Banff Mtn. Film Fest returns March 27-28
Outdoor adventure taken to the extreme at ASU film event

The Banff Mountain Film Festival has just completed it’s 33rd annual film festival and has selected the films that are to be showcased this year in the ‘Best of the Festival’ World Tour that is scheduled to travel to over 275 communities throughout the world. Now on tour, the film festival will travel to Boone, N.C. on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28, 2009. Festival attendees will have the opportunity to experience the world’s best films highlighting mountain adventure, culture, and the environment when the tour stops once again on the campus of Appalachian State University.

A popular and critically acclaimed international film event, the Banff Mountain Film Festival – hosted by Outdoor Programs – will be held at Farthing Auditorium. This is the 13th Anniversary of Banff Film Festival screenings in Boone, which has become one of the largest screenings in North America.

The 2008-2009 World Tour will travel to over 275 communities in over 30 countries on all continents, including Antarctica. The Boone screenings have a history of selling out quickly so plan ahead to get your tickets, which are currently on sale.

Local tour hosts like Appalachian State University’s Outdoor Programs choose the program from the best of over 300 films submitted to the Banff Film Festival in November. Two completely different screenings will be shown on March 27 and 28. “We will highlight award winning mountain films each night that combine elements of mountain adventure, culture, and the environment,” said Appalachian State University Outdoor Programs Associate Director Rich Campbell. “We try to keep each night well balanced but entirely different and unique so audiences are exposed to as many different films as possible during the festival.”

Since this is a true film festival, the Banff World Tour represents what filmmakers from around the world are currently inspired to capture and document. Last year, there happened to be an emphasis among many filmmakers to focus on the human element of adventure sport. This year, there is a much stronger emphasis on films highlighting mountain cultures as seen in the Grand Prize award winning film, The Last Nomads, which is a film that tracks Canadian linguist Ian Mackenzie deep into the endangered Borneo rain forest in search of one of the world’s last remaining hunter-gatherer cultures.

“We had another very successful event last year, underscoring how strongly this festival is received in our mountain community. We did hear some comments last year that people missed the cultural films from past film festivals” states Rich Campbell. “This year, there is a strong resurgence of mountain culture films that captures the spirit of the unique relationship between people and their remote, mountain environments. Some of the films this year will highlight extraordinary and rare aspects of mountain culture from Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and Alaska.”

“The films selected at the Banff Film Festival to go on tour this year are very well balanced with regard to mountain culture, cutting edge mountain adventure, and mountain environments. I think our audience will be very pleased with the quality, diversity, creativity, and passion the films highlight this year,” states Campbell.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is an annual international competition celebrating its 33nd Anniversary featuring the world’s best films on mountain themes. In November 2008, the festival screened over 50 finalist films, chosen from more than 300 entries from 37 different countries. The film festival is organized by The Banff Centre for Mountain Culture in Banff, Canada. For information visit www.banffmountainfestivals.com

For more information about the Banff Mountain Film Festival at Appalachian State University visit www.op.appstate.edu or contact Rich Campbell at campbllrh@appstate.edu. Outdoor Programs is the presenter of this event and Footsloggers Outdoor and Travel Outfitters is the presenting partner.

Advance tickets are now available and can be purchased from the Farthing Auditorium Box Office at 1 (800) 841-2787 or (828) 262-4046, online at www.op.appstate.edu or from Footsloggers Outdoor Travel and Outfitters in downtown Boone, (828) 262-5111.