Banff Film Festival

Two people climbing a cliff

Banff Film Festival

Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival

April 30 and May 1, 2024 | 7:00 p.m. | McDonald Theater (1010 Willamette Street, Eugene)

Ticket costs: UO students $18 pre-sale, $20 at the door; community members $20 pre-sale, $22 at the door.

Tickets go on sale first day of spring term—Monday, April 1—at local sponsors (Eugene Gear Traders, REI, and Backcountry Gear).

Tickets are also available online from the McDonald Theatre, beginning April 1:
Purchase tickets for Tuesday, April 30  |  Purchase tickets for Wednesday, May 1 
(fees apply when buying online)

Doors open at 6:00 p.m., show starts at 7:00 p.m.

Film Program Descriptions

paragliders on an alpine road
Kayer in shallow, swift water

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Tuesday, April 30: “Fireweed” Playlist

No Way

2023, France, 4 minutes
Filmmakers: Jean-Baptiste Chandelier, Marine Pascal, EURL JB Chandelier
Advisory: Coarse language
Jean-Baptiste Chandelier takes his unique low-flying, ground-skimming art combining paragliding and filmmaking to a whole new level.

The Ascension Series: Morag Skelton

2023, United Kingdom, 5 minutes
Filmmakers: Matt Pycroft, Matt Harmer, Harriet Sykes, Coldhouse Collective
Advisory: None
Morag Skelton doesn’t let anything stand in the way of her love of nature. As a deaf climber, she is constantly pushing the limits of what is possible on the mountainside.

School of Fish (Best Short Film)

2022, USA, 19 minutes
Filmmakers: Colin Arisman, Oliver Sutro, Wild Confluence Media, Orvis
Advisory: None
Indigenous people and salmon have been intertwined for thousands of years in Bristol Bay, Alaska. For the last century, corporations have sought to extract the wealth of this rich region and now Pebble Mine threatens to pollute its pristine headwaters. Can the next generation step up to defend the most prolific salmon run left on earth?

Chronoception (Tour Edit)

2023, France, 41 minutes
Filmmakers: Guillaume Broust, Picture Organic Clothing
Advisory: None
Thomas Delfino, Léa Klaue, and Aurélien Lardy, embark on an ambitious expedition in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan to ski the Kokshaal-Too range. This skilled team, accompanied by renowned guides Hélias Millerioux and Jean-Yves Fredriksen, finds themselves propelled into a space where time seems to have suddenly come to a halt.

To Be Frank

2023, USA, 12 minutes
Filmmakers: Anna Wilder Burns, Morgan Sliff
Advisory: None
Frank Paine is a 73-year-old South Bay icon and humble local legend whose life orbits around a two-block stretch of beach. His unforgettable mustache is what most first notice, but his magnetic spirit and unwavering passion are what keeps the Hermosa Beach surf community connected and whole.

Going Greenland

2023, USA, 23 minutes
Filmmakers: Erich Roepke, Jessica Baker, Rachael Burks, Going Greenland Production
Advisory: Coarse language
What happens when you combine a renewable energy sailboat with an arctic ski expedition in Greenland for the first time ever? Athletes Rachael Burks and Jessica Baker put the idea to test, and endure a both harrowing and inspiring journey along Greenland’s West coast fjords and towering mountains.

Well Worn Life with Dani Reyes-Acosta

2022, USA, 6 minutes
Filmmakers: Daniel Mitchell, Kelsey Ferguson, BLK ELK Media
Advisory: Coarse language
Meet Dani Reyes-Acosta: a mountain athlete, land cultivator, and storyteller whose path consistently seeks the limits of her possibility.

Reel Rock: DNA

2023, USA, 23 minutes
Filmmakers: Josh Lowell, Zachary Barr, Reel Rock
Advisory: Coarse Language
French sport climber Seb Bouin has been quietly working his way through elite grades, culminating in his attempt to establish a long pitch through an overhanging cave in the Verdon Gorge of France — possibly the most difficult route in the world!

Wednesday, May 1: “Paintbrush” Playlist

Desert Wings

2023, USA, 4 minutes
Filmmakers: Nathan McBride, NVisualMedia
Advisory: Coarse language
Paramotoring is a niche, largely undocumented, and little-known flying sport. This piece brings it to light in a rightfully epic way. Shot over six days, with multiple paramotor pilots, Desert Wings highlights some of the most dramatic desert landscapes in the American Southwest.

Soundscape (Creative Excellence Award)

2023, USA, 14 minutes
Filmmakers: Timmy O’Neill, Sarah Lee Steele, Well Travelled Collective
Advisory: None
Soundscape features Erik Weihenmayer, a global adventure athlete and author who is fully blind, as he ascends a massive alpine rock face deep in the Sierra Nevada.

The Blackcountry Journal (Best Film: Snow Sports)

2023, USA, 10 minutes
Filmmakers: Mallory Duncan, Patrick Elmore, Uhuru Mountain Collective
Advisory: None
A skier contemplates his connection to skiing and the mountains. As he hurries through the streets of Los Angeles, his path takes a turn after bumping into a jazz musician who helps him discover the correlation between jazz and skiing — an expression of art, skiing, and black culture.

Georgia Astle: Flip the Switch

2023, Canada, 3 minutes
Filmmakers: Scott Secco, Scott Secco Films
Advisory: None
Watch Georgia Astle explore some of British Columbia’s most striking landscapes, on a search for terrain to push her riding, inspired by a rising tide of female freeriders around the world.

Canada Vertical (Tour Edit)

2023, Canada, 35 minutes
Filmmaker: Laurent Poliquin, Nicolas Roulx
Advisory: Coarse language
Follow a team of highly motivated Quebeckers on one of the longest wilderness expeditions ever documented. Stage one involves skiing in relentless polar conditions from Ellesmere Island to the Northwest Passage. Cue canoes for a 2,000-kilometer journey across Nunavut and North West Territories until they get on bikes and pedal 4,000 kilometers to Point Pelee in Ontario.

Leo & Chester (Best Film: Mountain Culture)

2022, Canada, 8 minutes
Filmmaker: Andrea Wing, Aline Mayerhoffer, MMGY Origin
Advisory: None
Leo, a sought-after rock star with a promising career, turns his back on the industry to pursue a life on the land with a herd of buffalo.

Earthside

2023, USA, 33 minutes
Filmmaker: Kaki Orr, Rob Wassmer, Aidan Haley, Christina Lustenberger, The North Face
Advisory: Coarse language
In 2022, Hilaree Nelson, Emily Harrington, Christina Lustenberger, and Brette Harrington embarked on an expedition above the Arctic circle. What they found was a celebration of where they’ve been and of where they’re going — and the trip’s success was contingent not on what they skied but the time they had together.

Near the River

2023, USA, 11 minutes
Filmmakers: Darby McAdams, Ashley Peel, Rush Sturges, McAdams Films
Advisory: None
In the tourism town of Livingstone, Zambia, a group of local men who make their living portering kayaks aspire to become safety kayakers on the Zambezi River. The proposed Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Scheme threatens to flood the famous rapids of the Zambezi and eliminate river-related jobs.

El Gavilán

2022, USA, 20 minutes
Filmmakers: Bronwyn Hodgins, Savannah Cummins, Savy Media
Advisory: None
Rising out of the arid Mexican desert lies a 900-foot ship’s prow of elegant limestone sporting a 9-pitch 5.13 established in the 1990s by Jeff Jackson. Shrouded in mysticism, the bolts rusted and the holds collecting dust until a couple of young gals from Canada decided to give it a try.