On the evening of Friday, Feb. 21, Professor of Environmental Studies Jamie Skillen welcomed a packed CFAC auditorium to the 15th showing of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour at Calvin.
The tour, which began in 1986, was originally devised as a way to bring the “efforts and talents of the world’s finest mountain filmmakers [to] a larger audience,” according to the Festival’s website. According to Skillen, the Festival has made an appearance at Calvin every year since 2010, except for the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 school year. Net revenue from the Festival goes to the Outdoor Recreation department, enabling them to purchase necessary equipment for their frequent trips.
Skillen, who was a primary driver behind the Festival’s presence at Calvin, believes that the Festival’s presence at Calvin helps inspire students to interact with the outdoors. Skillen said that “we work in the classroom to provide information, to help shape students … but we also try to inspire them to think about God’s creation as much larger and much broader than their own career paths … so it’s important to have thinks like the Banff films that are extracurricular, but you’re learning a lot.”
This year’s selection was no different. A wide array of films drew appreciative whoops and hollers, gasps of amazement and frequent laughs — but also posed questions to the audience, which Skillen says is no accident. He wants the films to spark wonder in God’s creation, but also to “[leave] people with a set of questions about what it means to use God’s creation.”
Highlights included the opening film, “The Streif,” which featured cyclist Fabio Wibmer taking a mountain bike down the slopes of the famed Austrian ski race the film is named for — much to the surprise of the event organizers. As Wibmer flies down the slope, he rides past staff giving interviews and preparing for the race, who (apparently) have no idea what he is doing. The timing of the film drew frequent laughs from the audience, interspersed between cinematic shots of the outdoor cinematography the Festival is so well-known for.
Several films focused on family, including the fourth film of the night, “Keep It Burning.” The 30-minute short film documented Spanish climber Edu Marín’s attempt to free-climb a particularly difficult route on the Nameless Tower, a 20,000-foot tall “big wall” in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan. What was particularly unique about Marín’s attempt, though, was that his team was made up of himself, his brother Alex and his 70-year-old father Novato. The (ultimately successful) attempt took over three weeks, including a 10-day spell where Edu remained on the wall alone through snow and bad weather while his brother and father descended. The film showcased both the rugged beauty of the Karakorams, as well as the touching narrative of a family conquering a particularly difficult peak together.
After an energetic intermission raffle hosted by Skillen and Director of Campus Recreation Ryan Rooks, the films resumed. Of particular note after intermission was “Dolomites (Tour Edit),” a tour-shortened version of a longer documentary film about cyclist Kilian Bron’s attempt to educate and document the Dolomites region of the Alps. Bron opened the film by saying that his goal is to “travel to and film exceptional places,” adding that for this particular trip, he wanted to immerse himself more deeply in one specific region. His selection of the Dolomite mountains, an ancient barrier reef and a primary battlefield between Italy and Austria-Hungary in World War I, was fitting. In between striking shots of Bron’s cycling along steep cliffs and rock faces and up and down mountain trails, there were moments of equally compelling storytelling about the natural and human history of the region — moments which compelled the audience just as much as the adrenaline-rush-inducing cycling.
The final film, “Undammed,” focuses on the Yurok tribe’s work to remove dams along the Klamath river in Oregon and California to restore the natural course of the river — and to enable its native salmon to run once again. It features Yurok lawyer Amy Bowers Cordalis, giving a comprehensive picture of her life and work — both as a proud member of a Native American tribe, and a lawyer fighting for the rights of that tribe. It ended the Festival on a powerful note, showing the success of Cordalis’ and the Yurok’s work to restore the Klamath to its natural course.
For Skillen, the diversity of the films’ focus and the increasing diversity of their participants is incredibly positive and reflects increasing diversity among people interacting with the outdoors. “My research is on federal lands in the West … I spend a lot of time in the parks and national forests and seeing this broadening of who shows up is really cool,” said Skillen. “This isn’t just a space for one type of person to do one type of activity.”
