Mountain Film Festival – Thirteenth Festival a Huge Success

NZ Mountain Film Festival – Thirteenth Festival a Huge Success

The 13th NZ Mountain Film Festival was a huge success. The Charitable organisation enjoyed sell out shows and received an incredibly positive response to the new literature and story-telling events in the programme. The audience was once again enthralled with the world-class quality of the films, speakers and the tales of the extraordinary expeditions and adventures. Festivalgoers participated in the photography competition, silent auction and book festival. The festival closed on Saturday 11th of July to a packed crowd in Queenstown.

Alex Honnold entertained keen audiences in sold out shows in both Queenstown and Wanaka. Alex gave a presentation, created especially for the festival, about the reality of what it takes to capture professional photography and footage of free solo climbing. The eager crowd responded to the insightful and fascinating stories of Alex’s inspiration growing up and his attitude towards different styles of a climbing. The audience was offered a unique behind the scenes view of Alex’s real experiences compared with those depicted by the media and popular documentaries. The casual style in which Alex delivered free solo climbing anecdotes and death defying stories were crowd pleasers.

The Mountain Book events were trialed in this years programme. Mark Sedon, Festival Director says “the new mediums were inspired by the desire to look for new ways to deliver the Trusts objectives, to inspire more people, especially youth, into the outdoors”. The two new initiatives held at the Rippon Hall were Words and Wine, where adventure authors read excerpts from their books and Old Fashioned Story Telling. The non-gadget, no power point traditional story telling approach appealed to the audience and Lydia Bradey, Guy Cotter, Chuck Berry, Allen Uren, Paul Hersey delivered brilliantly. The hall was packed and there was standing room only. The atmosphere was fueled by the varied topics of the tales, the local wine, an open fire and the view beyond of Lake Wanaka and the mountain range. This genre is expected to become a permanent fixture in the festival programme due to the success of the inaugural event.

The Photography Competition once again produced a high quality photographic snapshot of Wanaka during the festival weekend. Local Wanaka man Mickey Ross, the overall winner won $500 as he perfectly captured the essence of the people, places and adventure lifestyles of Lake Wanaka and the festival in turn. The Youth category attracted a record amount of entries and the quality of the work coming through was high. Ollie Larkin from Queensbury won top prize of $250 in the Youth Division, second place went to Helena Cook and Daisy Thor-Poet came third. A special prize went to Barbara Lee who won a Lumix camera.

Another new event added to the line up was the Art Walk introduced in Wanaka. Large photos were hung around the town and participants could enjoy a guided tour or grab a map and undertake the stroll themselves. These images became the items available in the Silent Auction in Queenstown over the final days of the festival. The Silent Auctions in Queenstown and Wanaka raised $4,000 for the NZ Mountain Film festivals Charitable grant scheme. The scheme awards grants to support youth into outdoor adventure filmmaking or training, environmental projects and to help disabled people into the outdoors. Once again the support for the auction and festival speaks to the fitting nature of the content of this event, Sedon says “the festival continues to grow year on year. It’s satisfying to see the passionate core crew attend every year but we also see filmmakers, workshop participants and new audience members coming from all over the country and now the world to be part of the festival.”

The festival is a not for profit Charitable organisation that receives funding from several organisations like the QLDC, Lake Wanaka Tourism, Otago Community Trust, Sargood Trust, Skycity Queenstown, Community Trust of Southland and several others. The local support received in donations from benefactors, patrons and friends ensures the sustainability of the festival and the ability of the Trust to continue to inspire safe adventures in the outdoors. Next years festival is scheduled for the first week in July 2016.

ENDS

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