FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Banff Films Show Life in the Outdoors
By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
A movie still from the Banff Film Festival selection “Unreal.” ( Photo by TGR and Anthill Films)
The Banff Mountain Film Festival returns to Sitka next weekend with an array of films that may ask you to think, laugh or just enjoy such spectacles as riding a kayak over Niagara Falls.
The festival films deal with the great outdoors, and subjects range from the hilarious to the inspiring and touching on the variety of ways humans interact with nature.
For the touring Festival, local committees select films from dozens entered annually in the namesake event in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The Festival program starts at 7 p.m. next Friday, Feb. 12, at the Sitka Performing Arts Center.
Kari Sagel, who is in her fourth year as a member of the local film selection committee, said she enjoys watching people’s enthusiasm for what they enjoy, even if it’s often experiences she’d never consider.
“Being not a mountaineer, I probably go into it with a different perspective,” Sagel said. “So I’m just a spectator to some of the amazing things that are happening in all these films.”
She said she likes watching people explain their passions, and pointed to a recent program presented by two Sitka adventurers, Dan Evans and Eric Speck, about their trek the long way across Baranof Island.
“There are incredible people in this town and in the world,” Sagel said. “I went to that presentation by Dan Evans and Eric Speck and through the whole thing I was thinking ‘this is Banff worthy.’ There’s just so many people doing so many interesting things.”
The Banff Festival is put on by the Hames Center, and benefits Hames Wellness Fund partnerships with SAFV, Big Brothers Big Sisters, SAIL and Sitka Counseling.
Dan Gunn, the member services director at Hames and a film selection committee member, said it’s the sports that require good health insurance that he likes to see in films.
“I was more drawn towards the big action sports,” Gunn said. “The high-flying biking, the steep powder runs on big mountains, more the adrenaline line.”
The half dozen members of the committee represent different passions and interests. The goal, Gunn said, is to hit a cross-section of films that will speak to everyone.
“We wanted to make sure there was a balance of male and female athletes because there have been limited women in the past,” Gunn said. “There are just not as many movies focusing on women in the options we have so we wanted to choose films featuring strong women and also covering the wide array of sports. We don’t want to have 20 climbing films for people who don’t climb.”
One of the films on the Friday program, “Pretty Faces,” follows an all-woman ski group. Specifically, it tracks a skier looking to ski in the back country of Alaska for the first time, advocating for the next generation of women skiers. The visuals are in line with Gunn’s preference for big mountain winter sports, but he notes that the list is varied.
While the selection is still subject to change, the tentative list includes:
– “The Last Dragons,” a film about conservation efforts to protect an ancient salamander animal called the Eastern Hellbender.
– “Operation Moffat,” which details the life of Gwen Moffat, Britain’s first female mountain guide. The filmmaker and a writer retrace her routes and describe her climbing adventures.
– “Curiosity” tracks a group of ultra marathon runners as they prepare for a 103-mile race in the Alps across the borders of Italy, France and Switzerland.
– “Denali” plays with narrative to examine the relationship between a man and his dog.
– “Sounds of Paragliding” is a French film that plays to audiophiles with its extra emphasis on sound.
– “unReal” shows mountain bikers dealing with everything from glacial walls to herds of horses.
The Banff Film Festival itself is in its 40th year, and in recent years has branched into a traveling show that makes its films available to audiences across the United States as well as other countries.
One of Gunn’s preferred films from this year’s lineup is “The Important Places,” which blends two stories and two different film types.
“It talks about someone who made this film who moved to New York City but grew up near the wilderness,” he said. “And his father paddled the Colorado River and that was the big story of his childhood, was his father going down and doing this, and they had old footage of it. And now, years later, he went back to take his father back down the river and it ends with touching on how to save the river to keep that story going.”
The film includes the original 16 mm footage from the first trip spliced into film of the latest adventure, connecting the environmental concerns over the Colorado River with the connection between father and son. Sagel said those are the threads she looks for when choosing among the Banff selections.
“In the past, I’ve appreciated the films that blend human interest with a little bit of an environmental consciousness,” Sagel said.
Gunn said the film selection process went through multiple rounds before the list was settled, and he thinks the result is the balance they were looking for.
“I don’t think there’s a single person who can walk out having not enjoyed at least one of the films immensely,” Gunn said.
Tickets are available at Old Harbor Books and at the Hames Center. Adult tickets are $15, student and senior tickets $10. The show starts at 7 p.m. Friday at the Performing Arts Center.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....