Films, Panel Discussions & Workshops
The VIMFF 2021 has ended and we want to give a huge thanks to our outdoor community for supporting the festival this past February!
Please sign up to our community newsletter so that we can invite you to take part in our exciting line-up of shows for the remainder of the year. There will be 5 additional monthly virtual shows plus the Fall Series!
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- Adventure
- Biking
- Canadian
- Climbing
- Environmental
- Film Awards
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- Mental Health
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Workshop: 5 Keys to Making Your Dream Film
Sun, Feb 21 I 10am-noon PST I via Zoom.
WORKSHOP
Join Levi Allen from the Adventure Film Academy for this interactive, virtual workshop which will provide guidance and inspiration for making your first adventure film. In this workshop you are going to walk away with a customized roadmap that will provide a clear path to actually filming and finishing a film you can be proud of.
When Glaciers Go
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.
Water Flows Together
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.
Wall of Shadows
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?
To Every Step I Have Taken
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 Is Home
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.
Then Comes the Evening
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.
The Return
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.
Workshop: The Photographers Outdoor Toolbox
Sat, Feb 20 I 10-11:30am PST I via Zoom.
WORKSHOP
Join Arc’teryx Senior Outdoor Photographer, Angela Percival, for a rare peek behind the lens. Angela, just dubbed by National Geographic as one of the 9 female adventure photographers you should know about, will be hosting an engaging online photography workshop that takes you behind the scenes.
The Long Today
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.
The Great Milestone
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.
Spellbound
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.
Shaped by Descent
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.
Panel Discussion: Mental Health in the Mountains
Fri, Feb 19 I 6-7pm PST I via Zoom.
LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION
Mental health is no longer a discussion being held behind closed doors. Join this intimate panel as we discuss personal struggles and the positive effects the great outdoors can have on mental health.
Panel Discussion: Indigenous Identity in the Outdoors
Thurs, Feb 25 I 6-7pm PST I via Zoom.
LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION
Join us for an evening of exploring identity in the outdoors. Sharing Indigenous perspectives and experiences, this panel will dive deeper into how identity can be inseparable from land and how land shapes Indigenous identity.
Panel Discussion: Climate Change in Cold and High Places
Tues, Feb 23 I 6-7pm PST I via Zoom.
LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION
In addition to the four films featured in our Environmental Show, we invite our audience to join us in an engaging panel discussion in which our panelists will share both their research and personal experience as witnesses of climate change. Through their stories from the Arctic and high-mountain regions, we hope to bring you direct human experiences of the impact of climate change that go beyond data and charts.
Out of the Blue
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.
Mystery of Now
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.
Mount Logan
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.
Metanoia
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.
Made in the Mitten
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.
Leuser: The Last Place on Earth
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.
Kakapo Crest
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.
Iran, Teaching Among the Nomads
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.
Horse Tamer
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.
Fly the Roof
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.
Falling Mountains
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?
Exploring the Known
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.
Earn Your Turn
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.
Day 1
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.
Confessions of a Runner
VIMFF 2021 BEST MOUNTAIN SPORTS FILM
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.
Choosing to Live
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.
Beyond the Break
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.
Finding the Story: An Adventure Writing Workshop
Sat, Feb 27 I 10am-noon PST I via Zoom.
WORKSHOP
Join adventurer, author and feature writer, Frank Wolf for a virtual, dynamic & engaging workshop about adventure writing. Sharing twenty years of experience, Frank will provide tips and ideas to help elevate your storytelling to the next level.
A Few Steps From Home
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.
24 Leeches
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.
