Full descriptions and discounted pre-sales are available from our website. There are separate ... Leo Houlding, one of t
15th YEAR
NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival New Zealand’s very own mountain film festival! Film • Literature • Talks • National Film Tour
Thursday July 6 to Saturday July 8
at Memorial Centre, 1 Memorial Street
queenstown programme www.mountainfilm.nz 1
Welcome to the 15th NZ Mountain Film & book Festival In this programme, you will find an outline of events in Queenstown. There are 29 films in this programme. Full descriptions and discounted pre-sales are available from our website. There are separate programmes for the Wanaka Film Festival (June 30 to July 4) and the Wanaka Book Festival (July 7 to 9). We hope the festival will inspire, thrill and educate you. There’s something in this programme for everyone to enjoy; it amazes us how even people with absolutely no interest in doing adventure sports just love the films. We hope you can join us, NZMFF Board of Trustees. Speaker - Tim Cope
Waiau-toa Odyssey
THURSday 6 JULY
SESSION Q 1
Brought to you by:
Premiere Guest Speaker Event
A night not to be missed! Leo Houlding, one of the world’s best climbers, will speak, followed by the Grand Prize-winning film about an incredible kite ski and kayak adventure in Greenland. Catch a first ascent attempt in the Himalayas, biking in Edinburgh and a ski trip in Iran. A mix of intense and whimsical adventure. Time: Doors open at 7.00pm and show starts at 7.30pm, to 11.00pm Venue: Main Auditorium, Memorial Centre Cost: $35 (online), $40 (at the door) Social Session. View the trade show and enjoy some live music while catching up with friends. 7.30pm Festival Welcome by Mark Sedon, Festival Director.
Talk by Leo Houlding, UK.
THURSday
Leo is a world-renowned adventurer, orator, filmmaker and quite possibly the most high-profile speaker we’ve ever invited to NZ. Hear about his well-constructed life in media, climbing, adventure innovation and family. Co-sponsored by: World Expeditions
tickets
Tickets are sold from www.mountainfilm.nz and you can also buy tickets during the festival from the Memorial Centre. There are single show tickets and a popular non-transferable Film and Book Festival Pass ($59) to all shows. There is a youth discount, where indicated, for under 18-year-olds (bring your ID). See the website for more information.
MEMORIAL CENTRE TICKET WINDOW HOURS Ph 020-4084-8775 - no answerphone, please text for a callback. Thursday and Friday: 3.00pm to 7.30pm Saturday: 10.30am to 7.30pm CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED ONLINE, BUT NOT AT THE VENUE. This programme may change at any time and times are approximate. The NZ Mountain Film Festival is a Registered Charity #CC49344. Member of the International Alliance for Mountain Film (IAMF).
thanks to Our Benefactors: Sir Tim Wallis - Alpine Helicopters and Federated Mountain Clubs. Our Patrons: Alan Wakelin, Aspiring Wealth Management, Peter and Jeanette Cousins, The Rock House Wanaka, Bob Campbell, Raymond Key, Suzanne Knapp, Matt Laming, Vicki Spearing, anonymous (2). Our Funders:
2
Guest Speaker - Leo Houlding
Dreamland
Into Twin Galaxies GRAND PRIZE
BEST MADE
GRAND PRIZE
BEST MADE F
BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
BEST FILM ON BEST FILM Annapurna III – Unclimbed, 12 min, Director: Jochen Schmoll, Austria, some ON subtitles. Join theADVENTUROUS team CLIMBING SPORTS & LIFESTYLES in their feelings of fatigue, anxiety, exposure and ordeal during their five weeks attempting one of the world’s greatest unsolved puzzles of alpinism.
