2010 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival
Canadian filmmakers have once again traveled to the far corners of the globe and to their own backyards to seek out and document the wild adventures of adrenaline seekers, endurance athletes and solitary paddlers. This year’s Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival takes place primarily at the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver with special presentations at the Pacific Cinémathèque and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver. It will feature 9 Canadian films, including 3 world premieres. The films will bring the audience along for harrowing sea paddles, treacherous mountain bike trails, arduous cross-country rides, frosty whitewater descents and personal journeys of discovery and endurance.
The festival opens on January 22 at the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver with a screening of the NFB’s Finding Farley which features Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison (Being Caribou), along with their 2-year old son, Zev, and indomitable dog Willow as they set out to trace the footsteps of one of Canada’s most famous writers, Farley Mowat. Their 5000-kilometre trip – trekking, sailing, portaging and paddling from the prairies to the Maritimes – is captured in this feature-length documentary.
Throughout the week, which is packed full with special guest speaker presentations, photo exhibits and sweaty palms, more Canadian films will be screened including Rowed Trip in which Colin and Julie Angus take a seven-month, 7.200 km human-powered odyssey by oar and bike from Scotland’s northern tip – Colin’s ancestral home – to Julie’s roots in Syria. Using specially designed rowboats, each fitted with a bicycle and trailer allowing travel on both water and land, Colin and Julie make their way through thirteen countries and two continents.
Other films fabruqué au Canada include a world premier of Bro vs. Mtn, local Brock Anderson’s mountain bike flick following a loveable ginger, Wylie Easton, as he travels through the BC Interior, Lower Mainland and the North Shore; hitting all of our favourite riding spots along the way. In The Cross Canada Project Mike Beauchamp designs and builds a weatherproof camera that can mount to his bicycle so that he can capture his emotional journey as he attempts to ride his bicycle over 7000 km from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Sacred Flight is a film about the local adventurer, skier and enfant terrible Peter Chrzanowski and his dream to re-visit and fly in the mountains of Columbia among the Kogi and Arhuaco native tribes.
Greg Hill, our own ski-mountaineering rocket from Revelstoke, comes with two brand new world premieres: Mt. Blanc in a Day and Virtuous and Pure Traverse. Fearless, made by a first time Vancouver film maker Tavi Parusel is film about his step father Martyn Williams, a Canadian who has climbed two of the biggest peaks in the world, Mt. Everest and Mt. Vinson. When all seems lost to Martyn, he then has a dream; a dream that takes him on a journey spanning across the globe. Finally, Yannick Daoudi from Quebec embarks on an impossible quest into the remote and pristine Siberian Taïga with three free spirits: a vagabond dog, a mighty horse and a mad man. Watch Taïga Quest and see how against all odds, the trio manages to complete a 1000-kilometer loop in 5 weeks, using only muscle-power.
The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) has been bringing films, multimedia shows and special events on mountain sports and mountain culture to Vancouver since 1998. Over the years, VIMFF has established itself as one of the key cultural events in Vancouver.
