Banff Film Festival Reviews

[ctxguide]

Banff Mountain Film Festival
World Tour Review
Connecticut Explorer’s Guide was there!

As usual, the weekend Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour venues in Connecticut opened with either a full house or theaters that were sold out in advance. Charla, the spokesperson from The Banff Centre was well spoken and welcoming with her comedic touch and the introductory compilation film left the audience gasping in awe. As one of the audience members stated, “ that alone was well worth the ticket.”

It would be nice to have a more festival-like and state-wide appeal. I’m imagining a single venue featuring a large capacity theater for the films and a large event center for browsing during intermissions. Many outdoor retailers, guides/schools, non-profits, and manufacturers could be present. There could be demo’s and food kiosks. This would not only allow the audience to be able to see all of the films touring with the Banff Mountain Film Festival, but also give them a greater exposure to the outdoor adventure community within Connecticut. This would also prevent the audience from seeing the same films over and over again if wishing to attend all of the venues.

The Reviews


Smith Middle School, Glastonbury, CT: Full House and the best crowd!

1.Anomaly: Produced by Teton Gravity Research. Directed by Todd Jones, Dirk Collins, Steve Jones, and Corey Gavitt. This film has achieved a CTX 4.75 rating with it’s amazing extreme big mountain skiing. It features a unique first-person view of a descent through avalanche shoots and a death-defying non-assisted ski jump off a 255-foot cliff. The engaging photography and soundtrack will take your breath away. The film has been dedicated to the extreme big-mountain skiing legend Doug Cooms.
2.The Best of Jo: Directed and produced by Logan Carlstrom (age 12). This very comical Lego film depicted a clumsy coffee-drinking adventurer and the many challenges he encountered along his pursuits. CTX Rated 4.0.
3.The Ride of the Mergansers: Produced by Steve Furman.
Production company: Furman Technologies. Most likely the most humorous nature documentary made in a long time; the film covers the first 24 hours after the hatching of rare ducklings. CTX Rated 3.0.
4.Fatima’s Hand: Production company: F24 Film GmbH and directed by Jens Hoffmann. Achieving a CTX rating of 3.75, the film documents the first ever base-jump from Fatima’s Hand, a cliff-faced mountain in Africa, by professional base-jumpers. Extreme heat and sandstorms blast the party as they climb the mountain for their jumps resulting in a near tragedy.
5.Unchained, New World Disorder VI: Directed by Derek Westerlund. This film receives a CTX rating of 3.5 for it’s daring free-ride mountain biking scene. It would have received a higher rating, but I have already seen free-ride films featuring some of the riders highlighted in this film with much more amazing rides.
6.Beyond Iraq: Directed by Tom Eldridge. This film highlights a special downhill skiing program for disabled veterans of Iraq. With it’s insight into the spirit of adventure and living life to the fullest it has achieved a CTX rating of 3.0, despite it’s unengaging photography.
7.Simplicity, The Top 20 Bouldering Problems of North America: Directed & produced by Nathan Cando. This film receives a CTX rating of 3.5 for documenting several interesting bouldering climbs by female climbers.
8.Mission Epicosity: Directed & produced by Trip Jennings. This whitewater kayaking film highlights big waterfall drops by ungraceful paddlers with a headache-inducing soundtrack. Still, it receives a CTX rating of 3.0 for it’s daring extremes.
9.Didier Vs. The Cobra’s Crack: Produced by Ivan Hughes. Directed by Paul Bride. This film depicts the epic struggle to achieve the prestigious first-accent of the world’s most difficult traditional climbing route, “The Cobra’s Crack.” The emotional and philosophical struggle of the Swiss climber, Didier, combined with excellent story telling and photography have earned this film a CTX 5.0 rating.



Valley-Regional High School, Deep River, CT: Sold Out! A special mention should be made to the Valley-Regional High School art program. They had an impressive display of student art throughout the hallways that entertained the crowds during the intermission. One piece - an abstraction of a rose, by Matt Kerner, was particularly enchanting.

