Elphinstone's gymnasium was packed with thrill-seekers viewing the 31st annual Banff Mountain Film Festival last Friday sponsored by the Tetrahedron Outdoor Club. This international film competition had 324 entries submitted this year from 37 countries. A jury picked 55 of these entries to be shown in Banff, and 25 will tour the globe. There was even a viewing at the South Pole Station in Antarctica. Ten of these picks were shown in Gibsons.
Mountain biking and rock climbing claimed the spotlight this year. Cameras clung to inverted faces in First Ascent, Thailand, where climbers pulled with strength and skill up an island's vertical faces. The only safety net for a miscalculated move was plunging into the water far below. The next clip was taken from the feature-length film Roam, made by The Collective, where a group of photographers, filmmakers and bikers from Whistler showed the best in dare-devil mountain biking. After two years of filming with the world's best riders in the most amazing locations all over the world, Roam is filled with slow, panning shots and lifestyle snippets, giving a view into the lives of the riders.
The People's Choice Award this year went to Asiemut, a Canadian film about an endearing couple who went on their first bicycle tour from Mongolia to Calcutta, a whopping 8,000 km cycle. They faced challenges and emotions as they pushed through exotic landscapes, surpassing their limits of physical endurance and gaining confidence through the six-month trip as they discovered the world and discovered themselves.
Twelve-year-old Logan Carlstrom is the youngest chosen filmmaker for the Banff Mountain Film festival. He created The Best of Jo, a stop-action film about a Lego character, Jo, who is eager to try all the mountain sports available to him - climbing, skiing and fishing. The short film was humorous and entertaining. Cobra Crack features Canadian Sonnie Trotter, who, after three years' work, free-climbed Squamish's forty-metre Cobra Crack behind the famous Chief mountain face. This devilish vertical rock cleft is currently recognized as the world's hardest traditional climb. The most delightful film of the evening was about the daring plight of the hooded merganser, a rare and reclusive duck found only in North America. Every spring, in the Great Lakes region, the wary hen incubates her eggs in a nest high in the trees. Just 24 hours after hatching, the tiny ducklings must make the perilous leap to the water below in order to begin life in the wild. Ride of the Mergansers brings this hidden drama to the screen (www.rideofthemergansers.com). Unchained is a fabulous film featuring the biggest group of today's progressive mountain bike riders as they attack Bolivia, Whistler, Kamloops and Utah. Riders showed what heights can be accomplished in the sport of mountain biking - it's all in the technique. The final film took viewers on the ride of a lifetime - with helmet cams attached, heli skiing on extreme vertical slopes. Cinematographers filmed these daredevils speeding just in front of powerful avalanches or through small rocky hallways at vicious speeds. These snow skiers were maniacs - and they survived! Kind of inspiring.