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
INTERMISSION Try a glass of locally-made Maori Point wine from the café
OFFICIAL SELECTION
OFFICIAL Into Twin Galaxies - A Greenland Epic, 52 mins, Director: Jochen Schmoll, Germany. SELECTION Three adventurers embark on an insane kayaking mission in Greenland. With kite skis, they tow their whitewater kayaks 1000km over the Greenland Ice Cap to reach the most northern river ever paddled. But what if it’s frozen? BEST FILM
INTERMISSION - Try a bottle of Queenstown’s Altitude beer
ON CLIMBING
BEST
BEST SNOW
PEOPL CHOI
BEST
BEST SNOW
PEOPL CHOI
FILM living the SPORTS FILM Dreamland, 16 mins, Director: Jon Glassberg, USA. An arty film following twoSHORT climbers climbing dream in Rocklands, South Africa. SHORT FILM SPORTS Iran: A Skier’s Journey, 13 mins, Director: Jordan Manley, a few subtitles. Cautioned not to travel to FILM Iran, two skiers decide to go regardless. They find comfort, bedazzlement, and a surprisingly SPECIAL AWARD cool ski culture. JURY AWARD WINNER
BES ENVIROM FILM
Wee Day Out, 7 mins, Director: Stu Thomson, UK. Danny explores the rural landscape AWARD around Edinburgh in a film that sets out to capture the simple fun of a ride in the country. WINNER
BEST ENVIROM FILM
3
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
friday 7 JULY
SESSION Q 2
Brought to you by:
W O R KSH O P #1 Avalanche Awareness
Bike, Surf, Fly & Paddle Show
Brought to you by:
Time: 5.30pm to 6.30pm Venue: Memorial Centre Cost: Free, no bookings required The backcountry skiing around Queenstown is amazing, but you’ll need a few tips to keep you safe. This workshop focuses on tours to do, tips to improve your safety, how to plan and research, gear to take, and rescue, and will give you a head start in the art of avalanche awareness.
Enjoy some of the judge’s favorites films in this lineup. Climbing, jumping and nudity - tick. Kayaking, paragliding and skiing - tick. Or how about packrafting across coastal Canada or kayaking in Kyrgyzstan? This action-packed session is fast-paced from start to finish. Enjoy! Time: 3.30pm to 6.00pm Venue: Main Auditorium, Memorial Centre Cost: $17 (online), $20 (at the door), youth discount $5
SESSION Q 3
WIN
a spot priz e of a day heli-skiing!
Brought to you by:
Snow Show
The Snow Show is always a crowd favourite. Beautiful footage of untracked lines, steep and deep pow and far-off snowy lands, plus a little snowboard history and telemark love thrown in for good measure. This session will have you fired up for winter. Time: 7.30pm to 11.00pm (live music from 7.00pm) Venue: Main Auditorium, Memorial Centre Cost: $25 (online), $30 (at the door), youth discount $5
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Eyes of God
GRAND PRIZE
BEST FILM OFFICIAL ON CLIMBING
BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS GRAND SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
OFFICIAL SELECTION
GRAND PRIZE
BEST OlafSHORT Obsommer, BEST FILM FILM
BEST SNOW BEST FILMFILM ON SPORTS
SELECTION
PRIZE Solo BASE
Solo BASE - From Climbing to Jumping, 37 mins, Director: Xavier Coll, Spain, subtitles. Follow the path of two climbers who become BASE jumpers in order to make their dreams of flying a reality. Warning: some nudity. The Eyes of God - a kayaking adventure to Kyrgyzstan, 31 mins, Director: Germany. A team of kayakers, including two Kiwis, attempt to descend a riverONinCLIMBING the BEST FILM no-man’s land between Kyrgyzstan and China.
ON CLIMBING
INTERMISSION Try a freshly-baked cookie from the café
AWARD WINNER Flow, 11 mins, Director: Christian Schmidt & Joachim Hellinger, Germany, subtitles. That
special state of being where everything´s just right, when confidence the bike and rider are one.
