Banff Film Festival set for Fox Theater this weekend
The lineup for this year’s Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival is so good that Paul Fish doesn’t know which night is going to be best.
Fish, the organizer of the festival’s Spokane showing at the Fox Theater this weekend, said this iteration of the outdoor adventure film tour might have “the best variety of films I’ve seen in years.”
“There’s a little bit of kayaking, a little bit of skiing, a little bit of mountain biking,” Fish said. “There’s some really good stories.”
The festival’s world tour returns to downtown Spokane’s Fox Theater for three nights this weekend, beginning on Friday.
The outdoor film festival started in 1976 and is put on by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Through its world tour, the group brings film showings to theaters across the continent.
Festival leaders select dozens of films for the world tour. Local organizers choose prearranged slates of films to show.
Fish, the former owner of the now-closed outdoor store Mountain Gear, has organized the Spokane showings for years, in addition to shows in a few other cities. He organized a showing in North Bend, Washington, last month.
This is the second consecutive year event will be held at the Fox Theater. Based on local interest, Fish added a third night of films for this year.
The three slates cover a broad range of outdoor activities. Each night includes at least one film showcasing skiing, mountain biking and river running, for example.
They’re also well-traveled, with mountain biking in the Dolomites, rock climbing in Jamaica and even skiing in Antarctica.
Less-common activities are also represented. Consider “Wolf of Wingsuit,” a 4-minute film that follows American wingsuit pilot Avalon Wolf on his quest to jump off a Swiss mountainside as many times as possible.
Other films run on lower levels of adrenaline, such as “Undammed,” which tells the story of a Yurok tribal attorney who fought for the removal of four dams on the Klamath River.
The show begins at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Ahead of the Saturday show, there is a VIP event that raises money for several nonprofits. The event begins at 5 p.m.
General admission costs $29 each night. Tickets for Saturday’s VIP event cost $105 and include admission to the show.
Tickets are available online at ticketor.com/livetoplay/banffspokane. They are also available at Rocket Market and Kizuri.