Happy Earth Day!

It is a great honour to have just hosted the show in Madison, Wisconsin on this very special day!  Today is Earth Day -- the day in which the world takes note of our wonderful planet, and celebrates the beauty of nature.  Seems like a perfect day to catch a screening of the World Tour, no?  Although I'd bet most of our audience doesn't celebrate Earth Day because they think it should be Earth Day all year round (for the same reason true romantics rarely celebrate Valentine's Day).

Little did I know, the first Earth Day was begun in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.  Coincidentally, he also spearheaded the Congressional hearings on the safety of birth control pills.  The result was that all birth control pills had to include information about possible side effects when distributed -- the first disclosure to ever don a pharmaceutical package!  This forever changed the way drug manufacturers communicated with the public, and was responsible for those long and drawn out list of side effects on every drug commercial.  Great!  You've stopped our nose from running, but now you have to deal with the possible side effects of dry mouth, weight gain, blurred vision, head ache, nausea, abdominal pain and anxiety (and to think, I left out the really disgusting side effects for the faint-hearted).  And while I digress with this little known factoid, it does remind us that we probably shouldn't mess with Mother Nature! Good segue, eh? 

Right, back to Earth Day! I wouldn't dare try to capture all that is earth Day based on my own limited knowledge of the event, so I'm going to let the Earth Day Network tell you a little more about it.

Special thanks to the REI Madison Staff, the crew at the Barrymore Theatre.  It was a sold out show with the audience begging for more!

Interesting Story:  I met a man who recognized me from my earlier Road Warrior days when I used to always do the Minnesota screenings -- the first show immediately following the festival!  I would have 3 days to recover from my formerly-regular role as Festivals Coordinator before I headed to Minnesota.  He told me that when he and his pregnant wife attended the 2005 screening in Minneapolis the topic of conversation that evening was "what the heck are we going to name our new baby girl?" because they couldn't seem to come to an agreement.  The winning moniker was "Cicada" after a Cicada Jeneriks -- the climbing prodigy who at age 10 climbed a V10.  Sic! Cicada was featured in the film "Return2Sender: Bug Out" by multi-award winning Producer Peter Mortimer/Sender Films.  With a name like "Cicada" she will have a lifetime of answering "What a beautiful name!  Where did that come from?".  Hopefully she remembers us when she recalls the tale!  She's only 3 now, so we need to give her some time.

Hearing yet another cool story like this inspired me to start a new Discussion Topic on our Facebook Page: Tell Us You Best Non-Film Banff Story!  Go ahead, share!  You can either join us on FaceBook, email our office, or share your story below - we're not picky (except when it comes to selecting only the finest mountain films).

Charla :)

Warning: This blog post contains coarse language and reader discretion is advised.

Warning: This blog post contains coarse language and reader discretion is advised.

We take great pride in presenting an uncensored format for the world's best mountain films to be showcased.  Keyword: uncensored.  Occasionally we have films that contain coarse language.  We generally don't have films that contain gratuitous coarse language (swearing for the sake of swearing alone).  Usually it's because someone is about to do something (or just did something) extremely dangerous for which the correct emotion is "that is/was f@#king scary" and the audience laughs because they all agree that even watching it from sitting in a comfy theatre seat was scary, let alone actually doing it for real. It's the nature of the beast when you have films such as we do.  You know what I'm talking about! So when it came time to write this next blog entry, I considered not writing it.  But after careful consideration I think it should be shared with all of you.  I hope you get a good laugh (and are not offended in any way). If you are offended, please accept my deepest Authentic Canadian Sorry. Of course, if you are one to be easily offended, that link will probably offend you to.  Again, I'm very sincerely sorry.  No really, I mean it!

So I'm at the show in Nashville, chatting with our two cohosts: Frank, from Blue Ridge Mountain Sports and Andrew, Film Production Teacher at the Montgomery Bell Academy (the venue for our screening).  Andrew shared the following story.  It's easily the funniest story I've ever heard on tour.