BEST overrides fear and SHORT FILM BEST SHORT FILM
ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
Crossing Home, 30 mins, Director: Jordan Manley, USA. Follow a three-week expedition to boat, bushwack, ski, and packraft across the spine of the coastal mountains of Canada. 4
7.30pm A Line in the Snow: Greenland, 19 mins, Director: Ben Tibbetts, UK. On one of the wildest coastlines on earth, a group of skiers set out from a small Inuit village, with very BEST NZ little recorded information, hoping to ski faces never MADE FILM seen before. Big Trouble in a Tiny Tent, 11 mins, Director: Whiteroom Productions, Austria. Experience a roller coaster ride through a magical world in an enchanted tent that takes the BESTthree FILM ON likeable heroes to places they have never seen or skied before. MOUNTAIN
BEST NZ CULTURE MADE FILM Foothills:
China: A Skier’s Journey, 17 mins, Director: Jordan Manley, Canada, some subtitles. Who would have BEST FILM ON BEST FILM China had such epic deep powder skiing? Nice turns mixed with stone age hunter-gatherer ADVENTUROUS ON CLIMBING SPORTS & LIFESTYLES MOUNTAIN technology. OFFICIAL GRAND CULTURE
PEOPLE’S thought BEST FILM ON CHOICE
INTERMISSION Try a glass of locally-made Maori Point wine from the café
SPECIAL JURY AWARD BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
BEST ENVIROMENTAL FILM
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
GRAND PRIZE
BEST MADE F
The Unlinked Heritage of Snowboarding, 16 mins, Directors: Alex Yoder and David Cleeland, people of Petran, Turkey, have been snowboarding for roughly 300 years. It’s not snowboarding as we know it, but you’ll recognise it.
BEST FILM ON MOUNTAIN CULTURE
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
OFFICIAL SELECTION
USA. BEST NZ The MADE FILM
BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
The Fledglings, 26 mins, Director: Cedar Wright, USA. Two professional climbers get into paragliding and learn what it’s like to be bumbling, naïve, gung-ho beginners again. Tree landings, sketchy moments SPECIAL AWARD and junkshow launches become part of the new normal, then they embark on an audacious objective: to JURY AWARD WINNER climb and fly off the third-highest mountain in the Americas. AWARD WINNER
7.00pm Doors open, live music.
f r i d ay
f r i d ay
The Fledglings
SELECTION
PRIZE
Sliding Fire, 8 mins, Director: Will Lascelles, NZ. Wanaka’s Sam Smoothy takes skiing to new terrain on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. BEST
La Liste, 48 mins PEOPLE’S CHOICE skier challenges
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
BEST MADE F
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
PEOPL CHOI
BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
AWARD
SPECIAL
BES ENVIROM FILM
BEST
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
PEOPL CHOI
FILM (full movie), Director: Guido Perrini, Switzerland, subtitles. ASHORT professional FILM himself to ski the most spectacular steep peaks of the Alps inBEST a way ON CLIMBING never done before, FAST. PEOPLE’S CHOICE
INTERMISSION Try an Altitude beer from the café Telemark Love Letter, 3 mins, Director: Daniel Thomson, Canada. A poetic loveWINNER letter to the sport JURYof AWARD telemark skiing, capturing the inner dialogue we’ve all had with ourselves on the skin track.
BEST ENVIROMENTAL FILM
Snowmads - A Journey Towards Eastern Suns, 52 mins, Director: Jonas Abenstein, SHORT FILM Austria. Uncover a long-cherished dream to ski in the Middle East by rebuilding an old fire truck and diving into the versatile and colourful cultures of Turkey, Iran and Georgia.
BEST ENVIROMENTAL FILM
5
Free Family Show
Time: 10.00am Venue: Side room, Memorial Centre Cost: Free, but you must reserve seats via our web page
Brought to you by: Shipleys Audiovisual, Queenstown
The NZ Mountain Film Festival Charitable Trust invites you and your family to the free hour-long showing of films suitable for all ages. Adults can’t come without kids, sorry. OFFICIAL GRAND SELECTION
saturday
SESSION Q 4
Brought to you by:
SESSION Q 5 Best of the Fest
Mountain Culture and the Environment Show
The Best Environmental Film takes a close look at death, pollution and tragedy on the mighty Ganges River, while the Best Film on Mountain Culture shows indigenous children transforming traditional trails into world-class mountain bike tracks. Catch a glimpse of Nepal’s earthquake and recovery, and an inspiring collection of thought-provoking films.
