Syracuse.com - BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour makes stop in Syracuse

[HuntingNY-News]

Ten outdoor films were shown to a packed audience in the Grant Auditorium at Syracuse University Tuesday.

If skiing hundreds of miles across Antarctica with your best friend is on your bucket list, the BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour is the place to get inspired.

The BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour screened 10 of its best outdoor film entries for a packed audience in the Grant Auditorium at Syracuse University Tuesday. The student-run Syracuse University Outing Club brought the tour to Syracuse for the third year in a row. Tickets were $10 for students and $12 for the general public.

"Crossing the Ice", a film following two best friends who trek from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, won the Grand Prize for outdoor filmmaking at the BANFF Mountain Film Festival--one of the largest film festivals in the world--held in Banff, Alta., Canada, last October. Now, it is being shown around the world in 40 different countries on seven continents, including Antarctica, as part of the World Tour.

Charla Tomlinson, a native Banff, Alta., resident and a veteran "road warrior", or BANFF representative who brings the films to cities around the nation, said she wanted the job because of the enthusiasm of the BANFF filmmakers and festival administrators.

"I don't do any of this crazy stuff [in the films]," Tomlinson said. "But their passion for creating these experiences for people to be part of is what inspired me to be a part of this."

BANFF accepts over 300 outdoor film entries every year, with subjects ranging from skiing to rock climbing to kayaking. A board of six judges award films in 14 categories, with the winners and about 15 other films going on the tour. "BANFF is considered the Oscars of mountain or adventure films," Tomlinson said.

This year, highlight films included a five-minute film called "Industrial Revolutions" that followed UK extreme biker Danny MacAskill as he jumped and spun atop train tracks, concrete walls and boxcars. This film won a Special Jury Mention.

"Reel Rock 7: Wide Boyz", the Best Mountain Short Film winner, is about English rock climbers who take on the American sport of crack climbing, or scaling a rock face by wedging one's body into rock crevices.

Sandy Roe of North Syracuse has been attending BANFF screenings around the Syracuse area for five years. BANFF has held screenings in Hamilton and Ithaca in the past. "I don't know what films they're playing tonight, but it doesn't matter because they're usually really good," Roe said.

SU Sophomore Jen Bundy experienced BANFF for the first time last night. "This inspires me to want to see the world, travel the world and actually live in the world," Bundy said. "So many people are so plugged in, but life is so much more than what's on your ipad."

Bundy's favorite film of the night was "The Gimp Monkeys"--a 23 minute film about three amputees who climbed El Capitan, a 3,000 foot monolith in Yosemite National Park.

SUNY-ESF Senior and president of the SU Outing Club Allison Burhans said this event was worth hosting at SU because it brings people together to celebrate the human experience.

"Most people aren't going to go climb Everest," Burhans said. "But there are root similarities between the people in the films and the people watching. Everyone can relate to these films in one way or another."

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog