The Banff Mountain Film Festival Is Coming April 27th & 28th!
In 2024, the Banff Mountain Festival World Tour shows will be returning to the historic Paramount Theatre in Austin. The shows are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday evenings, April 27th and 28th. We hope you'll be able to join us for these evenings of adrenaline-fueled outdoor sports films and those showcasing mountain cultures from around the world, selected from the best films at the 2023 Banff Mountain Film Festival in Banff, Canada.
This will be the seventeenth year that Whole Earth has hosted the World Tour and the thirteenth year that Texas State Parks is the beneficiary of the event. The World Tour is a great opportunity to have a fun night out and to give back to our beloved State Parks here in Texas.
Get Your Tickets Today!
Night One Films
FUEGO (2023, France, 7 minutes)
Filmmaker: Pierre Henni, Kilian Bron
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: An ode to escape and adventure travel, Fuego is a new mountain biking masterpiece. From Guatemala to Peru via Bolivia, the team scoured the most beautiful spots for two months bring back breathtaking images. Kilian Bron rides from the foot of the Fuego volcano the day before its historic eruption, to the colourful facades of Barrio Chualluma in La Paz, through the geological formations of the Valle de las Animas to an unforgettable meeting with the Cholitas Escaladoras.
DRIVING SWEEP (2023, USA, 10 min)
Filmmaker: Greg Cairns, Cairns Film
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: Few river guides ever get the chance to drive Idaho's iconic sweep boat. Driving Sweep follows Katie Veteto as she learns how to "drive sweep" down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. She's learned the rapids and the river. Now she learns to drive 4,000lbs down steep rocky rapids.
JOJO - A TOAD MUSICAL (2023, USA, 9 min)
Filmmaker: Chelsea Jolly, David Herasimtschuk, Jolly Productions
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Join JoJo Nyaribo, a young nature lover and wildlife advocate as he explores the meaning of biodiversity and stewardship in his own backyard. This story weaves together Jojo's love for the natural world with his journey in learning about, and fighting against, a specific fungus that has been wiping out a staggering number of amphibians around the globe. What is JoJo's role in preventing the spread of this fungus? Through small actionable tasks as simple as cleaning his own running shoes and educating his friends and family, Jojo believes we can all make a difference.
THE ASCENSION SERIES: MORAG SKELTON (2023, United Kingdom, 5 min)
Filmmaker: Matt Pycroft, Matt Harmer, Harriet Sykes, Coldhouse Collective
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Morag, who doesn't let being deaf limit what's possible on the mountainside, believes that nothing should come between anyone and getting out there in nature. As a deaf climber constantly pushing the limits of possible, she lives that belief.
SUBTERRANEAN (TOUR EDIT) ***BEST FILM: ADVENTURE*** (2023, Canada, 40 min)
Filmmaker: François-Xavier De Ruydts, Jenny Rustemeyer, Cold Fingers Films
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: In a remarkable year, two gritty teams of hobbyist cavers are poised to break records for the longest and deepest caves in Canada. After discovering a flooded underground chamber, Katie, a daytime accountant, becomes obsessed with returning to the Bisaro Anima cave in the Rockies to push the caving depth record. At the same time, a passionate Vancouver Island team is attempting to link two tunnel systems to create the longest known cave in the country. From abyssal, muddy crawls to heart-pounding, vertical pits, and underwater squeezes, these are places where no person has been before.
INTERMISSION
LEAVING A TREAD (2023, USA, 5 min)
Filmmaker: Maxwell Frank, Becky Gardner, WTB
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Mountain Biker Israel Carrillo shows us his hometown of Guanajuato, Mexico, and the difficulties and differences of being a mountain biker in Mexico.
TO BE FRANK (2023, USA, 12 min)
Filmmaker: Anna Wilder Burns, Morgan Sliff
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Frank Paine is a 73-year-old South Bay icon and humble local legend whose life orbits around a two-block stretch of beach. His unforgettable mustache and magnetic spirit are what most first notice, but Frank's layers expose a depth that might answer some questions that surfers continually ask themselves. Surfing, which, for some, becomes lost in isolation, is made whole again with Frank.
RANGE RIDER (2023, USA, 30 min)
Filmmaker: Colin Arisman, Wild Confluence Media
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: As wolves repopulate Washington State, conflict is heating up with rural ranching communities. Range rider Daniel Curry's job is to patrol wild areas on horseback, creating a buffer between wolves and the cattle herds that graze on public lands. When these wild carnivores are suspected of killing livestock, the consequences for wolf packs can be fatal. As illegal poaching and state sponsored kills take their toll, can Daniel prove that coexistence between ranchers and wolves is possible?
TWO POINT FOUR (2023, United Kingdom, 20 min)
Filmmaker: Natasha Brooks, Leo Houlding
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: Not your typical family holiday, but this is not your typical family. Leo Houlding, his wife Jess, their two children Freya (9yrs) and Jackson (5yrs) climb Norway's national mountain via a 2,000ft big wall.
