Festival Highlights

Today is the last day of the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival and I wanted to share some of my highlights. There have been over 60 films over the last 5 days and there have been some great films. The only criteria for consideration is that the film has to deal in some way with outdoors – so there have been movies about climbing, skiing, surfing, mountain biking, paragliding, environmental issues and epic journeys. Most films fall into two distinct categories – they are either thinkers or stokers. Thinkers cause one to take pause and look at our world a little closer, bringing up outdoor issues that perhaps have been overlooked. Stokers are all about getting you psyched to get climbing, skiing, surfing or biking. Fast paced action by the best athletes in the world. This year there were awesome examples in both camps – here are my picks:

Thinkers:
Sharkwater – as a surfer I’ve always been a little afraid of sharks – not anymore. This fascinating film is all about the misunderstood animal that is at the heart of most of our ocean fears. This year toppling Coke machines will kill more people then sharks. What’s more, sharks are being wiped out for their fins. Shark fin soup is a delicacy in Asia and they are killing thousands of sharks every day. This film was so powerful that within hours of its showing at the festival, there was a petition going around to urge the New Zealand government to ban shark fining.



Saving Luna – what happens when an animal decided that it wants to be friends with humans? Do we ignore it for its own sake? Or do we take the amazing opportunity to connect with another species. Forget what you think you know about whales, what you think is best for animals and witness the complexities of walking the walk.



Solo – In 2007 Andrew McAuley planned a kayak trip like no other. His plan was to paddle from Australia to New Zealand through the treacherous Southern Ocean. This 1600km stretch of ocean is some of the most unforgiving stretch of water in the world – howling gales, 10m waves and unrelenting wind. This film is more then a story of adventure, this is the story of the effect of adventure. What is the consequence when everything goes desperately wrong… really chilling stuff this one. I left the theater shattered.



Stokers:
The Sharp End – this awesome climbing flick is all about the best in the world pushing the limits in the boldest of style. Amazing free solos, base soloing (that’s free soloing with a parachute on your back!), sketchy leads on scary gear and heaps more. The footage is awesome and the climbing is way ahead of its time.



Grit Kids – two teenage siblings from the UK who don’t just go climbing, they climb ‘death routes’ – these are incredibly hard and extremely dangerous climbs where a fall could mean death. When I was 17 I was just trying to climb 5.10 – these kids are climbing 5.13c R X… inspirational and scary….



Hope you enjoyed the mini festival – try and track down these full length movies, they’re well worth it.