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VIMFF 2021

Films

VIMFF 2021 Online featured 50+ films, 3 interactive workshops hosted with top experts in their field, 3 engaging panel discussions about climbing, snowsports, the environment, mountain culture and adventure and more!

The VIMFF 2021 has ended.

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This film is a heartful story from the perspective of a father, who's 10-year-old son lived an adventure filled life but passed away in 2019. In 24 Leeches, he narrates a family canoe adventure to the Slate Islands of Ontario, Canada and reflects on camping, the changing climate of our Earth, and especially his beloved Lake Superior.

This short film showcases the beautiful wild landscapes of the South Chilcotin Mountains, and celebrates the old trails that draw mountain bikers here year after year.

The idea is simple. A small hut in our home mountains. A room, an oven, three friends. These self-catering huts are well known by hikers in the summer and can be found all over the alps. In the winter, only a few people use them even though the big cities of Munich and Innsbruck are close by. This is the story of what we found just a few steps from home.

Exploring women's longstanding involvement in rock climbing in the UK with the aim to rebalance the narrative.
Follow Will Steger’s lifetime journey in, After Antarctica, to eyewitness the greatest changes in the polar regions.
Arves-En-Ciel tells the story of Camille and Antoine, two French highliners and alpinists.

Bandit Hill is a whimsical adventure through an enchanted forest filled with woodland creatures ready to play! Mountain biker and artist Jill Kintner brings her character drawings to life as they race down Bandit Hill to outrun an onslaught of angry clouds and terribly-behaving weather.

Beyond the Break is a documentary about Sam Danniels, a multi-sport professional athlete in three para-skiing disciplines, as well as cycling, snowmobiling and paragliding. Sam refuses to let his life-changing spinal cord injury become a barrier to the many outdoor sports that he loves. His story is one of tenacity, ingenuity and a refusal to accept limitations.

Born From Junk traces the outlaw roots of mountain biking back to its raw beginnings in Crested Butte Colorado. In this small mountain community, a crew of unlikely pioneers pursue wild times while exploring local trails which sets in motion a new global phenomenon.

This film tells the story about Sarah Hornby, who while mourning her late husband, craved an opportunity to connect with him through his biggest passion. In a single year, she would attempt all of the 10 routes he created while researching his Bikepacking in the Canadian Rockies guidebook. From sadness and loss to a profound celebration of both his life and her own unique journey, she chose to live.

Ultra-running evokes notions of insanity, dedication, and the pursuit of mind over body. Accomplished trail runner Patrick Vaughan shares his heartfelt story of healing and redemption while pursuing the record for completing the 470-kilometre Lebanon Mountain Trail, traversing from Syria to the Israeli border.
A lifelong angler, Autumn Harry, had never fished beyond the waters of her reservation — until she picked up a fly rod.

VIMFF 2021 BEST CANADIAN FILM

Crux follows Harvey, a recovering addict who uses rock climbing to work through his ongoing struggle with mental health.

Five years after breaking his back in a snowboarding accident and being left paralyzed from the waist down, Trevor Kennison returns to the backcountry to face a new set of challenges. This first day out helps Trevor to redefine his perspective on the limitations of his injury, and what he's truly capable of.
Let's cultivate our garden. This is where Julien "Pica" Herry takes us. Born in Chamonix Mont-Blanc, Pica developed his style and technique in this mountain town. As a discreet performer, he practices mountaineering and snowboarding as few have done before him. He's a high mountain guide and a lover of powder, with a specialty in steep slopes.

This film tells the story of Jenny Graham's record-breaking ride around the planet to become not only the first woman to complete the circumnavigation unsupported, but it's also the fastest. Jenny makes her way into the Guinness World Records and shaves 20 days off the previous record.

A film by Matt Hollis, it features Estelle Balet, the two time world champion snowboard freerider. Estelle was making this film when she was tragically caught in an avalanche at the age of 21. Featuring many of the world's foremost freeriders, Exploring the Known is a unique insight into what it takes to become a world champion.

What would you do if your physical environment began falling apart before your eyes? The last three years have been the warmest on record in the European Alps where glaciers are receding at an alarming rate and mountains are crumbling. Can alpine communities adapt economies and livelihoods fast enough to keep pace with this rapid change?

Fly The Roof is the story of four young Kiwis stepping outside of their comfort zones in a foreign continent to help those in need. The team of Harry, Ryan, Chris and Guido began a project that would allow them to learn how to paraglide, climb to the roof of Africa (Mt. Kilimanjaro) and attempt to fly from the summit of the world’s tallest freestanding mountain in September 2019.

VIMFF 2021 BEST CLIMBING FILM

When a young climber infatuated with climbing history meets an old legend, he commits to helping him accomplish his lifelong goal of free climbing El Capitan.

