'Blue Obsession'

COEUR d'ALENE - Start with six hours of footage.

Edit for 45 hours.

Finish with eight minutes of film.

Call it "Blue Obsession."

That, in a nutshell, is what Jordan Halland did, and it landed the co-director's production in the Banff Film Festival World Tour that's coming to the Kroc Center this weekend.

"It feels pretty good," the Coeur d'Alene man said.

Halland's documentary will run Sunday, and he'll be there to introduce it and field questions afterward. He's excited that residents have a chance to see the Lake City premier of Blue Obsession, and believes they'll enjoy it.

Here's a brief description of the eight-minutes that will fill the silver screen.

"The beautiful and ever-changing icefalls of Alaskan glaciers provide a stunning setting for some unusual ice climbing adventures. Inspired by a film seen years past at the Banff Mountain Film Festival that had amazing cinematography and very inspiring climbing and ski mountaineering. The goal of the film is to show places that will not be here forever."

Halland calls it a good introduction to the Juneau Icefield and ice climbing in general.

"It's entertaining. You don't have to be an expert on ice climbing or the environmental impact the receding glacier has on that area to enjoy it," the 31-year-old said.

The film, set to music, centers on Alan Gordon, a friend of Halland's and the film's producer and co-director. It's about Gordon's relationship with the Juneau Icefield and why he does what he does. It's not about the technique or difficulties of ice climbing.

"It's more of a story about Alan and his relationship with that glacier than an ice climbing film," Halland said.

"It had to be compelling to me. It couldn't be so deeply part of the ice climbing world that somebody who had no idea what they were looking at would be lost when they watched it," he continued. "So it appeals to ice climbers and people who have no connection to that world at all."

The making of Blue Obsession

It was about a year ago Halland received a call from Gordon. The ice climber wanted to make a film in Alaska, where he climbed often, but didn't know how. He wanted to record Mendenhall Glacier and Juneau Icefield "before it disappears."

Halland agreed to look into it.

"I was kind of skeptical, just because I get a lot of calls from people who say they want to make a movie," he said.

Gordon, a Juneau resident and an avalanche forecaster for Coeur d'Alene Mines, sent footage of Alaska's glaciers and the scenery. Halland was sold.

"There were things I'd never seen before," he said. "I took a look at it and said 'I'm in. This is awesome footage.'"

In July, Halland flew to Juneau. Most of the production takes place on Mendenhall Glacier, the closest glacier to Juneau.

He stayed about a week, filming for hours each day.

Halland is not an ice climber. His background is in skateboarding.

"I was a novice going in to filming it," he said.

But he knew this: What he was seeing was spectacular.

And dangerous.

He camped on Mendenhall Glacier on a sandy area at the top of a waterfall, with a rockface behind him. Two weeks after he went home, something in the glacier shifted, an ice dam broke and washed out the exact spot he had camped.

He later received an email from Gordon. "He said we could have died. Had we been camping there when that happened, we would have been gone. It was crazy. I never thought of that when we were there."

When he returned to North Idaho, he had two weeks to edit scores of footage to submit it for consideration by the Banff Film Festival.

Working days and nights, he turned six hours into a first cut that was five minutes, then added back another three. It had to be a quick, quality production. Couldn't be too short or too long. Yep, it needed to be just right.

"We knew what we wanted to do and what we had to edit. Our goal was Banff. That's what we wanted to make it into," he said.

That it appeals to more than ice climbers helped, too.

"I think that's what made it stand out at Banff."

A filmmaker's view

Halland grew up in Kalispell, Mont. He and friends often filmed each other skateboarding, producing short movies and videos.

It would become his passion by the time he turned 20.

For a time, he lived in San Diego, shooting documentaries.

"None that really caught on or did anything, but they were good experiences for me," he said.

Three years ago, he moved to Coeur d'Alene.

"When the economy kind of tanked, there was nowhere for video guys," he said.

In the last decade, he has centered his talents on documentaries about people - their struggles, their triumphs, their failures.

He likes the simplicity and honesty of documentaries. A music video, he said, requires a director of photography, food for the crew, a sound man, editor and lighting.

The documentary just calls for Halland, his camera and a microphone. He doesn't tell people what to say or do. He just sets up and presses the record button.

"There's nothing as compelling to me as true stories," he said. "And I love capturing those moments where it's people's passion coming straight through. You can see everything written on their face. They're not acting. They're not told they need to feel this way. This is what's coming out of them. That's what I really like."

People, he believes, want to share their stories. All they need is an opportunity.

Halland gives it to them.

"It's just exciting to see people kind of solidify the lessons they learn and then show the world," he said.

Halland hopes to return to Alaska and film the environmental changes taking place in Alaska, specifically, in Juneau, home of "Blue Obsession." He wants to study the impact of the receding icefield.

"Once the glacier disappears, it's gone," he said.

Information: heypayola.com