November 26 — There’s a new film festival coming to town. On Saturday, December 13 the Western Slope Conservation Center is teaming up with the Winter Wildlands Alliance to present the Backcountry Film Festival, a collection of professional and grassroots films aimed to inspire winter adventurers to seek the snow less traveled. In town for only one night, this event will begin at 7:30 at the Paradise Theatre in Paonia. Advanced tickets can be purchased for $10 at the Conservation Center office in Paonia or online at www.theconservationcenter.org.
“We are thrilled to bring the Backcountry Film Festival to the North Fork Valley,” said Sarah Sauter, Executive Director for the Western Slope Conservation Center. “It should be an adrenaline-packed evening.”
The Backcountry Film Festival is renowned for its mix of professional and grassroots films – from well-known filmmakers who search backcountry corners across the globe to submit their best work to first-timers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursions. The films festival seeks to support like-minded, human-powered recreation and conservation efforts and to raise awareness of winter management issues, avalanche training/safety and winter education programs.
The festival was created in 2004 to highlight Winter Wildlands Alliance’s efforts to preserve and promote winter landscapes for human-powered users. From a single showing in Boise that first year, the festival has grown to include showings in locations throughout the United States and Canada and now in Antarctica, Europe, Australia and Asia. Proceeds from the Paonia showing will benefit the Western Slope Conservation Center, a local nonprofit organization with a mission to create an active and aware community to protect and enhance the lands, air, water, and wildlife of the Lower Gunnison Watershed.
This year’s program includes:
- Winner, Best of Festival, Out on a Limb from T-bar Films tells the story of Vasu, whose love for skiing and the backcountry overcomes all obstacles.
- Best of the Backcountry Award winner, Powder Pilgrimage from Joey Howell, chronicles the ventures of two friends ski-bumming it to Valdez, Alaska, a trip we should all take once.
- Best Grassroots Film winner, Backcountry Baker by Jeremy Lurgio follows Labrador retriever Baker and his owner as they pursue their love of mountains through backcountry skiing.
- From the Road by Fischer Creative portrays the balance between liberation and limitation as a group of athletes come together to help a skiing comrade gain reconciliation with the Alaska peak where a 2009 accident ended his professional guiding career.
- Afterglow from Sweetgrass Productions is a revolutionary and visually spectacular film that brings a whole new light to skiing in the dark.
- 95 to Infinity by Doglotion Media follows brothers Andy and Mike Traslin as they keep the torch lit for 95 months of winter turns.
- IRS Traverse by filmmaker Luc Mehl is a fun and quirky adventure through the Alaska Wilderness
- Sundog from SturgeFilms captures the dog days of skiing in Patagonia.
- Higher continues the journey of athlete Jeremy Jones as he reaches new heights. From Teton Gravity Research.
Advance ticket purchase is recommended. For more information on the Backcountry Film Festival please visit www.theconservationcenter.org or “like” Western Slope Conservation Center on Facebook.Categories:
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