2008 Banff Mountain Film Festival

Tonight my dad, brother, and I went to see the 2008 Banff Mountain Film Festival at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. This is a collection of some of the world’s most inspiring and thought-provoking active, environmental, and adventure mountain films. Each year the festival receives more than 300 amateur films. The best films are then chosen at the film festival which takes place in Alberta, Canada each November and then these films go on tour around the country. We are lucky enough to have a showing in Cleveland, which has grown tremendously since it's first showing 11 years ago. Click Here for this year's intro movie.

When we first arrived downtown we ate next to Playhouse Square at Otto Moser's. The food & drink reception then started at 6pm with film presentations following at 7:30pm. At the reception Chipotle offered some pasta salad and Mustard Seed Market & Cafe served up some pierogies, mushrooms, and tofu. My brother and I also enjoyed the "High Altitude Party" upstairs that included all you can drink beer from the Willoughby Brewing Co. and my favorite cupcukes from Main St. Cupcakes, located in Hudson.

I've gone to this event the last 2 years and had a blast each time. I really liked the movies they selected this year, especially "Searching for the Coast Wolves". Here's a list of the films that were shown, along with a description and a movie, if it was available on YouTube:

1) Entropy - Norway, 2006, 11 minutes
Entropy documents the most progressive season in snowkiting so far. Join a couple of the world's best riders as they search for the ultimate snow and wind conditions.

2) Inner Balance - Canada, 2007, 5 minutes
Riders from Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia take unicycling to the next level with amazing drops and trials riding in a massive indoor bike park

3) Searching For The Coast Wolves - Germany, 2006, 52 minutes
Gudrun Pflueger is an ex-world champion cross-country skier and long-distance runner. She goes in search of the mysterious coast wolves of British Columbia.

4) King Lines: Es Pontas - USA, 2007, 13 minutes
A segment from King Lines, filmed on location in Mallorca, Spain. Deep water soloing at its best.

5) Cross-Country With The Snakes - USA, 2007, 7 minutes
A short film about a nordic-skiing punk band. It documents a tour with the Black-eyed Snakes as they ski all day and play rock at night.

6) The Western Lands - Hoy - UK, 2007, 9 minutes
Writer Jim Perrin's attempted climb of the Old Man of Hoy on his 60th birthday. A poetic documentary of love, loss and landscape under the dying of the light.

7) It's Fantastic - USA, 2007, 19 minutes
From the ski slopes of Europe to the volcanic island of El Hierro, some of the world's best speedflyers risk their lives to find the limits of their abilities.

8) Trial & Error - Canada, 2006, 8 minutes
Mountain biker Ryan Leech sets out to ride an incredibly difficult trail in the coastal mountains of British Columbia, in a valley slated for clearcut logging.

9) Ain't Got No Friends On A Powder Day
Switzerland, 2007, 5 minutes
Loris is a "classic" freerider. Jean-Yves, however, has a more or less "accidental style.