Tickets for the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Powell River are now available as organizers ramp up for this year’s tour dates on January 8 and 9.
Jim Palm, event organizer, said the film festival, which has been returning for a decade to Powell River, is a community highlight for many.
“It’s just amazing how the community always rallies around this event,” he said. “There’s always a mad rush for tickets.”
Palm said that the lineup for the festival has yet to be decided and he plans to go through the film selections to find the works best suited for the Powell River audience.
He said he prefers to choose films that are on the shorter side to keep the festival moving along.
“This [festival] is more the cultural and environmental films with stories,” said Palm, who said the more extreme films are part of a different series called Radical Reels that hasn’t come to Powell River yet.
Each year, Palm said the festival generally chooses to show its award winners over the two evenings. This year an American film called The Great Alone won the festival’s grand prize.
Director Greg Kohs’ documentary captures dogsled race champion Lance Mackey’s comeback triumph from the grip of substance abuse to the sweet salvation of winning the Iditarod, one of the hardest sled dog races in the world.
“Good films are hard to make but great films are nearly impossible,” stated Cory Richards, jury member of the 2015 festival, in a media release. “Our grand prize winner this year subtly weaves threads of family, unexpected friendship, raw vulnerability and extreme perseverance. The tapestry created is a powerful and deeply emotional human portrait, illuminating our innate shortcomings and vulnerabilities and our ultimate drive to connect with ourselves and the wilderness and overcome.”
This year doors will open at 5:45 pm to give patrons time for food and refreshments and an opportunity to mingle before the screenings start at 6:45 pm.
Tickets for the Banff Mountain Film Festival are available now at Taws Cycle and Sports, Pacific Point Market and River City Coffee.
“People have learned that if they don’t get them early,” said Palm, “they may not get to go.”
