawls to heart-pounding, vertical pits, and underwater squeezes, these are places where no person has been before.
Mustafa Ceylan
(2022, Switzerland, 12 min)
Filmmaker: Jules Guarneri, Benoît Goncerut, Cause
Advisory: Coarse language
This is the story of a young Turkish immigrant, destined to play football and take over his parents’ kebab restaurant. But one day, fate put a pair of skis in his way.
Driving Sweep
(2023, USA, 10 min)
Filmmaker: Greg Cairns, Cairns Film
Advisory: Coarse language
Few river guides ever get the chance to drive Idaho’s Iconic sweep boat. Driving Sweep follows Katie Veteto as she learns how to “drive sweep” down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. She’s learned the rapids and the river. Now she learns to drive 4,000lbs down steep rocky rapids.
Range Rider
(2023, USA, 30 min)
Filmmaker: Colin Arisman, Wild Confluence Media
Advisory: Coarse Language
As wolves repopulate Washington State, conflict is heating up with rural ranching communities. Range rider Daniel Curry's job is to patrol wild areas on horseback, creating a buffer between wolves and the cattle herds that graze on public lands. When these wild carnivores are suspected of killing livestock, the consequences for wolf packs can be fatal. As illegal poaching and state sponsored kills take their toll, can Daniel prove that coexistence between ranchers and wolves is possible?
Two Point Four
(2023, United Kingdom, 20 min)
Filmmaker: Natasha Brooks, Leo Houlding
Advisory: Coarse language
Not your typical family holiday, but this is not your typical family. Leo Houlding, his wife Jess, their two children Freya (9yrs) and Jackson (5yrs) climb Norway's national mountain via a 2,000 ft big wall.
SCHEDULE JANUARY 13, 2024
SATURDAY EVENING - 7PM
How Did We Get Here? (Tour Edit)
2023, Canada, 9 min)
Filmmaker: Clay Mitchell, Simon Shave, CK9 Studios
Advisory: Coarse language
The Blondes, three strange animals. Who are they? What are they thinking? Are they naturally Blonde? A film highlighting the ski crew the Blondes through their friendship and adventures in skiing and in life.
Still Alive
(2023, USA, 27 min)
Filmmaker: Santino Martirano
Advisory: Coarse language
Doctors gave him until age twenty-five to live and now 10 years after his expiration date, he is still climbing. Klaas Willems is a Rock Climber who, due to his Cystic Fibrosis, has dedicated his life to climbing in clean air. He has bolted hundreds of routes in non-polluted areas like Sardinia, Italy and found great success and peace in the process. His journey takes on a new dimension when he is also diagnosed with cancer.
Sea to Sky Trail Series: Progression
(2022, Canada, 12 min)
Filmmaker: Joel Fuller, Michael Overbeck
One step at a time, the trail-running community is constantly moving upward. In recent years progression has vaulted forward, with runners blending inspiration from the world of alpinism, rock climbing, and running and tackling technical terrain in a way we’ve never seen. Follow along as Emma Cook-Clarke and Jesse McAuley dig deep on the west peak of Ch'ich'iyúy Elxwíkn, the Twin Sisters (or the Lions), an iconic Sea to Sky trail.
Slides on the Mountain
(2023, Canada, 30 min)
Filmmaker: Seth Gillis, Aline Mayerhoffer, Sandy Ward
Advisory: Coarse language
Two young brothers from the Lil'wat Nation set out to ski the sacred mountain they were raised beneath, pushing both themselves and their culture to evolve.
Leaving a Tread
(2023, USA, 5 min)
Filmmaker: Maxwell Frank, Becky Gardner, WTB
Mountain Biker Israel Carrillo shows us his hometown of Guanajuato, Mexico, and the difficulties and differences of being a mountain biker in Mexico.
Eternal Flame
(2023, Switzerland, 26 min)
Filmmaker: Nicolas Bossard, MS PROD
Advisory: Coarse Language
Best Film: Mountain Sports
After having climbed the Eternal Flame route on Nameless Tower in Pakistan (6200m), French BASE jumpers Eric Jamet and Antoine Pecher combine the ascent with one of the most beautiful BASE jumps imaginable. Following in the footsteps of pioneer jumpers from 1990, the duo of friends devour adventure and all it offers, beauty, power and anxiety all contribute to the experience.
After You've Gone
(2022, USA, 12 min)
Filmmaker: Max Erickson, Jared Zissu, Flylords, Fiska Media
Advisory: Coarse language
A story about a female fishing guide in the Adirondacks overcoming the hardships of battling cancer and losing her husband. She then takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Argentina where she is reignited with hope, passion, and life.
Pioneers: Tandem XC Skiing (Tour Edit)
(2023, USA, 20 min)
Filmmaker: Chris Parr, Flutter Brothers Productions
Advisory: Coarse language
After winning the American Birkebeiner - the largest cross country ski race in North America - Joe Dubay was disqualified for wearing the wrong bib. Now, 11 years later, Joe and his former roommate who lent him the bib -Chris - document their return to the Birkebeiner to pioneer a new sport: tandem cross country skiing.
Date: January12 - January13,2024
Time: Friday, January 12 at 7.00pm (doors open at 6 pm)
Saturday Matinee, January 13 at 1.00pm (doors open at 12 pm)
Saturday Evening, January 13 at 7.00pm. (doors open at 6 pm)
Location: Willson Auditorium 404 W Main St, Bozeman, MT 59715
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