VIMFF 2021 GRAND PRIZE

In the Darhat valley in northern Mongolia, the horses of nomadic tribes are disappearing. Bandits steal horses from their owners, and sell them for a few rubles in Russian slaughterhouses. But Shukhert, a vigilante Darhat horseman, pursues them relentlessly, all the way to the edge of Mongolian taiga, on the border with Siberia.

I Am North follows alpinist, Caro North, to the icy heights of Switzerland where she feels most at home.

In the Footsteps of our Ancestors is an award-winning documentary that follows the journey of 11 brave hikers during a 37-mile traverse of the Canol Heritage Trail as part of the 2017 Canol Youth Leadership Hike.

VIMFF 2021 BEST MOUNTAIN CULTURE FILM

High in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia, 78 year old Irakli Khvedaguridze has spent the last 25 winters living alone as the last inhabitant of Europe's highest village.

Hoomayun, a young Iranian school teacher, sets off on a journey to accompany a group of Bakhtyari nomads as they migrate with their flock across the Zagros mountain range in search of greener pastures. At the end of every walking day, he gathers the children and teaches the class. Hoomayun is committed to providing the best education possible to his students, most of whom want to settle in the city.

Tasmanian climbers Liz Oh and Rosie Hohnen are persuaded by filmmaker Olivia Page and a local kiwi stoat trapper, Ana Richards, to hike off-track deep into remote Fiordland, in New Zealand, to search for a sabre-like peak. They surrender themselves to Ana's confidence in navigating them through terrain few have crossed, and in parts never traversed at all.

The first Swiss climber to complete a 9A route (Cabane au Canada / August 2018), Katherine Choong, decides to repeat this performance in the Bernese Alps, with "Jungfrau Marathon", a route also rated in 9A but with a radically different style.

This film shares the story of the most biodiverse ecosystem ever documented by science. In a true David vs. Goliath story, we join Goldman Environmental Award winner, Rudi Putra and his team of park rangers to learn what it takes to protect their home. The Leuser Ecosystem, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, is facing the looming threat of the expansion of large scale illegal palm oil.

VIMFF 2021 SPECIAL MENTION

Lost At Sea is an epic tale of the sea, told through one young man's personal journey to understand his father, who died while rowing the Pacific.

Modern-day snowboarding began in Michigan when Sherman Poppin fastened two of his daughter’s skis together and stood sideways on his backyard hill in Muskegon. Since then, snowboarding has taken the world stage by storm with triple cork rotations, board technology has entered the 21st century, and families everywhere are starting their kids out on snowboards instead of skis.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

In North-Western Greenland, because of climate change, good sea ice has been vanishing for several years. The Upernavik Archipelago is located on this exact border between water and ice. What’s this border like? What’s it like to live there?
Before exit restrictions and bans on contacts dominated the news in March 2020, the Mountain Tribe Crew embarked on a ski touring adventure in the Ötztal Alps. The crew used an old customs hut on the Timmelsjoch High Alpine road for accommodation, which is closed in the winter. As the pandemic worsened, the initial euphoric mood faded and an inner tension spread amongst the freeriders.
They climbed Mount Logan and they rode the East ridge. Mount Logan is the highest peak in Canada and the second highest peak in North America. To reach the summit, Helias Millerioux, Alexandre Marchesseau, Thomas Delfino had a long journey. They started from the ocean to finish at the ocean, climbing Mount Logan self-supported.

In the short film, The Mystery of Now, artist and Apache Skateboards founder, Douglas Miles shares his personal story, as well as the socio-political context around the history that lead to life on the San Carlos Apache reservation. His advice on cultivating resilience, creativity, and joy, provides guidance in a time that for many feels uncertain, polarizing and divisive in our living rooms and around our dinner tables.

Soon after the tragic death of his wife and youngest daughter, Sir Edmund Hillary embarks on his greatest adventure - a journey by jet boat and foot along the entire length of India's sacred river Ganges. It will either cost him his life or bring him back to life.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

A mysterious character engages a combination of street artists and mountain alpinists for an unthinkable project located in the Oberland summits of Switzerland. Maja and Sebastian, talented Bernese acrobats, ponder whether to embark on this extraordinary vertical odyssey.
Three women from the north to the south of Quebec embark on a multisport expedition following the Koroc river in Nunavik. Travelling together against adversity, this journey soon becomes one of self-discovery for each participant.
Shaped by Descent follows professional skier, Lexi DuPont, over the course of ten years in Haines, Alaska. Through the film, we watch Lexi overcome the trials and tribulations that come with skiing in Alaska for ten consecutive years as she evolves into one of the best female big mountain skiers on the planet.
Driven by powerful movements, stunning locations and hair-raising exposure, Silks takes the art of an aerial silk performance and showcases it in a way never seen before, combining rock climbing, repelling, and canyoning with the performance art of aerial silks.
In this short film, four female highliners share the art and sport of highlining and the wisdom each have gained from the line.

