The Best of the Banff
Mountain Film Festival
(Various, 150 min.)
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| The Gimp Monkeys |
“I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of these mountains,” my
sister once exclaimed. We were driving into Banff National Park for a family
ski trip. It was our first trip to the Rocky Mountains, so the view was
admittedly rather awe-inspiring. Nevertheless, I’ve never let my sister live
down her silly attempt at proverbiage. Think before you speak, I always say.
It takes a certain kind of mentality to appreciate the films
from Banff at their full potential. I might not be a member of the target
audience, but the awesome feats by these thrill-seekers make for great
entertainment. Once one filters out the one-trick ponies and glorified
advertisements for The North Face, The
Best of Banff has a lot to offer.
The show begins with one of its lesser endeavours, Industrial
Revolutions (Dir. Stu Thomson; UK, 5 min.) which received a Special
Jury Mention at Banff. Industrial Revolutions
sees trials rider Danny MacAskill bump his bicycle across some metal works with
some nifty acrobatics. The balancing act is worthy of Cirque du Soleil, but the
film could have done a lot more with all the discarded remnants littering the
mountainside. After the cool bike tricks montage comes the impressive
documentary The Gimp Monkeys (Dir. Mikey Schaefer; USA, 8 min.), which
tells of a trio of climbers that defied their doctors’ diagnoses. Their climb
is inspiring, as it shows there is no limit to what the human body—or mind—can
do.
Another notable doc is the kayaking adventure Flow
Hunters (Dir. Jon Forder; New Zealand, 9 min.). A true white-knuckler, Flow Hunters is a thrilling tale of
extreme water sports. One of the few films of the festival truly to acknowledge
the dangers in extreme sports, Flow
Hunters shows how the thrill of pushing the limits helps these athletes
feel alive when one bad stroke could be fatal. Featuring some of the most
exciting (and cinematic) footage of the selection, Flow Hunters is an exciting, suspenseful doc. Similarly, the
programme’s final film, Reel Rock 7 Honnold 3.0 (Dir. Josh
Lowell, Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen, Alex Lowther; USA, 33 min.), follows one passionate
rock climber who achieves one crazy goal after another, all without the aid of
a rope. Winner of Best Film (Climbing) at the fest, Honnold is a one man-machine. Who needs a ladder when you can climb
a wall with your bare hands?
Some of the outdoor enthusiasts of the fest don’t even have
hands. They have paws. It wouldn’t be a festival celebrating the wilderness
without a few four-legged friends, right? For example, the highly entertaining Lily
Shreds Trailside (Dir. Ross Downard; USA, 4 min.) stars an energetic
dog named Lily that loves tearing up the mountainside just as much as the
humans of the other films do. Frantic and fearless, Lily can do a roster of
wild tricks as she runs alongside her owner who captures the fun while cycling
alongside her. Watch out, Uggie!
Animals provide some entertainment, but they add an
important environmental message to the fest as well. Highway Wilding (Dir. Leanne
Allison; Canada, 13 min.) offers a fascinating look at how human development
has affected the wildlife within our national parks. Subjects in Banff National
Park explain how the heavy flow of traffic that cuts through the park along the
TransCanada Highway results in an unacceptable number of animals killed by
collisions; therefore, conservations and zoologists have helped save the lives
of animals with the creation of overpasses and underpasses. Highway Wilding shows the effectiveness
of these bridges by revealing the fascinating migration patterns of a few
animals. Incorporated with the research is some very exciting footage of the
animals in action, included one smarter-than-the-average-bear that lifts barbed
wire fences for her cubs and a rambunctious wolverine – a rare sight! Fans of Highway Wilding should definitely seek
out the interactive NFB film Bear 71,
which offers a similar tale, but underscores the peculiar element that arises
when a portly bear avoids a collision with a shiny SUV by using an overpass. That
doesn’t seem natural, no matter much the overpass is spruced up.
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| Crossing the Ice |
The Best of Banff, finally, is the Mountain Festival’s big
prizewinner. Winner of three awards—the Mountain Equipment Co-op Grand Prize,
the Nemo’s People’s Choice Award, and the prize for Best Film (Exploration and
Adventure)—Crossing the Ice (Dir. Justin Jones; Australia, 44 min.) is a riveting
tale of sport and survival. It’s a documentary about two zany friends named Cas
and Jonesy who decide to make history by being the first men to trek across
Antarctica to the South Pole and back. They plan to do it unassisted and on
cross-country skis. It’s an insane expedition that many travellers have tried to
do and failed. History repeats itself, too, when Cas and Jonesy discover that a
Norwegian strongman is embarking on the same quest. One of the few films in the
festival to capture the all-consuming madness of extreme sports, Crossing the Ice reveals why an
individual could be so driven to the extreme, even when the result is
exhausting, nearly fatal. It often doesn’t seem all that fun, either, as the
friends find themselves on a physically—and emotionally—draining odyssey.
Audience members will, too, since the friends’ adventure is documented with
awesome footage of the rough Antarctic weather. In spite of the extremities, though,
the two friends have an unbreakable spirit and passion for their quest. The
contest ultimately becomes an inspiring one, as the explorers are pushed to
near madness in the pursuit of sport and glory. Travel is a drug, it seems, and
this trip to Antarctica provides a real high.
Anyone seeking a gateway drug to nip the travel bug should take
in The Best of Banff. The scenery
alone is worth seeing the presentation on a big screen. Moonwalk (Dir. Mikey Schaefer; USA, 4 min), for example, offers
some lovely cinematography. Thanks to the imagery of films like Moonwalk or the thrill of docs like Flow Hunters, I, too, am overwhelmed by
the magnitude of the mountains, but it have little motivation to climb them
myself. (Perhaps a leisurely hike?) As
an avid cinephile, though, I can only watch the travel stories and take it in
like a reading of Gulliver’s Travels. It’s
great entertainment, but it doesn’t really make me want to hop a plane to
Lilliput. I will never understand what could motivate someone to take a
cross-country ski trip to the South Pole or to scale rocks for eighteen hours
straight without the aid of a harness. Whether the answer is egotism or the
spectacle of fitness, or whether these athletes do it for the pure the thrill
of the sport or for a personal goal, I must admit that most of the feats
captured in these films are ones that I could never even hope to achieve.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
The Best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival screened in Ottawa at
The ByTowne.
More info on the fest
can be found at http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/.
