Contact: Dave Stephen
Phone 604-864-4611
Fax: 604-859-6653
E-mail: dave.stephen@ucfv.ca

Preparing students for careers leading wilderness adventures is what UCFV’s Adventure Tourism program is all about. It’s only fitting, then, that the Adventure Tourism students are presenting the Fraser Valley showing of the Best of Banff Mountain Film Festival. 

The Best of Banff 2004 will be showing on Monday, Dec 13, at 7 pm at the Clarke Theatre at the Heritage Park Centre in Mission. Tickets are $15, and proceeds will support UCFV’s Adventure Tourism program.

“These films will inspire outdoor enthusiasts and even armchair adventurers,” says Roger Friesen, UCFV’s Adventure Tourism instructor. “They’re a celebration of the best of wilderness culture.”
 

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is an international competition featuring the world's best films and videos on mountain subjects. It is held annually at the beginning of November in Banff, Alberta. The festival began in 1976. The year 2004 marks the 29th anniversary of the festival.

An international film festival jury chooses the best films and awards prizes in eight categories: Grand Prize, Climbing, Mountain Sports, Mountain Environment, Mountain Culture, Short Mountain Film and Feature-Length Mountain Fiction. Audience members decide the winner of the People’s Choice Award. 

Every year, the best films from the festival go on tour immediately following the festival. The host organization in each tour location chooses a program from the films on tour that reflects the interests of its community. 

This year, a film made 35 years ago at a Polish film school took the grand prize at the festival. Odwrot (Retreat) recreates an anonymous climber’s epic solo descent in the wake of a mountaineering accident. The sole copy of Odwrót was rescued from obscurity by Seattle architect Alex Bertulis. Over the past year and a half, he spent $10,000 to restore the film. 

This festival’s 2004 award for Best Film on Mountain Sports goes to a film that celebrates the sheer bliss of powder skiing. Sinners (Canada), directed and produced by Bill Heath, extols the exquisite beauty of deep snow. “This is a film of flowing grace that captures the essence of deep powder,” says Libecki. The mountain sports award is sponsored by Big Rock Brewery. 

Alone across Australia (Australia), which tells the story of Jon Muir’s 2500-kilometre unsupported trek across Australia, takes the 2004 award for Best Film on Mountain Environment, sponsored by Gore. “This film is very real, very powerful, very raw, and absolutely original,” says Libecki. Directed by Muir and Ian Darling, the film follows Muir and his dog, Seraphine, on an arduous 128-day journey across the continent. Alone across Australia also wins the People’s Choice Award, voted on by the festival audience and sponsored by Ortovox. 

The Alpine Club of Canada award for Best Film on Climbing went to Daughters of Everest (USA), directed and produced by Sapana Sakya and Ramyata Limbu. The film tells the story of the first-ever expedition of Sherpa women to climb Everest. “A delightful and very honest film that captures the camaraderie of a group of women who take pride in their mountains,” says jury member Florian Camerer. 

Catch these and other films at the Fraser Valley showing of the Best of Banff. Tickets are $15 and available at: Wenting Cycle in Mission; UCFV bookstore, Valhalla Pure, and Western Canoe in Abbotsford; the UCFV Theatre box office in Chilliwack; and the UCFV Hope Centre. 

For more information contact
UCFV Adventure Tourism instructor Roger Friesen
at 604-504-7441, local 4297, or 604-792-0025, local 4297,
or email roger.friesen@ucfv.ca
www.banffmountainfestivals.ca

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