Wingsuit base jumping is often presented as a thrill-seeking adrenaline rush. This film takes us deeper into the more contemplative aspects of jumping, as David Walden and friends venture into the mountains around his home in New Zealand, capturing beautiful scenery and hypnotic cinematography.

Leaping beyond gender and brand, Superbloom envisions our shared technicolor experience in the outdoors. This is where buds grow.
Ten Thousand Bolts is a short film about Toni Arbones, a professional rock climber and route bolter who for 30+ years single-handedly turned Siurana, Spain into one of the most popular rock climbing areas in all of Europe.

VIMFF 2021 BEST SHORT FILM

A well-off mountaineer’s hobby is reaching the summits of the highest mountains. He has one last goal to accomplish in order to complete this special collection: that impossible summit, the one he is determined to climb, whatever it takes. A woman bored of waiting for her husband to return from his excitement-packed mountain escapades has decided to seek some adventure of her own and attempt a more modest ascent.

If we’re lucky, there are things we do with our families, year after year. Time runs on, we pass the milestones of life, but these family rituals maintain the illusion that some things never change. But the thing about illusions is, when you do see through them, it happens in a flash. The Long Today is a story about a family celebrating a father's 70th birthday by taking a trip in a repaired wooden canoe down the Wathaman river in northern Saskatchewan.

For almost 30 years, Ken Whiting's life has been guided by the paddle in his hands. Now, his passion for whitewater has come full circle, as he and his 9-year old daughter run the river and challenge the whitewater for the first time in separate kayaks.
There is something astonishing happening in the city of Vancouver. Largely unnoticed amidst vehicle traffic, industrial sites and construction, wild salmon are returning to their ancient spawning grounds. Filmed with a quiet, observing lens over many years, this film takes us into hidden enclaves of wilderness within the city, where tiny salmon smolts shimmer beneath the water's surface. Their future is now in our hands.
This documentary depicts the bittersweet lives of two grannies living isolated on the hills of Eastern Bosnia. Nature is the entity with which these grannies speak, listen to, and respect. The film emphasizes the intangible cultural heritage, through the presentation of chants and rituals for taming the adverse weather, hail, and storms. It reflects the simplicity and purity of their way of life, as well as their painstaking work.

Jackson Goldstone shot to stardom in 2010 when a homemade video of him riding, jumping, dropping and spinning his balance bike on the way to kindergarten went viral. Since then, Jackson has risen to the top tiers of the sport, already demonstrating a signature style in mountain bike films and competing on the international stage.

To Every Step I Have Taken is a poetic tribute to the long hours spent walking on the trails. Backpacking through the beautiful landscapes around Mount Assiniboine, BC, is a pleasure for the eyes and this time spent moving forward, is an invite to a journey within - a journey of the mind. This film retraces this journey and why the feeling of hiking for long hours is unique.

This fun film tells the unique stories about five dogs that were rescued from shelters and adopted by owners in North Vancouver. Filmed from the perspective of the dogs, their mountain bike owners take them for some classic North Shore trail rides.

Venture Out is a story of overcoming odds, the power of resilience, and ultimately, the ever-lasting effects of LGBTQ community building. The Venture Out Project, founded by Perry Cohen, is a non-profit organization that brings LGBTQ folks together outdoors on wilderness trips.

VIMFF 2021 BEST ADVENTURE FILM

A Sherpa family breaks a taboo and climbs the most holy of mountains to earn money for their son’s education. They accompany a Western expedition on the east wall of the Khumbakarna Mountain, a wall that has never been climbed before. The Wall of Shadows tells the story of an encounter between a young Sherpa boy and an experienced Western mountaineer at the foot of the sacred mountain. Will they face the wrath of mountain Gods?

Water Flows Together elevates the importance of acknowledging Indigenous land in outdoor recreation through the voice of Colleen Cooley, one of the few female Diné (Navajo) river guides on the San Juan River. In sharing Colleen's perspective, we are given a glimpse into native views on issues of water resource management, which are often missing from larger discussions of western water challenges.
The remote Mustang region of Nepal is on the front line of our planet’s changing climate with glacial water shortages forcing the Gurung family and neighbours from their homes. Charting a course for future generations, the Gurung family splits ways. The film is an intimate portrait documenting this family’s efforts to find balance in a changing world.
Will Power follows Red Bull Athlete, Will Gadd, as he travels to the Taihang Mountains of China in the hopes of finding new ice climbing routes.
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