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Banff Mountain Film Festival Review '08

 
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:05 am    Post subject: Banff Mountain Film Festival Review '08 Reply with quote

This is a review of the 2008 Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in Connecticut. All ratings are based on a CTXGuide scale of 0.0 through 5.0.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

An obvious improvement from last year is that all of the venues now have better seating. My rear end is still in recovery from last year's wooden seating fiasco. My back is very thankful as well. I tweaked it after shoveling the heavy snow that fell on Friday. The only mildly uncomfortable seats were in Memorial Chapel at Wesleyan University.

My apologies for not being able to comment on the complete festival showings. I had to deliver a baby on Friday and was abducted by aliens on Sunday. As for the Saturday night showing at Valley regional High School in Deep River and the Monday night showing at Wesleyan University in Middletown, I had them covered.

Unlike the other showing locations, every year this showing attracts large families of all ages. The Deep River show began, as always, with an impressive motion picture montage of adrenaline inducing adventure footage. It never fails that every year my palms are drenched in sweat at just 30 seconds into the intro. The breathtaking start left the audience in want for more.

The first film was "Balance" which was directed and produced by Paul Cotton. It gave some interesting perspective on skiing fine lines on both extreme drops and across urban style obstacles. The soundtrack featured stereotypical run of the mill rap music with a heavy beat. "Balance" received a CTXGuide rating of 3.0.

"Badgered" followed as a short comical animation about the struggle of a badger to live as nature intended versus having to adapt to the sudden presence of large and imposing military weapons. Even though the director, Sharon Colman, received awards for generating awareness for protecting wild lands from military development and waste disposal, the film lacks any type of moral lesson or thought provoking symbolism. The film seems to have been more of a novelty to attract attention on the filmmaker's own overt agenda. It would have been nice to see more emotion in the film.

The last film before the intermission was "Searching for the Coast Wolves." It was a documentary about a female wolf scout and researcher hunting down a pack of isolated coastal wolves in British Columbia. Directed by Richard Matthews and produced by Heinz von Matthew, the film ends up portraying an ideal romanticized close encounter by wild wolves. The female scout ends up being diagnosed with a brain tumor just a short time later and reflects upon the encounter as a sort of blessing or message from God. Even though the film was a bit too romanticized for my taste, it received a CTXGuide rating of 4.25 for the recording of extremely rare wolf behavior.

After the short intermission and a round of prizes to lucky ticket holders, we were treated to an extremely poetic film by the name of "The Western Lands - Hoy." Directed and produced by Grant Gee, the film beautifully documents the internal and external life struggles of 60-year-old Jim Parrin while he climbs the still virile Old Man of Hoy column of rock. Jim Parrin and the rock face seem to reflect one another's weathered age as well as resilient physical endurance as he exercises the demons of loss and regret. This film received a CTXGuide rating of 3.75.

The next two films received CTXGuide ratings of 3.0 for their mindless extreme sports action. The amazing Ryan Leech in "Trial & Error" descends a highly technical and dangerous trials style trail with his monster downhill mountain bike. The featured deep mountain forest located in British Columbia was scheduled for clear-cut and had left it's mark on the stunt rider; as a result, he is trying the ramp up awareness for this type of irresponsible deforestation. "In Flux" was a fun ride with whitewater kayaking stunts and crashes through tight canyons and along giant standing waves.

"Cross Country with the Snakes" received a CTXGuide rating of 4.0 for it's unorthodox Punk Rock sound track. This XC ski film was a fun and wild ride from start to finish for what is usually viewed as the tame and quiet ski discipline.

"King Lines" was by far the night's favorite film. Climbing legend Chris Sharma snakes his way up an impossible giant rock arch out in the middle of the sea. Directed by Josh Lowell and produced by Peter Mortimer, the film masterfully documents a growing trend in rock climbing called Deep Water Free Solo Climbing. This style requires no protective equipment; only climbing shoes, proficiency for clinging to vertical and beyond vertical surfaces, and the ability to swim in volatile ocean conditions after a very long fall. This film received a CTXGuide rating of 4.3.

The last film at the Deep River location was, "Aint Got No Friends on a Powder Day" and it received a CTXGuide rating of 3.5 for it's detailed documentation of adaptive technology for disabled skiers. It featured two friends out for a day of shredding some powder on their downhill skis.

The Wesleyan University venue on Monday night was packed. Unfortunately for me, most of the films were repeats from Saturday's show.

The best and longest film of the night was "The Endless Knot" which was directed by Michael Brown and produced by David D'Angelo. This mountaineering film, which received a CTXGuide rating of 4.5, was a tribute to the late legendary mountaineer Alex Lowe by his best friend and mountaineer, Conrad Anker. It was a sober depiction of survivor's grief and the process of the recovery phase, which included marrying his dead friend's wife and adopting his kids. A bit weird from a psychological perspective, but the family and best friend healed together and formed their own renewed family circle. In respect for both the fallen Lowe and the dozens of fallen Sherpas that relay the heavy equipment to and from the remote mountains, the family set off to begin a Sherpa climbing school to help give the natives the high-tech mountaineering skills needed for such dangerous jobs. In the end, the film completes a tangled and twisted circle much like a symbol the natives call The Endless Knot.

"Committed to Great" was a not so great or inspirational film about a truly great accomplishment of a female rock climber. A bit lack-luster at a CTXGuide rating of 2.8.

I had missed two showings this season and may have missed the best film of the year, but I wouldn't know it. The best film that I saw this year had a CTXGuide rating of 4.5 while the best film last year had a very solid CTXGuide rating of 5.0. Please feel free to add comments about any films that I did not review from this year's Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.
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