PRIZE
Brought to you by:
BEST FILM ON CLIMBING
BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST SHORT FILM
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
AWARD The Tenth Step, 62 mins, Director: Gerry Moffatt, USA. Gerry embarks on a soloWINNER adventure across the Himalayas for his 50th birthday, intent on exploring changes he’s seen over 30 years of guiding there, including a look into Nepal’s earthquake and its recovery. GRAND PRIZE
12.05-12.30pm INTERMISSION We’ll have some thick yummy soup and bread available
BEST NZ MADE FILM
[enviro] Mental, 13 mins, Director: Joe Murdie, NZ (Wanaka). One man’s journey to becoming more OFFICIAL GRAND BEST NZand environmentally friendly in an effort to show NZ and the world that everyone can make a difference SELECTION PRIZE MADE FILM contribute to change. BEST FILM ON BEST FILMyouth spent Shift, 29 mins, Director: Kelly Milner, Canada. A group of indigenous 10 years ADVENTUROUS ON CLIMBING SPORTS & LIFESTYLES converting traditional trails around their hometown in the Yukon into a world-class mountain biking destination – and are transforming their community and themselves BEST FILM ON BEST FILM along the way. ADVENTUROUS
ON CLIMBING
SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST FILM ON MOUNTAIN CULTURE
BEST FILM ON MOUNTAIN CULTURE
Doing it Scared, 12 mins, Director: Matthew Newton, Australia. 18 years after a catastrophic accident BEST BESTto SNOW which left him with hemiplegia, climber Paul Pritchard returns to the Totem Pole find out if hePEOPLE’S has SHORT FILM CHOICE SPORTS FILM recovered enough to finish the climb. Moving Mountains, 16 mins, Director: Dansq, UK. A London-based financial consultant is in Nepal BEST PEOPLE’S BEST SNOW attempting a climb when the infamous earthquake strikes. The film exploresSPORTS the notions SHORT FILM CHOICE FILM of adventure, BEST disaster, resilience and the enduring qualities of the human spirit. SPECIAL AWARD ENVIROMENTAL INTERMISSION Try a freshly-baked cookie from the café
WINNER
JURY AWARD
Holy (un)Holy River, 60 mins, Director: Jake Norton & Pete McBride, USA, some subtitles. SPECIAL AWARD AWARD Follow one of the world’s most revered and reviled rivers, theWINNER great GangesJURY of India, from source-to-sea, documenting its intense beauty and struggles. The River is revered by a billion people, depended upon by 500 million, and is at once a source of life and inspiration as well as death, pollution, and tragedy. 6
Time: 4.00pm to 6.30pm Venue: Main Auditorium, Memorial Centre Cost: $17 (online), $20 (at the door), youth discount $5 North of Known BEST FILM
ON CLIMBING
BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
BEST SHORT FILM
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
PEOPL CHOI
OFFICIAL SELECTION
GRAND PRIZE SPECIAL JURY AWARD
BEST FILM ON MOUNTAIN CULTURE
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
AWARD The Mannering, Harper and Ross Challenge, 12 mins, Director: Gavin Lang & Pedro WINNER SPECIAL JURY AWARD
FILM
BEST ENVIROMENTAL FILM
BEST MADE
BEST NZ MADE FILM
Mountains of Heaven
Time: 11.00am to 3.00pm Venue: Main Auditorium, Memorial Centre Cost: $17 (online), $20 (at the door), youth discount $5
OFFICIAL SELECTION
This collection of films is packed with award winners. Best NZ Film Waiau-toa Odyssey epitomises Kiwi adventure and innovation: five mates, six days, 300 kilometres of biking and packrafting fun. The Best Film on Adventurous Sports and Lifestyles follows a OFFICIAL GRAND paraglider’s attempt to fly the Alaskan Range, the Best Climbing FilmSELECTION takes us to Pakistan PRIZE for a summit attempt, plus join a solo distance runner across Kyrgyzstan. A stunning lineup.
Pimentel, NZ. Follow a mountaineering challenge to climb various mountain features relating to the NZAC founders AP Harper, Guy Mannering and Malcolm Ross.
BEST ENVIROMENTAL FILM
Mountains of Heaven, 23 mins, Director: Jenny Tough, Scotland. A solo runner attempts to BEST FILM run across Kyrgyzstan, carrying everything she needs to survive on her back ON and using CLIMBING ancient nomad trails. Link Sar West, 31 mins, Director: Jon Griffith, UK. A mountain in Pakistan became an obsession for a UK alpinist. Will he reach the summit on his fourth attempt? Near disastrous circumstances with riveting video and breathtaking cinematography.
