Banff Mountain Film Festival making Sandpoint stop
<p>An image from the film "Crossing the Ditch," which will be presented at the Baniff Mountain Film Festival on Jan. 27 at the Panida Theater.</p>
The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will be shown at the Panida Theater later this month.
The festival will run from Thursday, Jan. 27, to Saturday, Jan. 29. Doors will open at 6 p.m. with films beginning at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the event will go to The Satipo Kids Project which funds 38 school-age children from Peru to attend elementary school. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.
Tickets are available in Sandpoint at Eichardt's, The Outdoor Experience, Maps & More and Zip's Drive-in. Tickets are also available in Bonners Ferry at Far North Outfitters. Any tickets left will be sold at the door of the Panida Theater the night of the show, In addition, the Banff Mountain Film Festival photo tour contest winners will be on display at the Panida Theater each night of the films, New this year, members of the North Idaho Mountain Sports Education Fund, which will benefit area children by giving them the ability to ski at Schweitzer Mountain, will be on hand with its raffle at the Panida Theater.
For 2011, 21 different films are ready to be shown over three nights at the Panida Theater. Film lineups are incredibly diverse including skiing, humor, climbing, paragliding and fly fishing, along with great human interest stories on adventure and culture.
Included this year is "A Life Ascending", voted the "Best Film on Mountain Culture." "A Life Ascending" follows Ruedi Beglinger who has built a reputation as one of the top ski mountaineering guides in the world, This film peers into their unique mountain life with Beglinger, his wife and two daughters in the remote Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia.
Also featured is "Crossing the Ditch," which won the "Best Film on Exploration and Adventure." "Crossing the Ditch" is the story of two young Australians who kayak the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand battling massive storms, strong currents and towering waves.
"Tibet: Murder in the Snow" will also be screened. The film is about Kelsang Namtso, who was trying to flee Tibet over the infamous Nangpa Pass. It is a powerful story that is taken from the climber's perspective who helped rescue the survivors and make public the events that took place. Also to be screened is "Last Paradise" which takes the audience to New Zealand when necessity was the mother of invention.
In "Last Paradise" a bunch of maverick kids concocted a dream that they would one day share with the world through 45 years of stunning original footage of sports pioneers on the roads less traveled.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival is an inspiring international film competition featuring the world's best footage on mountain subjects. The original festival, which began in 1976, is held annually on the first weekend in November in Banff, Alberta. In 1986, The festival began an outreach program to bring it to three other cities across Canada, The tour provides an incredible quality film experience, in a local venue for those who cannot make the annual trek to the Canadian Rockies that now tours to hundreds of cities worldwide. 2011 marks the 16th year that the World Tour has come to Sandpoint.