BANFF Film Festival World Tour comes to Leeds

Photo credit – Grant Gunderson

Mark Whittle previews the BANFF Mountain Film Festival which makes its way to Leeds next month as part of its world tour…

Anyone who knows me knows that I have two passions in life: film, and pushing my body and mind to the limits of their endurance. Whether it’s spending upwards of five minutes on the cross-trainer at the gym, eating an entire 16” pizza (and Diet Coke) to myself or drinking a gin and tonic without a segment of lime in it; everything I do, I do to the extreme.

“Take it easy, Mark” friends say as I casually buy a single instead of a day rider on the bus (who knows if I’m coming back from this trip). “Think of what you’re doing to us!” my parents cried as I insisted on wearing flip sunglasses to college (I still think they’re pretty cool). “Are you sure about this?” my university progress tutor would ask as I inserted more and more parenthesis into my essays (you can never have too many right?). To all of them, I say this: if you ain’t livin on the edge, then buddy; you ain’t livin’.

From the film Heaven’s Gate, credit – Kristian Schmidt

You’ll appreciate then if I say that I feel a certain kinship with the organisers of the BANFF Mountain Film Festival, which comes to Leeds as part of its world tour next month. Now, I walk to work every day up a pretty steep gradient so suffice to say I’m no stranger to mountains, but the topics and people covered in these films go beyond even my experience. Whether it’s charting the journey of a group of wingsuit pilots planning to fly through an archway carved out of China’s Tianmen Mountain in Heaven’s Gate, or following the exploits of the first woman to climb the British grade of E9 as she travels to Taghia Gorge, Morroco, in Spice Girl; these films celebrate the beauty and power of both the human spirit and the natural world.

The BANFF tour represents the very best films the global mountain sports community has to offer, having been selecting from over 300 entries into the 2013 BANFF Mountain Film Festival. For dedicated arm-chair travelers (like me) they offer a fascinating insight into a different way of life and may well provide the inspiration needed to actually get out there and experience it for themselves. The still images alone are enough to make even me consider adding some new destinations to my passport (or at least think about sending off for one), I actually had to fight the temptation to not give up on the words altogether for this piece and just fill it with images, such is the strength of the cinematography on display.

From the film Questions We Ask

Due to popular demand the festival is now visiting Leeds for two days, taking place at the Carriageworks on Wednesday 12th and Leeds Town Hall on Thursday 13 February. Each day offers a different selection of films, all of which look pretty spectacular so you may have difficulty choosing between them – I suggest hitting both days just to be sure.

To find out more, view the full programme and book your place you can visit www.banff-uk.com