Now in its 16th year, the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is coming to a venue near you – with a programme of films that’ll leave you full of awe and admiration for the filmmakers and their subjects.
To give you some background to this amazing programme, The Banff Centre Film Festival is an annual event, attracting more than 400 entries this season, in a competition for the best films focusing on mountain culture, sports and adventure.
To ensure the winning films get the best possible exposure, the Festival team take twelve on the road, with six featuring on a Red tour, and six on a Blue tour.
We were lucky to see the Red tour at its usual London base of the Union Chapel, packed to the rafters with annual regulars keen to see this year’s pick of the crop.
The programme starts with ‘Dolomites’, which follows pro Mountain Biker Kilian Bron (pictured above) and his fastidious preparations for filming his ride along the steepest trails in the Italian mountain range. It’s packed with amazing visuals, educational histories, and leaves you with the deepest respect for Kilian and his team who all push physical and geographic boundaries for the best possible shots.
You’ll take to the skies with ‘Soul Flyers’, a five-minute-short following the team who took a world record for their 7.5km formation wingsuit jump in France.
And the whole audience literally gasped in unison at ‘Dropping Molly’, featuring climber Molly Mitchell’s rollercoaster journey trying to conquer both mental health issues and the Colorado peak ‘Crank it’.
Then it’s time to spend three minutes in the company of Freestyle mountain biker Fabio Wilmer as he gatecrashes the slopes of one of Austria’s most legendary ski races, the Streif at Kitzbuhel in Austria.
Ever thought about kayaking an ice waterfall? No, us neither. But you’ll love professional kayaker Aniol Serrasolses’ (pictured above) excellent use of his Go-Pro camera taking you on his once-in-a-lifetime journey in the Arctic Circle. We love the fact he named the waterfall he conquered after his colleague who carried the ladders on their 11km trek to get the best ride.
And finally, it’s away from the heart stopping to the heartwarming with ‘Welcome to the Pit’, the glorious tale of generations of residents in Yellowknife, Canada who create a unique community hub from their local gravel pit. The list of venues for this year’s films is at https://www.banff-uk.com/tickets.
If you’d prefer to watch from the comfort of your own home, there are virtual ticket passes too, https://www.banff-uk.com/virtual.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour really celebrates the best of what it means to be human.
For dates, venues and tickets visit https://www.banff-uk.com/tickets
Photo credits: Pierre Vieira and David Sodomka
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