Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to Cd'A

COEUR d'ALENE - Irascible rapids, blasting snow storms and skateboards skidding through cities.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival has been known to throw out movies fraught with injury-prone athletics and death-flirting excursions in its 12 years coming to Coeur d'Alene.

Rest assured, adrenaline chasers and quixotic outdoorsmen.

This year is no different.

The festival's 2011 world tour that stops in town on Sunday and Monday boasts 14 films loaded with tales of perilous sports and odes to outdoor gallivanting.

"It's basically a celebration of being outdoors, being in the mountains and taking advantage of life," said Michael Boge, tour host for the festival. "It brings out the best in people in film."

The festival will be shown at the Kroc Center, with seven flicks scheduled each night.

The films, which range from 5 to 40 minutes long, take viewers from the bitter peaks of the Alps in "The Swiss Machine" to the dreary shadows of remote wilderness caves in "Into Darkness."

Some films are best situated in the creative category, like "Rush Hour Dream Germany," about an office worker who discovers he's carrying a paraglider on his laptop.

There are plenty that will spark inspiration, too. "Crossing the Ditch" follows kayakers challenging the deadly Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand, and viewers can witness a man's year-long walk from Beijing to Urumqi in "The Longest Way."

Also worth absorbing is documentary "The Fall Line," about an Iraqi war veteran who recovers from losing his legs and becomes a ski racer for a 2010 Paralypmic ski team.

"This year has been incredibly strong (for festival movies)," Boge said. "It's probably the best I've seen in six, seven years."

A schedule of the film showings is available at www.mountain-fever.com/cda.html.

Doors open at 5 p.m., with films starting at 6 p.m.

Tickets are $12 in advance, and $15 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at Vertical Earth, Camera Corral and Zip's Drive-in on Sherman Avenue. Tickets are also available at the Two Wheeler Dealer in Hayden.

Proceeds from the event will go to The Satipo Kids Project funding children's education in Peru, a project created by Boge. The event will also benefit the Kroc Center's scholarship fund to give North Idaho kids swimming lessons.

"I always tell people to get tickets right away. They do sell out," Boge said.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival has been held annually since its first year in 1976 in Banff, Alberta. The festival tours hundreds of cities worldwide.

"Usually the person who comes to the film festival, they might come to see a ski film, but they'll walk away remembering something else," Boge said. "It's a dangerous addiction. If you watch once, you'll come again."