Banff Mountain Film Festival!

It was a good time. Everyone I talked to loved everything about the movies that were played. The music was good, the filming was awesome and the stories exciting. Here’s a brief rundown and some links of the movies that played. I’m in the process of finding out what songs were in some of the movies as well. I apologize they may not be in the order they played in.

1. Seasons

“Seasons” follows seven of the world’s top mountain bikers through the course of four seasons of one year. The film explores what it means to be a full-time rider as told through the lives of downhill racers, slopestyle competitors and big-mountain freeriders. 

You can find more information about the film on the Banff Centre site or at The Collective

2. Mountain Town – The Grasshopper and the Soldier. From the site: 

From an aspiring Olympian to an 82-year old artist to a newly arrived Mexican immigrant, each character pursues their dreams while this small community weaves seemingly disparate lives together in surprising and often poignant ways.
 

3. Journey to the Center

A quick search on google brought up a bunch of information on this movie and their official site. The trailer for it is on Youtube as well.  Their mission is to jump Tian Keng, the Heavenly Pit deep in China. It is one of the worlds biggest caves and is definitely an intense jump. Even though it was the longest video in the set for Nanaimo it was very entertaining. My favorite quote from the movie: “Ready, steady, spaghetti. ”

4.  Unbearable Lightness of Skiing.

Greg Hill does a fantastic job in explaining ‘what he’s been up to.’ In this film. In an attempt to answer that very question, Greg filmed a three of his best ski days up in the mountains. Not exactly big budget film editing, he put together an exciting film with good commentary and crazy footage. I sure wouldn’t want to be caught on some of the peaks that Greg and his buddies regularly summit in whiteout conditions. You can check out Greg at his blog.

5. Red Helmet

This movie actually played first in our lineup. It was a compilation of 5 different people doing 5 different sports all wearing red helmets. I found the entire video here . It was an entry that did well in the Nissan Outdoor games. The teams have 5 days with 5 people and 5 different sports to make some sort of video. This one turned out very well. I’m still trying to figure out what the song is in it. It’s awesome!

6. The Sharp End

The Sharp End features a group of American climbers that head to the Czech Republic to climb some famous sandstone spires there. To protect the rock the climbers are not allowed to use metal protection like cams. They are reduced to jamming knotted ropes into the rock to hold them. Multiple times during the video the climbers commented on how it’s the scariest climbing they’ve ever done. 

I think that’s all of the movies. If there are any more please comment and we’ll get them added to the list. Add your comments about the movies as well!