Photocredit: Jimmy Chin
For the second year in a row, the Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming to Calvin College to share outdoor adventure videos of every kind.
Blue Obsession is an eight minute film chronicling an ice-climbing adventure in Alaska. (A preview can be seen here.)
The Freedom Chair, which won Best Film in the Mountain Sports category at the festival, tells the story of Josh Dueck, an aspiring skier and coach whose dreams were put on hold after a ski accident in 2004. Dueck refused to let this put an end to his dream of skiing some of the wildest mountains in the world.
And the film Reel Rock: Origins—Obe & Ashima shows of the skills of nine year old Ashima Shiraishi, who is taking the bouldering world by a storm. This 23-minute film follows Shiraishi as she and her coach tackle Hueco Tanks, the bouldering mecca of the world.
In addition these films, the other films feature outdoor adventures such as tree climbing, kayaking, climbing, snow sports and many other sports.
Begun back in 1976 in the small Canadian town of Banff, Alberta, “a 1-day festival of climbing films”, The Banff Mountain Film Festival has blossomed into a nine-day event in Banff and a year-round film tour, which encompasses over 500 screenings on all continents. "Yes, we go to Antarctica!" reads the website for the event.
Banff first stopped at Calvin last year because of environmental studies professor James Skillen, who had attended the festival years before. Skillen hopes that attendance will help the film festival to continue to grow: “We hope to build up enough support for two nights of the tour. The Banff Centre licenses about 25-30 films each year, and we can't show them all. Having two nights would allow us to show more films,” Skillen said. “It would also allow time between the two evenings for environmental and outdoor recreation events on campus.”
The festival is being held in the Covenant Fine Arts Center auditorium on Monday, April 9th at 7 p.m. Tickets are available now at the box office at $8 for students and $12 general admission. The proceeds will support Grand Rapids Whitewater and environmental field trips and field courses for Calvin students.
