A Life Ascending, the documentary about legendary Revelstoke mountain guide Ruedi Beglinger, will make its Revelstoke premier when the Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to town this Thursday and Friday.
The documentary, which follows Beglinger and his family in the years following the tragic avalanche that killed seven people on a backcountry ski trip at his Selkirk Mountain Experience lodge, will be the feature film Thursday night at the Roxy Theatre. It won the award for the best film about mountain culture and the people’s choice award at the 2010 Banff Mountain Festival.
The film is one of 13 that will be showing over the course of the two nights. The films tell the stories of kayakers, cavers, skiers, climbers, bikers and more over the course of the two nights.
Tickets are available at the Friends of Mount Revelstoke & Glacier office in the Parks Canada building. As of Friday, there were still lots available, said Friends executive director Neills Kristensen.
The complete schedule is as follows:
Thursday, Sept. 15
Dream Result
River expeditions into the wilderness of Argentina, cold water paddling in Norway, and a quest for the highest waterfall drop yet, are all on the agenda for a group of top athletes and friends in Dream Result.
Rush Hour Dream
An office worker in Düsseldorf, Germany, falls asleep in the tramway on his way to work and wakes up on a beautiful mountainside to discover that he is carrying a paraglider in his laptop in the delightful short film Rush Hour Dream.
A Life Ascending
Living with his wife and two young daughters on a remote glacier in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, Ruedi Beglinger has built a reputation as one of the top mountaineering guides in the world. A Life Ascending follows his family’s unique life in the mountains and their journey in the years following a massive avalanche that killed seven people.
*Intermission*
Into Darkness
Journey beneath the surface in Into Darkness with a group of cavers who push impossibly small passages to access some of the final frontiers on earth. The images and sounds of spectacular and remote wilderness caves will reveal a fantastic world unlike anything we experience on the surface.
Kranked Kids
A coming-of-age mountain bike parody, Kranked-Kids: Just Down the Road is an immersion in sweet comic relief over the span four minutes,
Chimaera
‘Chimæra’ refers to a mythological fusion of forms or a foolish fantasy. Shot with a unique camera system capable of shooting over 1,000 frames per second, Chimæra generates an experience that blurs the borders between the real and the imaginary. By slowing our perception of reality, Chimæra offers an unprecedented look at a skier’s life.
Last Paradise
Through 45 years of stunning original footage, The Last Paradise relives the groundbreaking journey of a maverick bunch of kids who became legendary extreme sports pioneers in the remote wilderness of New Zealand.
Friday, Sept. 16
The Longest Way
The Longest Way is a highly entertaining time-lapse of a 1-year-walk from Beijing to Urumqi. Time and distance travelled are charmingly demonstrated by the growth of a beard in this five-minute short.
Life Cycles
Filmed in Ultra HD, Life Cycles provides some of the most visually stunning images the mountain sports world has ever seen. With thought-provoking narration, it’s a beautiful celebration of the mountain bike – and a tribute to the culture of mountain biking.
Crossing the Ditch
Crossing The Ditch tells the story of two young Australian kayakers, who battle ten meter towering waves, massive storms, shark-filled seas, and strong currents to conquer the Tasman Sea – 2200kms of some of the world’s deadliest and most treacherous waters.
*Intermission*
AZADI: Freedom
AZADI: Freedom takes a look at Kashmir in the wake of the violent militant insurgence of the 90s, and the prospects for young Kashmiri today as they venture into the backcountry on skis. Few would ever guess that the highest skiable gondola sits amid the most militarized region in the world and that skiing is drawing foreigners back to this former Shangri-La.
Still Motion
Compiled from the highlights of a whole year of wildlife research, still images from motiontriggered wildlife cameras create an intricately sequenced movie-like production of Alberta’s amazing wildlife. In Still Motion, playful fawns, stalking cougars, and curious elk take centre stage.
Fly or Die
A bold new climbing innovation – the Base Free Solo – is the creation of cutting-edge climber Dean Potter. In Fly or Die Potter combines free solo climbing and base jumping, on a quest to master disciplines that will lead to a daring evolution of the sport.