Adrenalin-pumping nature film festival Saturday benefits Waitsfield Children's Center
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"Play Gravity" is one of a three-hour selection of outstanding short films being screened Saturday at Harwood Union High School in Duxbury. Courtesy Telluride Mountainfilm Festival |
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By Mary Gow Arts Correspondent - Published: November 14, 2008
"We don't fight gravity; we play with it."
Mathias Roten and Ueli Kestenholz don't just paraglide and ski from precipitous heights, they speed-fly – ski with parachutes. Graceful and breathtaking, they swoop through three dimensions. Their aerial and mountainside antics are documented in the awe-inspiring film, "Play Gravity."
Speed-flying in Alaska, kayaking the Pandi River in Papua New Guinea, and catching the season's first run on Mount Mansfield are coming to the screen of the Harwood Union High School Auditorium on Saturday, Nov. 15. Adrenalin-rushing antics and athletic enthusiasm are on the program, but the evening also offers thought-provoking, visually stunning, and hopeful films. Elephant family dynamics, humanitarian heroes, and a seal-conservation success story are subjects of some of the nine films that will be screened.
The Telluride Mountainfilm Festival is returning to the Mad River Valley for its eighth consecutive year. With a selection of outstanding short films from its parent Colorado-based festival, the three-hour program showcases adventures from around the globe, glimpses of other cultures, and portraits of remarkable people. Beginning at 7 p.m., the event is presented by Waitsfield Children's Center.
Thirty-one years ago, in Colorado, a group of outdoor and film enthusiasts inaugurated Mountainfilm in Telluride, a festival of climbing and mountain-related films. From its debut with about a dozen screenings, the festival took off, attracting sponsors including National Geographic, and drawing world-famous guests – Sir Edmund Hillary and Yvon Chouinard among them.
Now an internationally renowned four-day event with scores of films and thousands of fans, Mountainfilm in Telluride still honors its high-altitude roots. Rock-climbing, extreme skiing and other mountain adventures are still well represented. Mountainfilm has also built a reputation for its social, cultural and environmental offerings. The festival is now dedicated to educating and inspiring audiences on issues, cultures and environments. (A "green" festival, it has reduced its carbon emissions by 100 percent using alternative fuels and off-setting credits.)
As Mountainfilm was taking its first steps in the Rocky Mountains, 2,000 miles away in the Green Mountains, the first class of at the Waitsfield Children's Center was taking its own. This not-for-profit preschool, local host of the festival, was founded three decades ago. Accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the center currently enrolls about 30 children from 15 months to 5 years old.
"As a nonprofit, we rely heavily on fundraising," said Emily von Trapp, director of the Waitsfield Children's Center, about forces that brought the festival and preschool together eight years ago. Mountainfilm started taking a selection of films from the international event on the road as a touring festival in 2000. A film-savvy Warren parent heard about the tour and suggested that the Children's Center host it.
"He thought it looked like a great opportunity," von Trapp said, "a way to bring something wonderful to the Valley and to give people the opportunity to give back by supporting the Children's Center."
About three hours of films will be screened at the local Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. Daiva Chesonis from Telluride will introduce films, weaving a narrative through the evening.
"We try to create a diverse palette," said von Trapp, about choosing the films for Saturday's event. Along with the directors of the Children's Center she selects the films from the festival's extensive list, choosing those that she thinks will be especially appealing to the area audience.
"We look for films from the four areas of the festival — environment, adventure, activism and culture," von Trapp said. "We have a lot of ski enthusiasts, so we always include some action films."
She noted that "there is a misconception among some that the film festival is solely about skiing and action and adventure. We definitely have those, but we have much more, too."
Among the festival's shortest films is "End of the Affair." In only three minutes it gives a delightful look at a relationship between a climber and a rock.
"Sponsor Me, Jake," just five minutes long, has some added local appeal. In this "mocumentary," Justin Woods, armed with his rock skis, gets out for the first snow of the season on Mount Mansfield — all 0.3 inches of it.
In "Beyond the Call," three middle-aged men travel the world delivering life-saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians. Through their volunteer work they travel through some of the most dangerous, yet beautiful, places on earth and to the front lines of war.
With its adrenalin-pumping action, the para-sailing, speed-flying, extreme skiing "Play Gravity" is thrilling and spectacular. In the end it also honors the life and memory of one of its free-spirited stars. Mathias Roten was killed in an accident earlier this year while test-flying a new glider.
Diverse, exciting and entertaining, the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival packs a lot into three hours.
"Through the festival we get to take everybody on a journey outside of our little valley," said von Trapp.