Backcountry film festival

2013 season – Backcountry film festival

We are planning to expand the BC festival this year, with shows in Melbourne and Sydney, plus a few ski towns. If you’re interested in helping organise venues in alpine resorts please get in touch.

The festival will be held in May, August and September. Details below.

The Winter Wildlands Alliance created the Backcountry Film Festival in 2005 to help grassroots and professional filmmakers to show audiences their love of the winter outdoors. Since then, the annual festival has become something of an institution amongst many outdoor communities.

The festival is now a pre winter event here in Australia.

Backcountry film festival 2013 season

The showings are listed in chronological order

Melbourne

This was the biggest show yet, almost 110 people came out on a cold and rainy night. Thanks to everyone that made the effort!

Wednesday May 15

At The South Melbourne Commons
corner of Bank & Montague St in South Melbourne

Suggested donation: $8 conc/ $12 waged

7pm. Come and grab a drink and catch up. We will have a bar serving basic drinks from 7. Lots of nearby places for dinner (suggest Clarendon street for good options).

7.30. Films start, the show runs til about 10pm (with a 20 minute break in the middle).

Check here for details on how to get to the Commons. Trams and the Light Rail are a few minutes walk away (#96 tram from Bourke street is a 3 minute walk if you get off at South Melbourne Market stop). Lots of parking at night.

Facebook event page here, feel free to invite your friends.

cam.walker@foe.org.au / 0419 338 047

Sydney

NB: this show is now booked out

For the first time the BC fest is coming to Sydney.

It will be held on Monday May 20.

Many thanks to Patagonia Australia for hosting this event.

Melbourne

May 23. Please see poster for details.

Thanks to Patagonia for hosting a second Melbourne showing at their store in Chapel Street.

To book a ticket, please check here.

Castlemaine

Friday May 24, 7 – 9pm.

This is an informal showing at home, for any skiers/ boarders in Central VIC. Please email Cam for details on location. cam.walker@foe.org.au or check the facebook page.

Jindabyne and Mt Hotham

For the first time, the BC film festival is jumping the border into NSW, with a showing planned during the 2nd Splitboard festival.

NSW:

It will be held on the Main Range over the weekend of August 23 – 25. Presented by FirstLight Boards.

The film showing will be on Friday August 23.

Please register for the Splitboard festival here.

VIC:

FirstLight Snowboards are also bringing the festival to Victoria – Mt Hotham – over the weekend of September 6 til 8.

Check here for details on the Splitboard Fest.

If you know of a good location at Hotham to show the festival, please contact Cam. cam.walker@foe.org.au

The films

The BC festival is a 90 minute event, featuring primarily short films, all with a focus on outdoor, human powered adventure.

Check here for the trailer for this year’s showing.

Films in this year’s showing:

Best of the Backcountry:  “Skiing the Void” by Sweetgrass Productions. The Sweetgrass crew contemplates the price of pushing it too far in the ninth installment of their “On The Road” series with Solitaire.

Best Grassroots Film: “Alaska Wilderness Ski Classic” by Luc Mehl. This film documents an adventure race through the Brooks Range, Alaska. Covering 200 miles in 4 days, this group of skiers travels from Galbraith Lake to Wiseman, capturing all the beauty along the way.

Best Environmental Film:  “Stories of Trust” by International Trust Campaign. This tells the story of Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an 11-year-old boy from Boulder, Colorado. Xiuhtezcatl is asking that our atmosphere be protected, because he fears that the landscapes he most enjoys will not be there for his generation if we continue emitting carbon at current rates.

Other film selections include…
·    Unicorn Sashimi
·    Freedom Chair
·    Denali Experiment
·    Further

Further is an inspiring effort from renowned snow boarder Jeremy Jones, which the second installment in his snowboard movie trilogy, Deeper, Further, Higher. Details here.

The festival is run by not-for-profit hosts, and in Australia, all funds raised will support the Friends of the Earth climate campaign.

For details on the festival, please contact Cam: cam.walker@foe.org.au

2012 season

Thanks to everyone who came along to the 2012 Melbourne show. 303 was at capacity, about 90 people.

There are plans for shows in winter – in Bright and Falls Creek and Hotham – stay tuned for details.

To go on the mailing list for future shows, email cam.walker@foe.org.au

The Melbourne showing is being held in early May.

Nine films over 90 minutes, celebrating human powered adventure and the backcountry life. Films cover skiing, boarding, walking, mountain biking and some pretty impressive kayaking.

Tuesday May 8

Image: Winter Wildlands Alliance

Films start at 8 pm. Please feel free to arrive earlier to grab a drink. There are lots of places to get dinner nearby. The evening should finish at about 10pm.

Venue: The festival is being held at the same venue as last year: 303 (303 High street, Northcote, Melbourne), tram stop #32 on the #86 tram. Its just next door to the Northcote Social Club.

303 is a licensed bar.

Entry by donation.

