BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour

March 7

Desert Wings
(2023, USA, 4 min)
Filmmakers: 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
(Creative Excellence Award)
(2023, USA, 14 min)
Filmmakers: Timmy O’Neill, Sarah Lee Steele, Well Travelled Collective
Advisory: None
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.

The Blackcountry Journal
(Best Film: Snow Sports)
(2023, USA, 10 min)
Filmmakers: Mallory Duncan, Patrick Elmore, Uhuru Mountain Collective
Advisory: None
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)
Filmmakers: Scott Secco, Scott Secco Films
Advisory: None
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: Coarse language
Follow a team of highly motivated Quebeckers on one of the longest wilderness expeditions ever documented. Stage one involves skiing in relentless polar conditions from Ellesmere Island to the Northwest Passage. Cue canoes for a 2,000 km journey across Nunavut and North West Territories until they get on bikes and pedal 4,000 km to Point Pelee in Ontario.

Leo & Chester
(Best Film: Mountain Culture)
(2022, Canada, 8 min)
Filmmaker: Andrea Wing, Aline Mayerhoffer, MMGY Origin
Advisory: None
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. 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)
Filmmakers: Darby McAdams, Ashley Peel, Rush Sturges, McAdams Films
Advisory: None
In the tourism town of Livingstone, 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.

El Gavilán
(2022, USA, 20 min)
Filmmakers: Bronwyn Hodgins, Savannah Cummins, Savy Media
Advisory: None
Rising out of the arid Mexican desert lies a 900 ft ship’s prow of elegant limestone sporting a 9-pitch 5.13 established in the 90s by Jeff Jackson. Shrouded in mysticism, the bolts rusted and the holds collecting dust until a couple of young gals from Canada decided to give it a try.

March 8

How Did We Get Here? (Tour Edit)
(2023, Canada, 9 min)
Filmmakers: 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? This is 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. Despite having Cystic Fibrosis, Klaas Willems has bolted hundreds of routes in Sardinia, Italy and dedicated his life to climbing.

Sea to Sky Trail Series: Progression
(2022, Canada, 12 min)
Filmmakers: Joel Fuller, Michael Overbeck
Advisory: None
The trail-running community is constantly evolving. Lately runners have progressed, drawing from the world of alpinism, rock climbing, and running and tackling technical terrain in a way we’ve never seen. Watch 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)
Filmmakers: 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)
Filmmakers: Maxwell Frank, Becky Gardner, WTB
Advisory: None
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
(Best Film: Mountain Sports)
(2023, Switzerland, 26 min)
Filmmakers: Nicolas Bossard, MS PROD
Advisory: Coarse language
Following in the footsteps of pioneer jumpers from 1990, French BASE jumpers Eric Jamet and Antoine Pecher jump from the top of the Nameless Tower in Pakistan after climbing the Eternal Flame route, combining one of the most beautiful ascents with one of the most exhilarating descents in the world.

After You’ve Gone
(2022, USA, 12 min)
Filmmakers: Max Erickson, Jared Zissu, Flylords, Fiska Media
Advisory: Coarse language
Rachel Finn, a female fishing guide in the Adirondacks, grapples with life after loss. While taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Argentina, she navigates moving forward in an unapologetically true-to self way, that brings a smile to everyone who crosses her path.

Pioneers: Tandem XC Skiing
(Tour Edit)
(2023, USA, 20 min)
Filmmakers: 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.

March 9

Fuego
(2023, France, 7 min)
Filmmakes: Pierre Henni, Kilian Bron
Advisory: None
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)
Filmmakers: Marcus Ahlström, Mattias Fredriksson, Stellar Equipment
Advisory: None
After a successful ski racing career, Adrien Grabinski ventured West from Alberta. 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
Advisory: None
Armelle Courtois and Martin Thomas seek out the highest glacial lakes – over 5000m above sea level – to try and break the altitude record for kitesurfing. Their sporting challenge quickly takes on a new objective: to raise awareness about the consequences of melting glaciers and inspire change.

Subterranean (Tour Edit)
Best Film: Adventure
(2023, Canada, 40 min)
Filmmakers: François-Xavier De Ruydts, Jenny Rustemeyer, Cold Fingers Films
Advisory: Coarse language
Two gritty teams of hobbyist cavers are poised to break records for the longest and deepest caves in Canada. 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)
Filmmakers: 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)
Filmmakers: Greg Cairns, Cairns Film
Advisory: Coarse language
Few river guides ever get the chance to drive Idaho’s Iconic sweep boat. Join 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)
Filmmakers: Colin Arisman, Wild Confluence Media
Advisory: Coarse language
As wolves repopulate Washington State, conflict is heating up with rural ranching communities. When wolves are suspected of killing livestock, the consequences for packs can be fatal. Range rider Daniel Curry’s job is to patrol wild areas on horseback, creating a buffer between wolves and the cattle herds.

Two Point Four
(2023, United Kingdom, 20 min)
Filmmakers: Natasha Brooks, Leo Houlding
Advisory: Coarse language
Not your typical family holiday...but this is not your typical family! Leo Houlding, his wife Jess, and their two children Freya (9 years) and Jackson (5 years) climb Norway’s national mountain via a 2,000 ft big wall.