January 28, 2003
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
Best of the 27th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival—two nights of adventure screen at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Best of the 27th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival
- Two programs of the world’s best mountain and outdoor adventure films
- Enduring favorite sells out yearly
- Entirely different programs screen each evening
- Monday & Tuesday, February 24 & 25
- 7:30 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public $12, UCSB students & youths 16 and under $10
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Always inspiring and captivating, the Best of the 27th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival will screen on Monday & Tuesday, February 24 & 25 at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. UCSB Arts & Lectures will present a completely different program of films each night. The show’s wide variety of film subjects—from extreme sports to mountain culture and the environment—will amaze and thrill audiences. Tour highlights include: 2002 Special Jury Award-winner Escape Over the Himalayas—Tibet’s Children on Their Journey into Exile, a moving, tragic and hopeful film about Tibetan parents sending their children on a dangerous, often deadly march across the Himalayas to Nepal to provide them the chance at an education and the privilege of religious freedom; and the 2002 Best Film on Climbing Award-winner Vertical Frontier. This comprehensive history of Yosemite climbing includes footage from celebrated ascents of classic “big walls” such as El Capitan and interviews with dozens of Yosemite personalities.
For the past 27 years, The Banff Mountain Film Festival has been celebrating the spirit of adventure and the mountain environment. Each November, the world’s best films on mountain themes draw an international audience to Banff, Canada. This year the Festival screened 263 entries from 31 countries to discover the gems that are part of the tour. For the past 16 years, immediately following the festival, selected films hit the road in a “Best of” touring package.
The films at UCSB for Monday, February 24 are:
Front Range Freaks [Part 1]: Urban Ape—Climber Timmy O’Neill turns Boulder, Colorado into an urban playground (9 min.)
Shepherd Women of Shambala—An intimate journey with Ismaili Muslim women in the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan (9 min.)
SAT Republic—A Spanish team of pilots works together to discover paragliding aerobatics (5 min.)
The Yenisey River Expedition—A five-month quest through storms and floods on the Yenisey River in Russia and Mongolia (56 min.)
Musashi—Rock and ice climbing taken to their illogical limits in the Canadian Rockies (13 min.)
The Second Step: Warren Macdonald’s Epic Journey to Federation Peak—Inspirational double leg amputee Macdonald climbs Federation Peak in southwest Tasmania (26 min.)
The Essence of Adolescence—Teens from British Columbia perform, direct and edit their own extreme film (7 min.)
Escape Over the Himalayas: Tibet’s Children on Their Journey into Exile—Tibetan children go on this trek hoping for the chance for an education and religious freedom (29 min.)
The films at UCSB for Tuesday, February 25 are:
White Trax—Kris Holms rides moguls, steep hardpack and snowboard parks on his unicycle (2 min.)
Bergsjø Action—Norwegian Arnulf Refsnes is the best kite skier in the world (4 min.)
Gordon Wiltsie: View from Above and Beyond—Photographer Wiltsie highlights 25 years of his wildest experiences (8 min.)
Eiger B.A.S.E.—The first B.A.S.E. jump from the “Champignon,” a bizarre rock formation in Switzerland (11 min.)
Rescue: The Cost of Risk—A pulse-pounding doc about an avalanche rescue in the Swiss Alps (26 min.)
Vertical Frontier—An extensive and thrilling history of climbing in Yosemite (91 min.)
This event is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The tour of the Banff Mountain Film Festival is presented by Eagle Creek Travel Gear and the National Geographic Society and sponsored by Patagonia, Air Canada, Dunham Bootmakers, Chevy Avalanche and eVent Fabric with assistance from Lake Louise Ski Area and PETZL.
Tickets, $12 for the general public and $10 for UCSB students and youths 16 and under, are available now at the Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and will be sold at the door the night of the films, beginning at 6:30 p.m., if available.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.