Each year, Andrew incorporates some info about Banff and the Film Festival into his Film Studies class to inspire the boys to attend, and also teach them about what to consider when making films for festivals. So, he's telling the boys about Banff, and the Banff Mountain FilmFestival, and that Banff National Park is one of the most beautiful places in Canada (thanks, Andrew). Banff, Banff, Banff! But everytime he says the word "Banff", the young boys burst into fits of laughter. One boy even asks "Really? The Canadians have a Banff National Park?" ... "Yes" Andrew replies, and the boys are still killing themselves laughing. After the class, he asks someone what the heck was so funny. Someone explains to Andrew that BAMF is the new LOL, ROTFL or IMHO in the world of text-messaging -- Bad A$$ M$%her F@#king (or F@#ker, depending on the context). So, the young boys at Montgomery Bell think that Canada is one cool country because we have our very own BAMF Mountain Film Festival, a BAMF Centre, BAMF National Park and a Town of BAMF. 

Banff may have originally been named after the Scottish birthplace of the first Park Superintendant, but that was way back in the late 1800's.  In 2009, perhap it is time to change the way how we spell the town's name because it truly is a really cool place!  And let's face it, most people don't know how to properly pronounce it anyway -- it is spelled a little weird, eh?

I occasionally tell this story at the show, but for those of you who have never attended one of my screenings this seems like a good time to tell this other funny story (this one is G Rated).  Many years ago, our Associate Director of Operations, Leslie Taylor, was wrapping up a very successful interview with a well known publication that shall remain nameless.  At the end of the interview, the author asked "So, what does Banff stand for?" which I'm sure was met with a long pause while Leslie tried to figure out how to answer a seemingly silly question.  But after careful consideration, it really isn't that silly of a question -- the acronym for every other film festival in the world ends in "FF".  The office staff love to have fun, so this revelation turned into a riveting game of email tag in which we all tried to come up with a good Banff acronym.  There were many submissions, but the Grand Prize definitely went to World Tour Manager Jim Baker for "Boys Are Not Frequently Found".  At the time, 12 of the 14 Mountain Festivals staff were women -- including the VP of Mountain Culture and Festivals Director, Bernadette McDonald. In fact, the Men's Washroom was converted into office space (seriously) for the growing team, and ended up being the office for the only other boy in the office at the time: Producer Woody MacPhail.  The President/CEO of The Banff Centre is Mary Hofstetter.  Although the Mountain Festivals have added a few more boys to the ranks since that time, the office is still predominantly women.  Alot of chocolate has passed through the breakroom over the years -- it doesn't survive very long.  There is even the remaining packing of a 6-foot Toblerone bar given to Bernadette McDonald as a gift when she visited Switzerland. The precious cargo was carried on to the plane back to Canada and surely met with some interesting gazes. Embarassingly, someone calculated how much chocolate the average staffer had eaten in order for the whole bar to be finished in the 7-10 day time period -- I seem to remember it was something ridiculous like 2.14 pounds per day, per person.  Due to a lifestyle of engaging in Mountain Sports, the staffers are much thinner than you would think for a crew that can eat that much chocolate in an average day. You can check out some of those smiling faces at our new "Meet The Staff" photo album on Facebook.

Charla :)

Proud to be a BAMF Road Warrior*

*I may not hold this position for much longer when the office staff finds out I told the world how much chocolate they consume! Just Kidding (hopefully).  You'd better quickly get to my last 2 remaining shows of this season just in case (Rapid City, SD and Regina, SK).

Road Warrior Reunion

If you've ever been at one of our shows, you know that Road Warriors love their job! Have you ever wondered what Road Warriors do if they have a night off? Apparently, they drive 2.5 hours to see the Banff Mountain World Tour in a neighbouring state. Let me explain ...



