By David F. Rooney
Revelstoke is hardly Hollywood North but there are a number of filmmakers here and they are preparing to show the fruit of their labours in the first annual Revelstoke Film Festival on Wednesday October 13 at the Roxy Theatre.
The five films by Vance Shaw, Brent Viedeman, Frank Desrosier, Kaleb Weston and Eric Iberg all focus on outdoor adventure, says organizer Vance Shaw, himself one of the filmmakers.
“It’s not all sunny powder days,” he said in an interview. “There are tough times in the mountains and people die. It used to be that all you were responsible for was documenting extreme sports… now it’s more about producing a good, well-told story.”
That may be best demonstrated in the film, Like a Lion, by Minnesota native Eric Iberg whose film captures the life of legendary skier Tanner Hall. This is a film that has a its dark moments as it probes Hall’s problems with addiction and serious injuries.
“The movie will touch people in a lot of ways but I’m not sure it will be appropriate for kids,” Shaw said, suggesting that young people who want to see the film should be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Then there’s Viedeman’s Boost 5, which captures the colourful world of snowmobiling in Revelstoke. This hour-long film features local snowmobilers as well as some of the people who have been coming here for years to enjoy the deep snows of the backcountry on their machines.
“He’s been making snowmobiling videos for years and I think Boost 5 is his best one yet,” Shaw said.
Frank Desrosiers is no stranger to filmmaking, either. He has been busy lately making industrial films but promises to entertain the audience with a short, 15-minute film based on previous work.
One of the highlights of the show is bound to be All Things Go by local teenager Kaleb Weston. Weston’s 25-minute film stars his friends Jake Teuton, Wyatt Riegel, Tashi Townley and should be a must-see for local residents. Weston produces crisp, innovative short films that are extremely professional. You won’t believe he’s still a boy.
And then there’s Shaw’s own film, Rev: A Buried Treasure. Rev tells the story of a town — our town, in fact — as it makes the transition from a quiet mountain town to a world-class ski destination. Winner of the Best Snow Sports movie at the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival it is short listed for the International Freeski Film Festival in Montreal and will be shown in next year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival.
Shaw has high hopes for the festival.
“I definitely want to see it repeated,” he said. “I don;t know if we’ll be the ones to carry it on to that conclusion but it has the potential to grow.”
The doors open at The Roxy at 6 pm and the films get underway at 6:30 with All Things Go, followed by Boost 5 at 7, Frank Desrosiers’ short at 8:15, Rev: A Buried Treasure at 8:30 and Like a Lion at 9:15.
