The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, returning to the Lethbridge Public Library, Jan. 5-10 is already sold out but extra tickets, usually set aside for sponsors, will be released each day.
“ Tickets went on sale Dec. 1 and two weeks later, they were gone,” observed organizer Sheila Braund, who hand picks the films she feels will be most popular in Lethbridge while attending the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Banff at the beginning of November.
The Banff Mountain Film festival plays in communities in 33 different countries.
“I choose the films because I know my audience,” she said noting this year she chose a variety of films about extreme sports from tightrope walking to snowboarding, an environmental film and another about First Nations. She even chose one called “Sun Dogs” about a man and his dog cycling through the Rockies.
This year she chose two dozen films which explore the many activities one can do in the mountains.
“We can’t play full length films in the Library,” she said.
Screenings are 7-10 p.m. each night which features between seven to nine films. Films run Monday through Wednesday and the same films will be screened again, Thursday through Saturday.
The schedule is Jan. 5/8: The Ridge (about renown trials rider Danny MacAskill cycling on the Isle of Skye in Scotland); The Little Things ( about First Nations snowboarder Meghann O’Brien learning about her Haida roots); Africa Fusion (about climbers Alex Honnold and Hazel Findlay climbing in South Africa); And Then We Swam (about rowers crossing the Indian ocean; DRAWN ( bout the adventures of climber Jeremy Collins in Venezuelan China/ Mongolia, northern Canada and the Yosemite Valley); Mending the Line ( about Normandy veteran Frank Moore fly-fishing in the streams of France); Sculpted in Time: The Wise Man (88-year-old skier Eddie Hunter)
Jan. 6/9: Touch (a flying tour of Santorini, Chamonix and the Col du Galibier in France); Tumwater Solitude (Kayaker Sam Grafton in the Tamwater Canyon in Washington); Wild Women (slack liner Faith Dickey); A Snowball's Chance in Hell (David Lama free climbing in Patagonia); Arctic Swell: Surfing the Ends of the Earth (about surf photographer Chris Burkard); Into the Empty Quarter (adventurers Alastair Humphreys in the Empty Quarter district of the Arabian Peninsula); Sufferfest 2: The Desert Alpine (Cyclists Cedar Wright and Alex Honnold climbing desert towers in the American Southwest) and Sun Dog ( about a man and his dog cycling the Rocky Mountains).
Jan. 7/10: Out on a Limb ( one legged skier Vasu Sojitra); Love in the Tetons (an unusual wedding in Grand Teton National Park); Forgotten Dirt ( mountain biking in Afghanistan) ; Tashi and the Monk (Former Buddhist monk Tashi helping children in the foothills of the Himalayas); Delta Dawn (paddle boarder Pete McBride in the Colorado River Delta); Happy Winter ( Andreas Fransson about being grateful for the mountains) ; Valley Uprising - The Golden Age (the climbing history of Yosemite); Afterglow ( big mountain skiing);
More details and previews can be found at http://www.lethlib.ca/promotion/banff-mountain-film-festival
Tickets are on sale at 2 p.m. for each day of the festival and at noon on Saturday for the 2-5 p.m. matinee on Saturday.
