The UK and Ireland Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour offers audiences the opportunity to travel the world and experience a selection of exhilarating, inspirational, and unforgettable adventures from the contrasting comfort of a theatre chair.
- Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, 27 February Harrogate, Royal Hall
Now in its seventh edition, the 2016 UK and Ireland leg of the Banff World Tour will be the largest Tour to date with more than 50,000 adventure lovers expected to gather together indoors to celebrate the outdoors with 85 screenings and 55 tour locations right across the UK and Ireland. Globally, the World Tour is enjoyed by more than 400,000 people across 40 different countries.
The festival tour showcases a diverse collection of the newest and very best films from the global mountain culture and sports community. The two different film programmes, each approximately two and a half hours in length, are selected from over 350 films that have been entered into the prestigious 40th anniversary edition of the Banff Mountain Film Festival, held in the Canadian Rockies in November 2015.
The films explore remote cultures, highlight intense expeditions through exotic landscapes and bring into sharp focus adrenaline-packed action sports. The Banff Tour generates a community feel at each location, attracting people with a wide range of outdoor passions who make an annual pilgrimage to a Banff screening in search of new ideas and inspiration for their own adventurous pursuits!
A selection of the 13 films being featured on the 2016 Banff Tour include:
ECLIPSE, 31 mins Best Film – Snow Sports The odds are low, the risks are high – photographer Reuben Krabbe is determined to capture an impossible photo of a skier in front of the 2015 solar eclipse in Svalbard. Up in the high arctic though, the weather is bad, the guide is sketchy, the pressure is massive, and the skiers just want to ski.
OPERATION MOFFAT, 20 mins Special Jury Mention Operation Moffat takes inspiration and wit from the colorful climbing life of Britain’s first female mountain guide Gwen Moffat. Writer Claire Carter and filmmaker Jen Randall scramble, swim and barefoot climb through Gwen’s landscapes, grappling with her preference for mountains over people, adventure over security and wilderness over tick lists.
A LINE ACROSS THE SKY, 40 mins Best Film – Climbing
The Fitz Roy traverse is one of the most sought after achievements in modern alpinism. Long considered impossible, coveted by many and attempted by a few, the Fitz Traverse has fueled the imaginations of climbers in Patagonia for decades. Tracing the iconic skyline of Cerro Fitz Roy and its six satellite peaks, it spans four miles and 13,000 feet across snow and ice-covered rock. Seizing their chance during a rare extended weather window, Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold went big. The pair completed the first ascent in a five-day push, earning them the prestigious Piolet d’Or award.
UNBRANDED, 43mins People’s Choice Award
Four young Texas horseman hatch an outrageous plan to adopt, train and ride a string of wild horses 3,000 miles from the Mexican border to Canada through some of the American West’s wildest terrain. Their aim is to prove the worth of wild horses and raise awareness about their plight. What ensues is an epic journey of self-discovery, danger, friendship and big landscapes that entails runaway horses, perilous mountain passes, debilitating injuries, and one sassy donkey.
