Banff Mountain Film Festival

(Past) Mon, Mar 8 at 7:30 pm (Past) Tue, Mar 9 at 7:30 pm Peter Jay Sharp Theatre $22; $25 Day of Show

Some of the best from this year's Banff Mountain Film Festival, held in November in Banff, Canada with 12,000 people attending over five days. Each evening features a unique selection of films reflecting a wide range of mountain themes, including mountain sports such as mountaineering, climbing, skiing, and kayaking; and mountain culture and environment.

Visit chestnutmtnproductions.com for the film menu.

Selected from 385 entries from over 22 countries, this year's tour features a collection of the most inspiring and thought-provoking action, environmental, and adventure mountain films. Traveling from remote landscapes and cultures to up-close and personal with adrenaline-packed action sports, the 2010 World Tour is an exhilarating and provocative exploration of the mountain world. The Film Festival is now on world tour to more than 310 cities and towns in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.

New York Menu: 7:30 PM, Monday, March 8, 2010

MedeoZ

• France, 2008, 6 minutes
• Directed and Produced by Guillaume Broust
• Website: http://kyom.blogspot.com/2008/02/og-team.html
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Multi-sport, humour, family-friendly
• Filmed in the Mont Blanc range, this short features six different mountain sports: climbing, skiing, snowboarding, speed riding, paragliding and BASE jumping.

Take a Seat

• Special Jury Mention
• UK, 2009, 46 minutes
• Directed by: Ed Stobart, Dominic Gill
• Produced by: Lucy Wilcox
• Website: www.ginger.tv ; www.takeaseat.org
• Classification: General - nudity
• Focus: Human story, adventure, biking
• Dominic Gill's mission is to cycle the 32,000 kilometres from the northern coast of Alaska to the southern tip of South America, on a tandem bike, picking up random strangers on the way. A gripping tale of two years and two continents, full of extraordinary characters and incidents.

The Ultimate Skiing Showdown

• Canada, 2009, 4 minutes
• Directed and produced by David McMahon
• Website: www.xczone.tv
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Nordic Skiing, Family-friendly
• The final sprint showdown between the fastest skiers on Earth in juxtaposition with a stunt performer showing some of the sickest moves on Nordic skis. A lot of fun!

Shining Spirit

• Canada, 2009, 26 minutes
• Directed and produced by Karen McDiarmid
• Website: www.taracafeproject.ca
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Culture, human story
• Filmed in Canada, India and Tibet, "Shining Spirit" documents a recording project that brings together the family of Jamyang Yeshi through music and multi-track recording technology. With the help of Western friends, Jamyang, in exile in Canada, and his brother Tsundue, in exile in the U.S., join voices with the family they left behind in Tibet. For the first time in over a decade, they sing together once again. The film is a testament to the power of music, the resilience of the Tibetan culture, and the enduring bond of a family separated by politics and geography

Deep/Shinsetsu

• Japan, 2009, 3 minutes
• Directed and Produced by Masaki Sekiguchi
• Website: www.ebisfilms.jp
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Powder skiing, family-friendly
• "Shinsetsu" means deep powder in Japanese. This short film expresses a typical day in the mountains in Japan.

First Ascent: Alone on the Wall

• USA, 2009, 24 minutes
• Directed and produced by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen
• Website: www.senderfilms.com
• Classification: General - coarse language
• Focus: Rock Climbing, free solo climbing
• After gaining international climbing renown for his landmark free-solo of "Moonlight Buttress" (V, 5.12+, 9 pitches) in Zion National Park, Utah, in April 2008, 24-year-old Alex Honnold moves on to his next big challenge: the first free-solo of the "Regular Northwest Face" route (VI, 5.12a, 23 pitches) on Yosemite's Half Dome.

New York Film Menu: 7:30 PM, Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Hunlen

• Canada, 2009, 12 minutes
• Directed and produced by Will Gadd
• Website: www.gravsports.com
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Ice climbing
• What happens if you show up to climb one of the biggest frozen waterfalls in Canada -- but it isn't completely frozen? Will Gadd and EJ Plimley battle to do the first ascent of B.C.'s remote Hunlen Falls. Falling ice, crashing water, fear, big fun!