All funds raised will support Protect Our Winters and the Friends of the Earth climate campaign against new coal and CSG in Victoria.

You can watch the trailer here.

2012 Films

Best of the Festival:  “Solitaire“, by Sweetgrass Productions

From the Sweetgrass website:

In the high desert of South America, winter takes hold, devouring bleached bones and abandoned shacks. Born in the spires of Argentina’s legendary Las Lenas, a lonely two-year journey begins through an abandoned world. wandering the length of a continent from Peru’s Cordillera Blanca to Chilean Patagonia, Solitaire fuses western-inspired tales of backcountry gambles into landscapes never before visited on film.

Best Short Award: “Chalk and Ski”, by Purple Orange

Best of the Backcountry Award:  “Breaking Trail“, by Powderwhore

Powderwhore traditionally produce films with a focus on telemark skiing. This year: ” Powderwhore is no longer focusing primarily on the telemark turn. BREAKING TRAIL will highlight riders of all disciplines choosing their own backcountry adventures”.

Image: Powderwhore

And you have to love their sales pitch:

“Warning! There are no shots of helicopters filming other helicopters or hankie-clad 16-year-olds hepped up on energy drinks spinning to rap music. And you won’t win a Jeep if you come out to a premiere. You will find a mixed bag of highly talented and dedicated individuals who enjoy hiking out into the unknown in search of turns and adventure. All this captured by two video hacks carrying as little as necessary in order to travel fast and light.”

Other film selections include…

•     40 Tribes Kyrgyzstan
•     Berber Turns. (You tube video available here).
•     Ski Bums Never Die
•     Winters of My Life. This is a portrait of Howard Weamer. For the past 35 years he has spent his winters as a hutkeeper in Yosemite’s backcountry.
•     Seasons; Winter
•     Bike, Ski, Raft Denali Traverse

For any enquiries please contact Cam.

cam.walker@foe.org.au

Event page on Facebook is here.

2011 season – Backcountry film festival

Thanks to everyone who came to the 2011 showings in Melbourne and at Dinner Plain. To go on the email list for the 2012 season, please email Cam: cam.walker@foe.org.au

  Backcountry film festival at Dinner Plain

The 2011 season of the backcountry film festival is showing again, this time at Dinner Plain, in the Victorian Alps, on August 9^th.

Tuesday 9^th August, from 9 – 10.30pm

At Dinner Plain Hotel.

This is a free event, a small donation would be welcome. Six films. Drinks available from the bar.

Thanks to Hamish at the staff at DP Hotel for hosting the show.

Presented by Protect Our Winters.

–

 Melbourne show, April 2011

the show @ 303

We held the 2011 festival in April in Melbourne. Many thanks to everyone who showed up. We will need a bigger venue next time.

There are showings in other parts of the country later in the year, scroll down for details.

To go on the mailing list for the 2012 show, please email Cam. cam.walker@foe.org.au

The Winter Wildlands Alliance created the Backcountry Film Festival in 2005 to help grassroots and professional filmmakers to show audiences their love of the winter outdoors. Since then, the annual festival has been shown in more than 30 towns and cities, and raised thousands of dollars to help efforts to preserve our winter environment.

The 2011 film festival is showing in Australia.

April 12

Films start at 8 pm. Please feel free to arrive earlier to grab a drink.

At 303 (303 High street, Northcote, Melbourne), tram stop #32 on the #86 tram. Its just next door to the Northcote Social Club.

303 is a licensed bar.

Entry by donation. All funds raised will support Protect Our Winters.

You can watch the trailer here.

Protect Our Winters is the environmental centre point of the winter sports community, united towards a common goal of reducing climate change’s effects on our sport and local mountain communities.

We believe that to really effect things, consumer behaviour needs to change and that the power of an actively participating and united community can have a direct influence on climate change, now and for generations behind us.

This year’s festival features:

Best of the Festival: Teton Gravity Research’s festival cut of “Deeper” follows legendary snowboarder Jeremy Jones and other top riders as they forsake helicopters, snowmobiles and lifts to venture deep into untouched terrain under their own power.

Best Short Film: “Desert River” from Sweetgrass Productions, is a beautiful ski adventure into Alaska.

Best Environmental Film: “Whitebark Warrior” from TreeFight and Snaz Media, chronicles the decline of thousand-year old whitebark pines due to climate change and efforts underway to save these iconic high alpine trees.

Other Films Include:

* Australis, an Antarctic ski odyssey
* TELEvision (check here for a TELEvision trailer to give you a sense of whats on offer) and
* Cross Country Snowboarding

For extra information, please check the festival website.

For details on POW Australia, please contact Cam: cam.walker@foe.org.au

There will be other Australian screenings of the festival:

* at Mt Buller on 16th July.
* Jindabyne, dates TBC.

Snow Monkey has offered a 10% discount card to each person that attends the night.

They have shops in Collingwood and Mt Hotham.