Each November, two tour vans leave Banff -- one heads East, one heads West. The vans themselves will be on the road until May of the following year (save for a brief visit back home for Christmas). Road Warriors, however, are only on the road for a maximum 5-6 weeks at a time. This is the semi-official time frame in which a happy Road Warrior will start to miss home and the comfort of their own bed a little too much and run the risk of turing into an unhappy Road Warrior. So, every 5-6 weeks there will be 2 Road Warriors in the same place at the same time. This is a great time for us! We share stories, learn new techniques, and one of the Road Warriors gets to head home for a well-deserved break (while the other heads out for an exciting tour).



Try to follow along: Road Warrior Paul has spent the last 5 weeks travelling from Arlington, Mass. to Greenville, South Carolina and most stops in between. Road Warrior Charla (that's me) arrived in Greenville SC on Mar 26th ready to take the tour home. This is the last leg of this tour, so I will drive from Greenville to Banff. Due to a scheduling shuffle, Paul and I found ourselves with an entire day off. While enjoying post-show drinks with the fabulous Greenville Tour Hosts (Half Moon Outfitters), Paul mentioned that our colleague, Road Warrior Jamie, had just arrived in Boone NC for the 2-night engagement hosted by the Appalachian State University Outdoor Programs. I am always up for a road trip, so a plan was hatched to drive to Boone to surprise Jamie and attend the show. To make it a true surprise, we located the hotel he'd be staying at and made our own reservations.



Boone is no ordinary stop on our World Tour (although, could any of the stops really be called ordinary?). Everyone in the Banff office knows the Boone show. Despite being a relatively small location (pop. 15,000), they host two sold out nights in a 1700-seat theatre -- that's 3400 people (23% of the population)! Many of our audience comments and emails come from Boone, as do many Banff Mountain Photo Competition entries. One things for certain: Boone loves Banff! And Banff loves Boone!



After our 2.5 hour drive, we arrived at the beautiful Gideon Ridge Inn. Thankfully, the weather was a little dreary so Jamie was still in his room. Paul knocked on the large glass door of the Cedar Cottage and we both watched while a look of stunned confusion made its way across Jamie's face. We're almost 100% certain that this is the first time that 3 Road Warriors have been in the same place, at the same time, all while being 'officially' on tour. After a brief stop to check out new gear at Footsloggers, we headed out for lunch at the Black Cat Burrito where we had an intense discussion to determine if the Gideon Ridge Inn was, indeed, the most beautiful accommodation on the tour. All three of us have been touring since at least 2002, so we've stayed in our fair share of hotels. The Upham Hotel in Santa Barbara was a very close second, but the Gideon Ridge Inn was finally named "The most beautiful Accommodation of the Banff Mountain Film Fest World Tour" by our esteemed panel of judges. The inn was beyond beautiful! Paul's room actually had 2 fireplaces, and we all had soaker tubs. Jamie was staying in the very private Cedar Cottage from which you could see the views all the way down the valley.

The staff were lovely, breakfast (cornmeal pancakes, fruit, sausages) was yummy and well presented, and the amenities were indescribable. The best part: Innkeeper Cobb was an avid Banff fan long before Road Warriors started staying there! He treated us like royalty (although I would hazard a guess that ALL guests are treated in the same manner).



We accompanied Jamie to his tech rehearsal, and on to a fabulous reception at Boone's Turchin Center to celebrate the winning images from the Appalachian Mountain Photo Competition. The competition was started 6 years ago and was inspired by the original Banff version. I instantly found myself so overwhelmed with excitement for the show that I felt like a 13-year old girl in a room with Justin Timberlake (or the celebrity of choice for 13-year old girls). I learned that Richard Rapfogel was one of the jurors -- Richard was awarded a Special Mention in the 2004 Banff Photo Comp for his image "Agasthiyar Falls: Two Women". As the former Photo Comp coordinator, I had personally notified Richard when he won. I met Eric Heistand -- winner of several awards at the local competition, including Grand Prize and People's Choice, for his image "Splash or Trash". Eric used to attend BANFF while in Colorado, and then moved to Boone. We were interviewed by Terry Smith of Mountain Television. We met Roy from Redwood Creek -- the wine of choice for all of the reception attendees. The list goes on and on! I could have stayed there all night and just chatted to fascinating people. The air was electric with excitement, and the films hadn't even startd yet. You can see the list of winning photographers at this link.