1.Anomaly
2.Kids Who Rip: Produced by Rod Parmenter. This was no cutsie kids film; these kids could rip and blasted the audience with a CTX 4.5 rating! There were adventure sports aficionados tearing it up on the surf, on the snow, and off the ramps as young as age six! Don’t see this film if you have a fragile ego, the skills represented will leave most expert riders feeling impotent.
3.The Best of Jo
4.The Ride of the Mergansers
5.Didier Vs. The Cobra’s Crack
6.First Accent, Thailand: Produced by Peter Mortimer, Timmy O’Neill, Nick Rosen, Pascal Bronnimann and directed by Peter Mortimer.
David Lama and friends attempt to tackle several difficult deep-water solo climbing routes. This film achieved a CTX 4.0 rating with stunning views of isolated sea cliffs towering above blue waters. The climbers used no equipment or rope protection and often fell over 60 feet into the sea below.
7.Yes to the No: Produced by Spencer Francey and Cholo Burns. Directed by Dave Mossop. This film is more of an info-mmercial about the new style of riding a snowboard designed without bindings. The only reasons that I could find that persuaded the judges to put this film into the festival was either the outside chance of this being a documentary of a true evolution in the sport or bribery. CTX rated 2.0.
8.Simplicity, The Top 20 Bouldering Problems of North America
9.Mission Epicosity
10.The Thrill Seekers: Directed by Roland Arnison and George Arnison The winning entry of the Kendal Mountain Film Festival Extreme Film School “48-hour Film Marathon”. This short comical film featured several absurd extreme sports attempts by a couple of brothers camping in their own bedroom. CTX Rated 3.0.
11.Rome: Produced by The Collective and directed and produced by Darcy Wittenburg and Jamie Houssain. CTX rated at 4.75, Rome highlights the smooth downhill flow of free-ride mountain biking and some of the best stunts and trials riding anywhere.


Connecticut College, New London, CT: The theater was unfortunately not filled to capacity. This was a shame considering that it was the host site for the best film of the tour. Conflict Tiger was so impressive that I didn’t mind that it was the only new film for that venue; it was well worth the ticket.

1.Yes to the No
2.Conflict Tiger: Produced and directed by Sasha Snow, this documentary has achieved a CTX 5+ rating and is by far the best film of the festival. It pulls no punches while depicting the brutal reality of the struggle for survival of both man and beast in Siberia. The soundtrack perfectly matches the fear and apprehension that builds throughout the story leaving the viewer on the edge. This is a great reminder that wilderness still has many things to fear.
3.Roam
4.The Thrill Seekers
5.Simplicity, The Top 20 Bouldering Problems of North America
6.Didier Vs The Cobra’s Crack

Jewish Community Center, New Haven, CT: The Jewish Community Center lacked an appropriate theater to be hosting this kind of public event. Not only were the folding chairs extremely uncomfortable, but the gym-style floor made it impossible to see the lower quarter of the screen through the crowd. The Ragged Mountain Foundation had assembled a climbing-heavy list of films that managed to be fairly unimpressive. Considering the lack of high quality new films, this venue could have been skipped without regret.

1.First Assent Thailand
2.The Best of Jo
3.Cayesh, The Calling: Directed and produced by Steve House. This is a documentary of the first assent of the western face of Cayesh, a mountain in Peru. Unfortunately, the film lacked professional filmmaking characteristics and lacked emotion. CTX rated 2.5.
4.Unchained
5.Mission Epicocity
6.Didier Vs The Cobra’s Crack
7.Yes to the No
8.First Assent, Cobra’s Crack: Produced by Ivan Hughes. Directed by Sonnie Trotter and Paul Bride. The, “Canadian Crack Master,” Sonnie Trotter free-climbs Squamish’s 120-foot Cobra Crack, considered to be the world’s most difficult traditional free climb. CTX rated 3.0.
9.Ride of the Mergansers
10.Simplicity
11.The Thrill Seekers
12.Aweburg: Produced by Will Gadd. The best new film at the JCC venue. Two professional ice climbers, Will Gadd and Ben Firth, attempt to be the first to climb icebergs floating in the north Atlantic. The experience of terrifying sounds and unnerving movements of the bergs cause them to be quite cautious and on-edge. CTX rated 3.5.

copyright 2007 Bryan McFarland

[Google]