Look
to the Ground
Bjorn Enga; 2009, Canada, 6 min, Focus: Adventure
Imagine riding your mountain bike at full
speed down a steep serpentine trail at night when the moon is a dim
sliver that slips in and out of clouds, its vague light often lost
in shadow. And now imagine that you’re wearing shades. Just
such a scenario describes much of Bobby McMullen’s life: He is
a blind mountain biker.
History Making Farming Author on the Move
Matt Morris; 2009, USA, 7 min; Focus: Cultural
Vern
Switzer is an idiosyncratic character: A black farmer in Rural
Hall, North Carolina, his passion for growing watermelon found
new meaning when God directed him to write children’s
books. Now this “farming author on the move” brings his
message of sustainable farming and character building to schools
across the country. Director Matt Morris (Pickin’ and Trimmin’,
Mountainfilm 2008) was inspired by this year’s food theme
to createthis film to premiere at Mountainfilm
Revolution One
Dan Heaton; 2009, USA, 10 min; Focus: Adventure
Cliff edges, boulders, logs, park benches, public
sculpture, handrails, picnic tables, walls and window sills—all
are apparently perfect terrain for extreme unicycling. Kris Holm returns
to Mountainfilm with more one-wheel wonders and this radical new film.
You may remember Kris at our Telluride Mountainfilm show live on stage
at the State Theater in 2006.
Samsara
Renan Ozturk, 2009, USA, 19 min; Focus: Adventure
In the heart of the lofty, knife-sharp Vindhya
Mountains in India sits a 6,500-foot rock route that resembles a
massive shark fin and rises from the ocean of crags. This fin, which
is twice as long as anything on El Capitan and just as steep, has
denied many notable climbers from reaching its summit. In Samsara,
all-star climbing team Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk
set out to attempt a first ascent. The film is woven together with
art, journal excerpts, and still photography. Here’s the thing: The sacred peak, Meru,
is said in mythology to be the center of the universe, but can you
climb to the center of the universe? And that’s what Samsara—which
means “wheel of suffering”—is about.
Western Spaghetti
PES, 2008, USA, 2 min; Focus: Art/Culture
Masterful animator Pes uses commonplace and
unexpected items to put together the most perfectly magical plate
of spaghetti. Bon app étit!
The Hidden Life of the Burrowing Owl
Mike Roush, 2008, USA, 6 min; Focus: Animation/Environmental
A bit twisted, a bit mournful, and a bit of pure wicked entertainment,
this film introduces us to the burrowing owl. When the timid, normally
unassuming burrowing owl loses his mate to a large predator, watch
out! His tale of revenge is tinged with both humor and sadness.
Deep/Shinsetsu
Masaki Sekiguchi, 2008, Japan, 4 min; Focus: Adventure
Sometimes, words aren’t necessary. In Deep/Shinsetsu, filmmaker
Masaki Sekiguchi lets the images speak for themselves. Filmed in
Japan after what appears to be a 100-year storm, this short is a
melodic and meditative portrait of skiing powder—chest-deep
powder. The film is stripped of the genre’s usual racket: no
voice-overs, jibbers, helicopters or hip-hop music here. Instead,
it cuts straight to the essentials—the wash of white and the
joy of bounding through bottomless snow.
Red Gold
Ben Knight and Travis Rummel, 2008, USA, 56 min; Focus: Envir and
Cultural
At the headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak
Rivers in Bristol Bay, Alaska—the two largest remaining sockeye salmon runs on the
planet—mining companies Northern Dynasty and Anglo American
have proposed to extract what may prove to be the richest deposit
of gold and copper in the world, perhaps worth as much as $600 billion.
Talented Telluride filmmakers Ben Knight and Travis Rummel (Portland
audiences may remember their other films shown in 2006 and 2007,
The Hatch and Running Down the Man) spent more than two months in
Bristol Bay, documenting the tension between native fishermen who
oppose the dam and mine officials who say they will build a “clean” mine
that will leave the salmon’s habitat untouched. This exquisite
film goes beyond the conflict, offering a portrait of a unique way
of life that wouldn’t exist if the salmon don’t return
with Bristol Bay tide.
Home
Christopher Thomas Allen and Rob Rainbow, 2008, UK, 3 min; Focus:
Culture
“Home is within,” says Joe McGarry,
the former director of a homeless shelter and the narrator of this
wise and wonderful short film. With a spot-on score by composer Michael
Nyman, Home is a spoken-word picture poem that meditates on what
it really means to be at home.
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Program length, including intermission and
raffle, approximately 3 hours
Note: Films
subject to change |
