January 22, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@sa.ucsb.edu
Best of the 26th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival—two nights of adventure screen at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Best of the 26th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival
- Two programs of the world’s best mountain and outdoor adventure films
- Enduring favorite sells out yearly
- Entirely different programs screen each evening
- Monday & Tuesday, February 25 & 26
- 7:30 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public $12, UCSB students & youths 16 and under $8
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Always inspiring and captivating, the Best of the 26th Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival will screen on Monday & Tuesday, February 25 & 26 at 7:30 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. UCSB Arts & Lectures will screen a completely different program of films each night. The show’s wide variety of film subjects—from extreme sports to mountain culture and the environment—will amaze and thrill audiences. Tour highlights include Berserk in the Antarctic, which chronicles a challenge-filled journey to Antarctica by a 19-year-old Norwegian who captains an ailing 27-foot sailboat accompanied by two non-sailor “hitchhikers,” and Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2, which documents the lives of Fritz Wiessener and Charles Houston and their death-defying climb of the world’s second highest mountain.
For the past 26 years, The Banff Mountain Film Festival has been celebrating the spirit of adventure and the mountain environment. Each November, the world’s best films on mountain themes draw an international audience to Banff, Canada. For the past 15 years, immediately following the festival, selected films hit the road in a “Best of” touring package. This year the Festival screened 250 entries from 27 countries to discover the gems that are part of the tour.
A different program will screen each evening. The films for Monday, February 25 are:
- Base Heads—Base jumpers go for massive air on Baffin Island
- Desert Friction—Sport climbing on a 500-meter high granite slab in Namibia
- Carrying the Burden—Inside look at the porters who assist trekkers in Nepal
- Mind the Addiction—Enter the minds of the world’s greatest athletes pushing the limits
- Unizaba—Kris Holm unicycles down Mexico’s treacherous El Pico de Orizaba
- Lo domanderò alla montagna—Poetic short about Italian mountain guide Bruno Detassis
- Berserk in the Antarctic—Three young men, a tiny sailboat, the vast, unforgiving Antarctic seas
The films for Tuesday, February 26 are:
- Kjerag—Musical quickie about snowboarding in Norway
- Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2—Documentary about Fritz Wiessener and Charles Huston, pioneer climbers of K2
- Timeless—Features Dominique Perret, voted Best Freeride Skier of the Century
- Orange Unplugged—White-water kayaking in one of Africa’s steepest gorges
- Gelada Baboons—The Battle of Braveheart—A rare peek into the lives of these high-altitude primates of Ethiopia
- The Last Ascent—A portrait of world-class climber Alex Lowe, who was tragically killed in an avalanche in 1999
This event is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The tour of the Banff Mountain Film Festival is presented by Eagle Creek Travel Gear and the National Geographic Society and sponsored by Patagonia, Polartec, Air Canada, Dunham Bootmakers and Chevy Avalanche with assistance from Lake Louise Ski Area, Wenger North America and PETZL.
Tickets, $12 for the general public and $8 for UCSB students and youths 16 and under, are available at the Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and will be sold at the door the night of the films, beginning at 6:30 pm, if available.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.