Banff Mountain Film Festival starts tomorrow

ginawaibl — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:45:43 GMT

BANFF Mountain Film Festival 2011 in Wellington

Once again the New Zealand Alpine Club will be hosting the BANFF Mountain Film Festival in Wellington.

Screenings will be at the Paramount Theatre, 25 Courtenay Place, Wellington.

Download the full programme of films to be shown here.

To get a taste of this years line up have a look at the trailer.

Dates

6.30pm Tuesday 10th May – “Wet”
6.30pm Thursday 12th May – “Dry”

Get tickets

Tickets are available at the Paramount Theatre. Ticket price is $20 or $18 to NZAC members

Tuesday 10th May: “Wet”

Dream result

(Winner “People’s Choice Award for Radical Reels”)

A group of top kayakers and friends are driven by passion to explore the limits of

possibility. Expeditions to Norway and a quest for waterfalls throughout Argentina

and the US are all part of the program in Dream Result — so hang on for the ride!

Crossing the ditch

Spanning 2200 kilometres between Australia and New Zealand, the Tasman Sea

is one of the world’s deadliest and most treacherous oceans. No one had ever

successfully navigated the Tasman by kayak, although many had tried. Crossing

the Ditch tells the story of two young Australians, James Castrission and Justin

Jones, who battle ten-metre towering waves, massive storms, shark-filled seas,

and strong currents to conquer the Tasman Sea.

Oseven

A group of friends meet up at a chalet in Chamonix Mont Blanc to recount their

extreme sport experiences. OSeven is based on Sigmund Freud’s theory that

“happiness is a child's dream fulfilled in maturity.”

Easter rises

(Winner “Best film on mountain sports”)

The Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East may as well be the end of

the earth. Its enormously wild landscape is swarming with bugs and bears and

threaded with rivers full of massive mouse-eating trout. In the stunning film

Eastern Rises, fishing is poetry, Bigfoot lurks in the fog, and fishermen risk life and

limb in decommissioned Cold War helicopters to explore rivers that have never

been fished before.

Thursday 12th May: “Dry”

Follow me

You’re at the head of a trail you have never ridden before. With a knowing

look, a friend turns to you and says, “Just follow me!” Depending on who says it

makes a pretty big difference for what lies ahead, but whether it’s a good idea

or not, we almost always drop in. From sending giant step-downs to high-speed

trails, it’s always better to share the ride.

The Asgard project

(Winner “Award crest”)

The Asgard Project follows Leo Houlding’s ambitious project to make a first

free ascent of the North Tower of the incredible Mount Asgard on Baffin Island

deep in the Arctic. Houlding teams up with fellow big wall climber Stanley Leary,

and the duo hopes to make a wingsuit descent from the summit. Arriving late

in the season, the trip soon begins to go wrong. After a spectacular arrival

skydiving over Mount Asgard, conditions turn against the team, so that just

reaching the base of the climb becomes a massive challenge.

As it happens

Renan and Corey Bradshaw "go rogue" and file video dispatches from their

attempt at the first ascent of Nepal's 6,000 meter Tawoche Himal. The film

takes these individual pieces and ties them together in one story that lets a

challenging trip unfold as it happens.

Living the dream

For most of the last six years, Renan Ozturk has been a traveling vagabond

following his passion for rock climbing. This existence involved sleeping outside

in wild places, hitching rides, living on little, draining his bank account, and

occasionally, dumpster diving. Now a little more domesticated, Renan shows us

he is still living his dream every day.

Second nature

An exploration of the abstract and the extreme, Second Nature is an examination

of the natural boundaries of the human body. Noah Sakamoto, Patrick Rizzo and

J.M. Duran star as the test subjects as they wield skateboards and vintage suits

to race down the roads of the High Sierras in California.

Fly or die

Cutting edge climber Dean Potter is innovating climbing for the future: the Base

Free Solo. By combining free solo climbing and base jumping, Dean is on a quest

to master the various disciplines that lead up to this bold evolution of the sport.

Note that while this film screened at Reel Rock in late 2010, this extended

version manages to be even more bonkers.

Other

Banff Mountain Film Festival starts tomorrow

BANFF Mountain Film Festival 2011 in Wellington