Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour on Feb 28, 2023 | UCSB Arts & Lectures

Curated and hosted by Roman Baratiak, A&L Associate Director Emeritus

A Santa Barbara institution, the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is a perennial fan favorite. Featuring the world’s best films and videos on mountain subjects, the tour awes viewers with thrills and grandeur captured in exotic locations the world over. The show’s wide variety of film subjects – from extreme sports to mountain culture and environment – will amaze audiences. An entirely different program of films screens each night.

Program, Tuesday, February 28:

Part 1

FLOW

(2021, France, 5 minutes)

Director: Maxime Moulin; Producers: Sam Favret, Maxime Moulin; Production Company: Maxime Moulin Filmmaker

Film Synopsis: Flow is an aerial and symphonic journey with skier Sam Favret, in the heart of a closed resort during the winter of 2021 – with doses of unreality, serenity, powerful skiing, and above all, the pleasure of rediscovering a playground in its wild state.

A BAFFIN VACATION

(2022, Canada, 12 minutes)

Director: Erik Boomer, Sarah McNair-Landry; Producer: Erik Boomer, Sarah McNair-Landry, Rush Sturges; Production Company: River Roots

Film Synopsis: Erik Boomer and Sarah McNair-Landry set off on a bold multi-sport 45-day expedition traveling through the remote landscape of Baffin Island in search of stunning cliffs to climb and unexplored rivers to kayak.

NUISANCE BEAR

(2021, Canada, 14 minutes)

Director: Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman; Producer: Will Miller, Jack Weisman; Production Company: Documist

Film Synopsis: Churchill, Manitoba, is famous as an international destination for photographing polar bears. We’ve seen the majestic images and classic wildlife series captured here, but what do these bears see of us? Through a shift in perspective Nuisance Bear reveals an obstacle course of tourist paparazzi and wildlife officers whom bears must navigate during their annual migration.

WILD WATERS (TOUR EDIT)

(2022, Switzerland, 45 minutes)

Director: David Arnaud; Production Company: Red Bull Media House, MOVIO

Film Synopsis: Adventurer, competitor, daughter, friend, pioneer, hero, and badass human are all words used to describe French kayaker, Nouria Newman. In Wild Waters, we follow Nouria as she prepares to become the first female to run a 100-foot (30 m) waterfall; we watch her grow from a young, keen Olympic hopeful to one of the greatest kayakers of all times – male or female. However, running some of the world’s hardest whitewater isn't Nouria's biggest life challenge. Realizing that the expectations placed upon her as both an athlete and as a woman weigh heavily on her decisions and ambitions, she pushes back to make her own path. It is this central aspect of her life – this refusal to conform to others’ expectations – where Nouria is able to use kayaking as a way to transform into her truest self, and become a once-in-a-generation kayaker.

Part 2

CONTINUUM

(2021, Canada, 2 minutes)

Director: Harrison Mendel; Producer: Harrison Mendel; Production Company: Harrison Mendel Inc

Film Synopsis: Everything is connected. Each ride is an extension of the one before and each reentry is a transition to the next launch. Each experience builds on one another toward a flow state of endless progression.

LAPPORTEN SKYLINE (TOUR EDIT)

(2022, Sweden,18 minutes) 

Director: Emil Sergel; Producer: Emil Sergel; Production Company: Pinewood Productions

Film Synopsis: During the summer of 2021 some of the best highliners in the world head for the iconic Lapporten Gap just outside Abisko in Northern Sweden. The plan is to put up a two-kilometer-long highline 600 meters above the deck and then walk across. If they succeed it will be a new world record.

REEL ROCK: CENOTE

(2022, United States, 9 minutes)

Director: Reed Rickert, Zachary Barr; Producer: Zachary Barr: Production Company: REEL ROCK

Film Synopsis: A young papaya farmer discovers the pure joy of climbing in the crystalline limestone sinkholes of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

FREE TO RUN

(2022, United States, 31 minutes)

Director: Carrie Highman, Tim Highman; Producer: Tim Highman, Carrie Highman; Production Company: Dream Lens Media LLC

Film Synopsis: When the Taliban takes over Afghanistan threatening the basic human rights of women across the country, UN human rights attorney and mountain runner, Stephanie Case, must fight to find a way forward for the Afghan women of her NGO, Free to Run, in the midst of taking on the longest and hardest ultra trail race of her life.

DANNY MACASKILL’S DO A WHEELIE

(2021, United Kingdom, 6 minutes)

Director: Jonny Ashworth; Producer: Lisa Annette; Production Company: Cut Media

Film Synopsis: Join Danny MacAskill and a host of friends as he pushes the boundaries of the humble wheelie and learns a thing or two from friends old and new.

Major Local Sponsor: Justin Brooks Fisher Foundation

The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour is presented by Rab, BUFF®, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism and sponsored by Lowe Alpine, Oboz Footwear, YETI Coolers, Kicking Horse Coffee, World Expeditions, The Lake Louise Ski Resort & Summer Gondola

Photo credit: Ashlee Hendy and Elizabeth Chong in Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park Australia @ Simon Carter.