On to the actual screening: As we approached the Farthing Auditorium, I felt like I was walking up to a sold-out Rolling Stones show. There were traffic cones to direct the onslaught of traffic. There were guys randomly scattered asking each passing group "I need tickets. You got Banff tickets?". Wow!



Once inside, Paul and I sat in different areas of the theatre so we could enjoy the true audience experience. It was the first time I had ever attended a screening purely as a fan! I was not reponsible for operating any equipment nor speaking on stage, and I was watching from a real seat (not a projection booth, or next to a sound board). As expected, the show was incredible and the audience appreciative. Jamie did a fantastic job of entertaining the excited crowd. The films were all well-received. The prize draw was intense -- it involved makeshift slingshots fashioned out of large funnels attached to rubber hosing, used to launch t-shirts to the screaming fans. This is obviously a tradition since the audience knew to stand up the moment the prize draw began.



Funny thing: After the show, the lovely lady that was sitting next to Paul asked if he was involved in the show somehow. "Yes", he said, "How did you know?" ... "You were humming the music the whole time" she replied. We all killed ourselves laughing while Paul apologized profusely. No one knows the soundtracks better than the Road Warriors that have seen the films dozens of times! The lady was quite good-natured and seemed almost honoured to have experienced the films with an actual Road Warrior.



Thank you, Boone! Thank you, thank you, thank you! As Road Warriors, we often meet people who say thank us and share how the films have inspired them. Boone, you have inspired us! Your adoring audience and fantastically organized event are two of the many reasons that this is the coolest job on earth!

Happy (and Stress Free) Return to Las Vegas

Valley of Fire State Park

Heading into Vegas means the end of back roads and small communities: from then on the highways get wider and busier, from Nevada and through to California.  Last year, after a month spent touring in the mountains, my arrival in Vegas was a real culture shock.  I decided to ease into it this time by detouring through the Valley of Fire, another spectacular area of the great American Southwest.  Even though it is not far from urban centers, it feels totally isolated and in the middle of nowhere.  The rock formations were unique and some of the colors simply incredible.  I did a quick hike to see some petroglyphs before saying goodbye to the wilds and driving to the BIG city. 

Hiking in Valley of Fire

Anasazi petroglyphs in Valley of Fire 

It is amazing how lanes suddenly multiply on the highway and traffic gets dense.  Stress level goes up as cars appear from everywhere and you realize you are very far from the small mountain roads of only a day ago...  To my great surprise though, I seemed to handle it way better than the previous year and drove through the “strip” and on to the Clark County Public Library, one of the co-tour hosts, along with the Desert Space Foundation.  There I was greeted by the fantastic crew that works the auditorium, Jody and Candyl, as well as the main Tour Host Suzanne.  It was good to see everyone again and we had good chats as we set up for the screening.  This is another location where all goes really smooth as they have done it for so many years and know the drill.

Driving through Las Vegas "Strip" on the way to venue

The event is free and people started lining up early to obtain armbands that would allow them to get in.  The lobby had many tables from local organizations and there was a great buzz all around.  The screening was sold out by the time we rolled the intro film and the crowd was fun and full of cheers: another night where I had a great time with the audience.

Distribution of armbands prior to screening

Las Vegas Clark County Public Library auditorium lobby prior to screening

After the show, we packed up quickly then sat in the office chatting and looking over some comment forms folks had filled in after the screening: it was nice to see their thoughts about the films and the event itself.  I was amazed at the amount of people who wrote about how important the Tour was for them and how much they enjoyed it.  Suzanne offered me yummy chocolates for the road and a nice book bag which  I immediately filled with the many books I had been buying during the trip (I have this thing with books-some women are into shoes; I’m addicted to books).  Wow, Vegas had come and gone and it was now time to head out to California, by far the busiest part of my tour... but also the best weather, palm trees and the ocean at my doorstep!