National Geographic & Dunham Bootmakers
present

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour

brought to you by Hermitlake & chunkymonkey production

February 20-22 at 7pm

Tickets are $15.75--includes $1.50 restoration fee

Limited tickets may still be available - please call the box office

For more information about the films  www.hermitlake.com

Films for Tuesday the 20th and Thursday the 22nd

Anomaly (custom edit) Focus: Ski/Snowboard  USA, 2006, 16 minutes   Rating: General — Coarse Language
Anomaly, TGR’s newest 16mm and HD ski and snowboard release, showcases the freakish and abnormal abilities of today’s top
athletes as they push the boundary of what is humanly possible.

First Ascent: Thailand (custom edit) Focus: Climbing  USA, 2006, 8 minutes
Steep towers of untouched rock jutting out of the ocean. And the best part is that with only the sea below you, there’s no rope. Thailand is a dream come true for David Lama, perhaps the best on-sight climber in the world, and purportedly the future of the sport. Amidst the exotic beauty of the Andaman Coast, Lama and friends take 60-footers into the drink, and bring deep-water soloing to new level.

People’s Choice Award and Special Jury Mention  Asiemut   Focus:Cycling/Culture Canada,2006, 56 minutes     In 2005, Olivier Higgins and Mélanie Carrier went on their first cycling expedition — 8000 kilometres across Asia. In six months they pedalled from Mongolia to Calcutta, India, travelling through Xinjiang, the Taklimakan Desert, the high Tibetan plateau, and the jungle of Nepal. Why? Not only to discover the world, but also to discover themselves

Cayesh — The Calling  Focus: Climbing / Mountaineering Rating: Parental Guidance — Coarse Language USA, 2006, 17 minutes    A one-day ascent of a new route on the west face of Cayesh, in Peru, filmed entirely by the two climbers. “They wish to present a real taste of modern lightweight alpinism as practised by two of today’s best alpinists.”

Ride of the Mergansers   Focus: Environment USA, 2004, 11 minutes
The hooded merganser is a rare and reclusive duck found only in North America. Every spring, in the Great Lakes region, the wary hen lays and incubates her eggs in a nest high in the trees. Just 24 hours after hatching, the tiny ducklings must make the perilous leap to the ground below in order to begin life in the wild. Ride of the Mergansers brings this hidden drama to the screen.

The Simplicity Factor  Focus: Climbing/Bouldering  Canada, 2006, 7 minutes
The Simplicity Factor is a segment from The Top 20 Classic Boulder Problems of North America. Featuring an all-female cast of athletes, it looks at bouldering’s overall appeal while showcasing ascents of several famous boulder problems.

Roam (custom edit)  Focus: Mountain Biking Canada, 2006, 18 minutes
Roam is a mountain-bike film that follows the travels of the world’s top riders as they explore new places to ride, and visit some of the notorious meccas of mountain biking such as, Moab, Utah, and Whistler, B.C.

Films for Wednesday February 21

Yes to the No  Focus: Noboarding / Snowboarding  Canada, 2006, 10 minutes 
A look into the sport of noboarding, which is snowboarding without the use of bindings. The sport of snowboarding was essentially started by skate-boarders and surfers looking for a winter alternative to the two summer sports. Now that snowboarding has reached its peak, there is only one way to change the way snowboarding is done, and that is to take the bindings off the board and really surf the mountain.

The Best of Jo  Focus: Sport / Animation / Humour Canada, 2006, 3 minutes 
The Best of Jo is a stop-action Lego film about a coffee-addicted guy named Jo. He is eager to try all the mountain sports available to him, such as climbing, skiing, and fishing.

Grand Prize Conflict Tiger Focus: Environment UK/Sweden, 2005, 62 minutes  Rating: Parental Guidance — No Advisory, not suitable for small children
In the forests of the Russian Far East, an inexperienced and foolhardy poacher triggers an infamous series of tiger attacks on people. The authorities call upon the services of Yuri Trush, a specialist in tracking and eliminating tigers that have lost their fear of man. Conflict Tiger takes Yuri’s most notorious pursuit of a “man-eating” tiger as the basis for a documentary thriller. In the aftermath of this epic confrontation, the film emerges as a parable that challenges the cozy illusions of traditional “big cat” natural history by setting the animal’s precarious situation against the pressing needs of human survival.

Special Jury Mention  Aweberg Focus: Ice Climbing- Rating: Parental Guidance — Coarse Language
Canada, 2006, 26 minutes    Will Gadd and Ben Firth are two top Canadian ice climbers. They thought climbing “awesome” bergs would be a lot of fun, so the Aweberg trip was born. The bergs looked great, but the reality was somewhat different. Note that the sounds of the picks in the film are much quieter than in real life!

Mission: Epicocity  (custom edit) Focus: Kayaking USA, 2006,  15 minutes
This film features some of the world’s best kayakers running mind-bending waterfalls and rapids in South America and Africa, with a section that highlights native African paddlers.

The Thrill Seekers (Extreme Film School) Focus: “Exteme Sport” / Humour UK, 2005, 3 minutes
Rating: General — Nudity One of the 12 productions from the Kendal Mountain Film Festival Extreme Film School “48-hour Film Marathon.” Two brothers try their hand at mountain biking, climbing and another extreme sport on a camping weekend with hilarious results.

First Ascent: Didier vs. The Cobra (custom edit) Focus: Climbing USA, 2006, 25 minutes
Rating: Parental Guidance — Coarse Language
The elegant, granite Cobra crack in Squamish, British Columbia is perhaps the hardest crack climb in the world and Swiss climber Didier Berthod is among the world’s best crack climbers. Far from the spotlight, Didier spends months in his epic quest to snag the first ascent.

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