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APRIL
2005
Cowell Theater
Mountain culture ascends to new heights when the 2005 Banff
Mountain Film Festival World Tour treks into the Cowell Theater
in mid-April. The exhilarating two-day program features different
films and videos each day. Award-winning masterpieces on view
range from gritty adventures in Australia, Poland, and the
Himalayas to documentaries of cultures that co-exist with
reindeer and camels.
The tour travels through 250 global locations, showcasing
the best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival held each year
in Banff, Alberta, Canada since 1976. More than 330 entries
from 46 countries include high school productions as well
as professional films sponsored by National Geographic and
the BBC. The 2004 grand prize winner is Odwrót (Retreat),
a Polish film made nearly 40 years ago that recreates an incredible
solo descent by a climber desperate to find help for his injured
partner.
Other winners on tour include Alone Across Australia,
which tracks wilderness walker Jon Muir and his dog Seraphine
on a 1,500-mile, 128-day journey through the desolate Outback.
Alone Across Australia won for Best Film on Mountain
Environment as well as being voted the People’s Choice
during the festival. Sinners celebrates the bliss of
powder skiing and won best Film on Mountain Sports, while
Best Short went to the four-minute animated film on dog-sledding,
Hike, Hike, Hike.
Entries from around the world also took top prizes. Daughters
of Everest won for Best Film on Climbing and follows the
first expedition of female Sherpa guides to climb Everest.
Mongolian cultures starred in two award winners. The Best
Film on Mountain Culture award went to The Reindeer People,
a French film about a family of dukha reindeer nomads
migrating with the herds through northern Mongolia.
Also set in Mongolia, The Story of the Weeping Camel
received an Academy Award nomination as well as winning Best
Feature-Length Mountain Film for its portrayal of a family
of camel herders facing a crisis. Two young brothers ride
camels through the Gobi Desert in search of a musician who
can play traditional music that will persuade a mother camel
to accept her newborn, a rare white camel.
Local outdoor gear supplier REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.)
sponsors the Cowell Theater stop on the world tour. Proceeds
from this fantastic event benefit the California Academy of
Sciences Junior Academy for young explorers. For details and
tickets, see April
15 and www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture.
– Claudia Willen
Image: "The Reindeer People" Best Film on Mountain
Culture
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APRIL
2005