NO WAY (2023, France, 4 min)
Filmmaker: Jean-Baptiste Chandelier, Marine Pascal, EURL JB Chandelier
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: Jean-Baptiste Chandelier takes his unique low-flying, ground-skimming art combining paragliding and filmmaking to a whole new level.
Night Two Films
HOW DID WE GET HERE? (TOUR EDIT) (2023, Canada, 9 min)
Filmmaker: Clay Mitchell, Simon Shave, CK9 Studios
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: The Blondes, three strange animals. Who are they? What are they thinking? Are they naturally Blonde? A film highlighting the ski crew the Blondes through their friendship and adventures in skiing and in life.
GEORGIA ASTLE: FLIP THE SWITCH (2023, Canada, 3 min)
Filmmaker: Scott Secco, Scott Secco Films
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: If you don't have role models to look up to, it's harder to progress as a rider. Georgia Astle grew up chasing her older brother. "If he could do it, I could do it" she figured. She got comfortable "flipping the switch" and pushing against the clock. Watch Georgia Astle explore some of British Columbia's most striking landscapes, on a search for terrain to push her riding, inspired by a rising tide of female freeriders around the world.
SOUNDSCAPE ***CREATIVE EXCELLENCE AWARD*** (2023, USA, 14 min)
Filmmaker: Timmy O'Neill, Sarah Lee Steele, Well Travelled Collective
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Soundscape shares the sightless experience of climbing a mountain via echo location, touch and imagination. Soundscape features Erik Weihenmayer, a global adventure athlete and author who is fully blind, as he ascends a massive alpine rock face deep in the Sierra Nevada. Using expert camera work from Mikey Schaefer and emotive, novel animation from Scott Hassell and Mitch Pond to bring to life a concept by adaptive climbing pioneer Timmy O'Neill, the film is a surprising and soulful adventure.
LEO & CHESTER ***BEST FILM: MOUNTAIN CULTURE*** (2022, Canada, 8 min)
Filmmaker: Andrea Wing, Aline Mayerhoffer, MMGY Origin
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Leo, a sought-after rock star with a promising career, turns his back on the industry to pursue a life on the land with a herd of buffalo.
CANADA VERTICAL (TOUR EDIT) (2023, Canada, 35 min)
Filmmaker: Laurent Poliquin, Nicolas Roulx
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: After years of preparation, a team of highly motivated Quebeckers set out on one of the longest wilderness expeditions ever documented. Stage one involves skiing in relentless polar conditions from Ellesmere Island to the Northwest Passage where the challenge was reaching the mainland. Cue canoes for a 2,000km journey across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories until they reach the first dirt road available where bikes are waiting to be pedaled 4,000km to Point Pelee in Ontario.
INTERMISSION
DESERT WINGS (2023, USA, 4 min)
Filmmaker: Nathan McBride, NVisualMedia
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: Paramotoring is a niche, largely undocumented, and little-known flying sport. This piece brings it to light in a rightfully epic way. Shot over 6 days, with multiple paramotor pilots, Desert Wings highlights some of the most dramatic desert landscapes in the American Southwest.
EL GAVILÁN (2022, USA, 20 min)
Filmmaker: Bronwyn Hodgins, Savannah Cummins, Savy Media
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: Rising out of the arid Mexican desert lies a 900ft ship's prow of elegant limestone sporting a 9-pitch 5.13 established in the 90s by Jeff Jackson. A cutting-edge big wall free climb at the time, this route shut down hard men for years. Shrouded in mysticism, the bolts rusted, and the holds collected dust until a couple of young gals from Canada decided to give it a try.
NEAR THE RIVER (2023, USA, 11 min)
Filmmaker: Darby McAdams, Ashley Peel, Rush Sturges, McAdams Films
Advisory: None
Film Synopsis: In the tourism town of Livingstone, Zambia, a group of local men who make their living portering kayaks aspire to become safety kayakers on the Zambezi River. The proposed Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Scheme threatens to flood the famous rapids of the Zambezi and eliminate river related jobs.
WELL WORN LIFE WITH DANI REYES-ACOSTA (2022, USA, 6 min)
Filmmaker: Daniel Mitchell, Kelsey Ferguson, BLK ELK Media
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: Meet Dani Reyes-Acosta: a mountain athlete, land cultivator, and storyteller whose path consistently seeks the limits of her possibility. Ticking off climbs and splitboard lines across South America, cultivating her role as a legacy Coloradoan, and setting the course for the future of outdoor access in remote communities, Dani is a visceral example of how self-care and self-determination can harmonize via the outdoors.
PIONEERS: TANDEM XC SKIING (TOUR EDIT) (2023, USA, 20 min)
Filmmaker: Chris Parr, Flutter Brothers Productions
Advisory: Coarse language
Film Synopsis: After winning the American Birkebeiner - the largest cross-country ski race in North America - Joe Dubay was disqualified for wearing the wrong bib. Now, 11 years later, Joe and his former roommate who lent him the bib - Chris - document their return to the Birkebeiner to pioneer a new sport: tandem cross-country skiing.
