Chris Davenport to Speak at the NZ Mountain Film Festival

Chris Davenport to Speak at the NZ Mountain Film Festival

The NZ Mountain Film Festival will run for the 14th year in Wanaka and Queenstown from the 1st to the 9th of July. This iconic event will once again host world-class speakers, filmmakers and authors who are adventurers and storytellers in their own right.

The adventure film and book competitions are open and the Festival judging panel is currently accepting and reviewing submissions. Over $4,000 in prize money is available to filmmakers and writers from both New Zealand and around the world. The festival programme will be made up of the best films, as well as a line up of entertainment from world-class speakers, authors and storytellers from around the globe.

The NZ Mountain Film Festival will welcome one of the worlds most accomplished big mountain skiers to the Southern Lakes. American Chris Davenport will be headlining the festival as keynote speaker. Davenport is a highly successful ski professional and in more recent years he has developed a career as a mountaineer, author and professional commentator.

Hailing from Aspen Colorado, Davenport is a two-time winner of the World Extreme Skiing Championships and a bronze medal winner in the Winter X Games. In 2007 Davenport became the first person to ski all fifty-four of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in less than one year and in 2011 he skied the Lhotse Face of Mount Everest in 2011.

This will be Davenport’s first visit to New Zealand, festival Director Mark Sedon says, “Dav is a living legend. He connects nicely to NZ, our way of life and of course our big mountain skiing. We are really privileged to have him speak and we know he will put on an entertaining and informative show about his ski career”. Davenport’s 54 peak mission inspired Sedon to scale and ski eighteen 2,500 metre peaks in the Queenstown region in a similar fashion.

New to the festival schedule is the book and literature event. The writing category extends the ways in which adventurers can showcase their expedition stories and enter their work to win prize money. The writing competition invites authors and writers to enter their work under three categories: Adventure Travel, Mountain/Adventure Fiction and Poetry and, Mountain and Adventure Literature.

The book and literature event will be held at the Rippon Hall and will also involve old fashion storytelling, author readings, poetry and writing workshops.

The new genre is testament to the festivals continuing evolution; the festival has developed from a small adventure slideshow in 2002 to being named as one of the top Adventure Film festivals in the world in 2015.

The festival operates under a non-profit charitable trust and a registered charity. The goal of the trust is to ensure ticket prices continue to be accessible to all and the content champions healthy and active lifestyles and promotes New Zealand arts, film, culture, environment and outdoor lifestyles.

Community funding, grants and also a loyal group of festival benefactors, patrons and friends make the festival possible. Businesses and individuals can support the festival with one off, tax-deductible donations to ensure the sustainability of the annual event long-term.

The full programme will be revealed and tickets will go on sale online at mountainfilm.net.nz on June 1st.

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