Looking for some inspiration to get outside and have some adventure? There will be plenty, when the Cariboo Ski-Touring Club hosts the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Tour later this month.
The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival is an annual 10-day international festival, which holds film screenings, live multimedia presentations, photography exhibitions, workshops and seminars.
The aim of the festival is to inspire, inform and educate the public as to the existence of various outdoor activities, while bringing communities together and promoting positive values and active lifestyles.
For these reasons, Cariboo Ski-Touring Club publicity director Ron Watteyne believes playing a selection of films from the festival at Hallis Lake Lodge is the perfect fit.
“What it does is it attracts people out to Hallis who may never have been there before, and the films really promote non-motorized outdoor recreation activities — raising awareness of those is something we want to do,” said Watteyne.
The showcase will take place on Friday, Jan. 24, with the doors at the Hallis Lake Lodge opening at 6:30 p.m. and the films starting at 7 p.m.
Tickets for the showcase are on sale now and can be purchased at the Hallis Lake Lodge, online at caribooski.ca or from Rocky Peak Adventure Gear in downtown Quesnel at a cost $15 for adults or $10 for students. Tickets will also be available at the door prior to the event at a cost of $20.
The showcase has a run time of approximately two hours, and nine films that will be played are:
• Between the Lines, a film from France directed by Pierre Cadot and Thomas Guerrin, which follows skier Vivian Bruchez as he and close friend Kilian Jornet explore Mont Blanc range in order to continue finding and opening new extreme lines in the Mont-Blanc massif
• Chasing Monsters, an Australian film from director Krystle Wright, which follows Australian photographer Nick Moir as he journeys through the famous Tornado alley that stretches through the American Midwest, photographing catastrophic yet beautiful storms that earn the appropriate nickname “monsters on the plains”
• Children of the Columbia, a Canadian film from directors Leo Hoorn, Jay Macmillan and Mitchell Scott, which follows big mountain skiers Dane Tudor and Christina Lustenberger as they travel up the waterway that shaped them, the mighty Columbia, from Trail through Revelstoke and on to Kinbasket Lake, through the famed Selkirks, Monashees and Rocky Mountains
• Shapeless Fulfillment, a Canadian film by directors Ben Haggar and Mike Gamble, which follows adventure photographer and polar guide Ben Haggar as he attempts to be the first person to traverse the Arctic Circle Route in West Greenland by bike during the “summer” months.
• The Frenchy, an American film from director Michelle Smith, which chronicles the life of 82-year-old Carbondale, Colo.-based French ski racer, downhill mountain biker, road cyclist and incorrigible flirt Jaques Houot. Houot has survived some two dozen close calls, including avalanches, cancer, car accidents, a heart attack and even an attempted murder.
• Perspectives: India, a Canadian film from director Scott Secco, which documents the world of artist and professional mountain biker Micayla Gatto, who finds inspiration in her surroundings, be it at home in British Columbia or somewhere as distant as India
• We’re Going Where?, a Canadian film from director Michael Sousa, which follows a group of mountain bikers from Whistler as they journey through Peru, cycle 100 kilometres and seven mountain passes, completing the Ausangate Trek
• Dreamride 3, a Canadian film from director Michael Hopkins, which is the final chapter of a mountain bike series that combines a Dr. Suess-inspired narrative with mind-blowing natural landscapes that takes viewers to some of the wildest environments on Earth; and
• For the Love of Mary, an American film from director Kirk Muir Horton, which follows 97-year-old runner George Etzweiler as he completes a race up the northeast’s tallest peak, Mount Washington, a race he has run in since he was 69 years old. Despite having a pacemaker, the Pennsylvania resident continues to compete in the gruelling 7.6-mile race up nearly 4,700 feet of paved road, carrying with him the memory of his late wife of 68 years, Mary.
READ MORE: Cariboo Ski-Touring Club’s open house postponed
editor@quesnelobserver.com
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