November 15, 2010 at 5:59 PM
filed under Uncategorized
Tagged Banff Canada, Banff Film Festival, Banff Mountain Film, Field Museum, IMAX, Keith Partridge, Mountain FIlms, Serac Adventure Films
Unrelated but a quiet passion of mine is mountain film. I often joke that after spending so much time in the Blue Ridge on this project perhaps we’re on to something. But the true mountain film– the people in the lifestyle, “living the dream” was showcased at the Banff Center this week.
Here’s a few of my favorite people and films:
Eliza Kubarska: Do you know those “Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials for Dos Equis? Well, Eliza may be his match. An accomplished climber and all out filmmaker (meaning, she’s not afraid to showcase the true grit of expedition), I was continuously amazed by her all week long. Add to that… she can dance. Her next project will focus on the children of mountaineers, we saw a sneak peek during Banff and I am beyond excited for the project.
Allie Bombach: she lives in an Airstream and is a wicked shot. Her project, 23 Feet will unveil in 2011 and I couldn’t think of a more timely indie with simplicity being on the minds of many Americans.
23 Feet Trailer from Allie Bombach on Vimeo.
Lifecycles: I have a part-time job at REI where when I’m not dedicating my wallet and 15 hour days to producing indies, I spend a lot of time around people who love being outside as much as I do. One thing I’ve never gotten the hang of is riding a bike, loving a bike– being ONE LESS CAR. I’m terrified of bikes. However, “this is not a bike movie, it’s a movie about a bike.” (However, my co-director Kurt Morris just shreds asphalt in Boston riding mercilessly to his librarian day job. He is more amazing than you know.)
Life Cycles OFFICIAL Trailer from Life Cycles on Vimeo.
Kerim Jaspersen: My across the hall German classmate. Kerim an engineer by trade happens to be a paraglider– in fact his dog goes paragliding with him. You can see his selected Banff short, Rush Hour Dream here. Interestingly, his work is shot on a small Sony DHC-HX1, proof that you should just pick up whatever you have and create.
The Banff Film Festival has a traveling World Tour where you can catch many selections from the week long Mountain Film in Canada. The Chicago leg is in March at the Field Museum. My buddy Matt Lauterbach (who is amazing and has done everything from curate exhibitions about Lincoln to editing for the PBS series The Calling) and I went a couple years ago to Field and were blown away by this base jumping flick Journey to the Center.
What has been really interesting to follow is the relationship of filmmaker to athlete and the challenges of being the limber and steady DP who can get the shot, of the unroped guy on Half Dome. Or in other scenarios, the athlete becomes camera man. I spent the week studying under DP/Director Michael Brown (Return to Everest IMAX, Stormchasers, NOVA: Extreme Ice Survey) and DP/Director Keith Partridge (Top Gear, Touching the Void, Human Planet) at Banff, and despite their day jobs of renting helicopters and multiple Everest summits– there was one point that they continued to drive home– story is everything and it doesn’t matter how big a gun you’re toting, or how many pilots you have on the roster.
So yeah– I walk a strange line between my love for IMAX films and exploitation films. I can’t think of any more conflicting genres. But returning to the point of story– Michael Brown said it best, “That’s one thing you see, people who draw attention to their filmmaking and that’s unfortunate.”
–Carole
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