FFWD Weekly
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Cover Story by Jaime Frederick For mountain film enthusiasts, there is probably no more exciting event than the internationally renowned Banff Mountain Film Festival, the annual screening and competition of the best documentaries about climbing, mountain sports, and extreme outdoor pursuits that you’re ever going to see. If you look for an exciting cinematic experience with movies featuring skiers performing double back flips off the side of a cliff or accounts of climbers being perilously stranded on a remote mountain face, then this 25th anniversary festival is for you. Jodi McDonald, the festival’s film co-ordinator, says this year the festival received 213 submissions from which they have selected 44 films to be screened from November 3 to 5 in seven categories, including climbing, mountain sports, mountain environment, mountain culture, short mountain film, feature-length mountain fiction and the radical reels program. In keeping with the history of the festival, the majority of the films are documentaries with strong mountain content. "We get a lot of requests for the material that (the audience) doesn’t see anywhere else," says McDonald. With the increased affordability and portability of digital video technology, the festival is receiving a lot more films that allow them to provide these kind of experiences for their audience. Many filmmakers can now capture footage and stories that would have been previously impossible to record without full 16mm or 35mm systems and a film crew. Now, filmmakers can go into remote areas and keep a high quality video diary of their experiences – before, they might only have been able to manage still photographs. McDonald says highlights of this year’s festival include the entire climbing category, and in particular Gerhard Bauer’s film, Disaster on the North Face of the Eiger. In 1983, Bauer was shooting a film on the Eiger – re-enacting a number of the disasters that had happened on the famous peak, he came across a couple of young climbers attempting a ropeless ascent of the mountain. They soon found themselves in a situation perilously similar to the ones Bauer was re-creating for his film. Disaster relates their story. In addition, McDonald lists Skilletto, a film about world champion unicyclist, Chris Holmes. "He performs the most incredibly mind-blowing stunts and death-defying maneuvers on the West Coast of B.C. He also rides some pretty hard-core mountain bike trails in the bush. He’s coming to Banff, and I’ve asked him to bring his unicycle." Of the 44 films being shown at the festival, more than 30 are being presented by filmmakers who will introduce their movies in person and answer questions about their work. Among these filmmakers in attendance is Pierre-Antoine Hiroz, co-director of the two fiction films included in this year’s competition. "Premier de cordée and La grande crevasse are a really beautiful combination of films (offering) such a different perspective on the mountains. They really capture the life of being a guide, living with a guide and playing in the mountains." Most events will still take place in the Margaret Greenham and Eric Harvie Theatres in The Banff Centre, but to accommodate the festival’s popularity in recent years, all events in the Eric Harvie will also be simulcast live in one of two venues at the Banff Springs Hotel. The hotel will also host the Radical Reels program on the evening of Saturday, November 4. For tickets and further information about all events, call 1-800-413-8368 or visit the web site at www.banffcentre.ab.ca/CMC.

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