BEST SHORT FILM OFFICIAL SELECTION
INTERMISSION Try a freshly-baked cookie from the café
Waiau-toa Odyssey, 13 mins, Director: Simon Waterhouse, NZ, World Premiere.GRAND Five OFFICIAL adventurers set off on a six-day, 300km unsupported journeySELECTION combining bikepacking PRIZE and packrafting technology. They link together whitewater rivers and backcountry tracks AWARD through some of NZ’s wilderness areas. WINNER North of Known, 52 mins, Director: Bryan Smith, Canada. An attempted traverse byFILM BEST ON CLIMBING paraglider of the entire length of the Alaska Range. A rugged, convoluted, and downright BEST FILM ON BEST FILM burly adventure in terrain where bears outnumber people, roads are non-existent, and ADVENTUROUS ON CLIMBING SPORTS & LIFESTYLES flying conditions are completely unpredictable. Brought to
W O R KSHO P #2 Remarkable Outdoors Time: 6.00pm to 7.00pm Cost: Free, no bookings required
BEST you by: SHORT FILM
Venue: Memorial Centre BEST BEST SNOW SHORT FILM
SPORTS FILM
OFFICIAL SELECTION BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST FILM ON CLIMBING
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM GRAND PRIZE BEST NZ MADE FILM BEST SHORT FILM SPECIAL JURY AWARD BEST FILM ON ADVENTUROUS SPORTS & LIFESTYLES
BEST FILM ON MOUNTAIN AWARD CULTURE
AWARD WINNER
JURY AWARD
BEST MADE F
BES ENVIROM FILM
GRAN PRIZ
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
BEST FIL ADVENTU SPORTS & LIF
PEOPL CHOI BEST
MADE F
BEST S SPORTS BES
ENVIROM FILM
BEST FIL MOUNT CULTU
WINNER
SPEC JURY AW
BEST SNOW SPORTS FILM
PEOPL CHOI
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
Join members of the Federated Mountain Clubs to hear about their campaign to increase the SPECIAL AWARD prominence of outdoor issues during the 2017 General Election. What policies are needed to JURY AWARD WINNER protect and enhance our outdoors, and who will speak up for an outdoor life worth living? BEST SPECIAL 7
saturday
saturday 8 JULY
ENVIROMENTAL FILM
BEST ENVIROME FILM
WELCOME TO the second
NZ Mountain Book Festival The book and literature event will be held on Saturday July 8. It will involve readings and presentations by two very well-known authors: Tim Cope (Australia) and Craig Potton (Nelson). The aim is to celebrate books and literature while putting on an entertaining show. You can see several more literature-focussed events in Wanaka over the same weekend, July 7 to 9 (see separate programme). You can buy single tickets, or the Queenstown Festival Pass also gets you access. Full description and discounted pre-sales are available from our website.
Time: Doors open at 7.00pm with live music and show starts at 7.30pm, to 9.45pm SESSION Q 6 Venue: Main Auditorium, Memorial Centre Cost: $20 (online), $25 (at the door)
Craig Potton’s talk, entitled “What might happen when you go to wild places”, is deliberately broad, and so-named to allow him to wander through topics and themes dear to him. Craig is a philosophical character; he is a fierce conversationalist and passionate conservationist. His talk will showcase his ponderings on how wilderness can rearrange your psyche, if you let it, and will include images from his three-month traverse of the Southern Alps, sleeping on the top of Mount Cook and tackling the Cook River. Expect to see some stunning imagery, as Craig is New Zealand’s best-known landscape photographer, however the emphasis will be on the effect of wilderness on one’s state of mind. He will share with us excerpts from his books So Far So Good and Moment and Memory. INTERMISSION Try a glass of locally-made Maori Point wine from the café Tim Cope is an award-winning adventurer, author and film-maker with a special interest in the traditional cultures of Central Asia and Russia. He has studied as a wilderness guide in the Finnish and Russian subarctic, ridden a bicycle across Russia to China, and rowed a boat along the Yenisey River through Siberia to the Arctic Ocean. He was the 2007 National Geographic Adventure Honoree, as well as the 2006 Australian Adventurer of the Year. Tim’s most renowned journey was a three-year, 6000-mile trip by horse from Mongolia to Hungary on the trail of Genghis Khan - a quest to understand the horseback nomads of the great Eurasian steppe. His book of the same name has won many awards, as has his film. Read more about Tim on our website.
Cover photo by Anna Cook
saturday
Book Festival Premiere Speakers - Tim Cope and Craig Potton