I recently had the opportunity to attend an International screening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.
A pre-selection committee shortlist the over 360 entries to almost 80 finalists to screen at the Banff Mountain Film Festival each October in Banff, Canada. The Banff Mountain Film Festival started in 1976 by The Banff Centre.
This year’s world tour selection showcased over 2 hours of moving films from picturesque landscapes to action-packed sports and included 2 of the festival’s award winning films, Delta Dawn, Best Short Mountain Film and Cerro Torre, winner of Best Climbing Film.
The films ranged from the thought provoking with Delta Dawn telling the story of one man’s adventure on his stand-up board and travelled to the Colorado River Delta to explore use of Western water and the possible for environmental restoration to the joy and cheeky story of flight with Touch, a paragliding film over the Santorini, Greece and the French Alps, to the love of a man’s best friend in Sun Dog.
Return of the Tepuis, follows a 71 year old scientist search for a rare frog in the deep crevices in remote South America.
The most controversial film was the award winning, Cerro Torre, set against the backdrop of breathtaking Patagonia. David Lama, a climbing prodigy, plans to climb the infamous south-east face of Cerro Torre. No one has ever free climbed this section known as the Compressor Route. In 2009, he declared to the world his intent to free climb Cerro Torre, an accomplishment widely considered impossible. In 2010, Lama, now a sponsored climber, naively permitted his film crew to drill and fix 30 or so new bolts into the rock face, even though they planned to remove them and they were to facilitate filming only. This caused much controversy in climbers' circles, as his actions are unethical according to climbing traditionalists.
My favourite film at this year’s screening was a simple tale, Sculptured in Time: The Wise Man. The story of Eddie Hunter, an 88 year old who has skied over 2,500 days during the past 79 years and his love of skiing and sharing the enjoyment with future generations.
The World Tour screenings provide a great sample of the films selected each year and I walked away with a sense of wonder, inspired, challenged to improve and with a smile on my face from the joy the film makers shared in their individual adventures.
Find out more about the Banff Mountain Film Festival and International World Tour.
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Film Review and Q&A with Richard Bowles - Running the 1,200km Heysen Trail