Kranked - Revolve

• Canada, 2009, 11 minutes
• Directed and produced by Bjørn Enga
• Website: www.radical-films.com
• Classification: General - coarse language
• Focus: Mountain biking
• The coolest human-powered adrenaline tool ever invented -- the mountain bike? "Revolve" blasts in cinematic glory from the French Alps to the lush coast of B.C., incorporating dirt jump, trail, freeride, slopestyle and downhill.
• A photographer wants to take one shot showing all the sports, instead of taking separate photos of each sport. It takes a lot of work!

Signatures: Canvas of Snow

• USA, 2009, 16 minutes
• Directed by: Nick Waggoner
• Produced by Ben Sturgulewski
• Website: www.sweetgrass-productions.com
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Skiing, snowboarding and noboarding
• In Japan there is a cultural connection to the different signatures of terrestrial home - a sense that the rhythm of fall, winter, spring and summer influences the rhythm of the person, their energy, their riding style and the lines they choose.
  This special edit features skiers, snowboarders, a photographer and a noboarder who are each in tune with this connection to winter and the environment they ride in.

Rowing the Atlantic

• USA, 2009, 26 minutes
• Directed and produced by JB Benna
• Website: www.journeyfilm.com
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Sea-kayaking, adventure, human story, family-friendly
• A few years ago, Roz Savage gave up what for many would be an ideal life (husband, great job, big house), picked up a few pairs of rowing oars and a boat to go with them and set off across the Atlantic Ocean - alone - in a rowboat.

Africa Revolutions Tour

• USA, 2009, 20 minutes
• Directed by Rush Sturges
• Produced by Tyler Bradt
• Website: www.Rev-Inn.com
• Classification: Parental Guidance - coarse language
• Focus: White-water kayaking, Sun Catcher's Project (NGO in Africa)
• From the crocodile-infested White Nile in Uganda, to big-water first descents in Madagascar, the film follows this group of friends on their dangerous mission.
  Accompanying the team is Rita Riewerts, the founder of the Sun Catchers Project, a non-profit that installs solar cooking facilities
  in African orphanages, hospitals and communities.
  Join the team as they set out on an ambitious kayaking expedition in eastern Africa.
  Every cent this film generates will be donated to the Sun Catchers Project

Uruca (5.12c R/X)

• Brazil, 2009, 8 minutes
• Directed and produced by Erick Grigorovski
• Website: www.grigorovski.com
• Classification: Parental guidance, no advisory
• Focus: Rock climbing, animation
• On a Sunday morning perfect for rock climbing, Hugo attempts one of the hardest and most sought-after climbing routes at the Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro: "Uruca". Extremely difficult and dangerous, it will demand all of his skill and concentration

To the Rainbow

• UK, 2009, 14 minutes
• Directed by Dave Brown
• Produced by Lynwen Griffiths
• Website: www.bamboochicken.tv
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Rock climbing, human story
• Paul Pritchard was one of Britain's most talented and outrageous climbers in the late 1980s. A head injury received while climbing the Totem Pole in Tasmania left Paul with hemiplegia. Now, 13 years on, he makes an emotional return to climbing - on The Rainbow in North Wales. Teaming up with his old climbing partner, the legendary Johnny Dawes, he takes on a 5.10 route. Inspirational.

Mont-Blanc Speed Flying

• Award for Best Short Mountain Film, sponsored by Mountain Hardwear
• France, 2008, 10 minutes
• Directed and produced by Didier Lafond
• Website: www.didierlafond.com
• Classification: General - no advisory
• Focus: Speed riding, family-friendly
• Six speed riders fly from the upper slopes of Mont Blanc down to Chamonix in one continuous 10-minute shot,
  filmed in Cineflex.

Project Megawoosh

• Special Jury Mention
• Germany, 2009, 4 minutes
• Directed by Minh Duong
• Produced by Nikolas Hannack
• Website: www.okifilms.com
• Classification: General, no advisory
• Focus: Humour, spoof
• Bruno Kammerl, a German engineer, works to perfect the world's tallest human water slide.