Saturday, October 27, 2012

EMFF 2012 - Saturday Evening


THE FILMS

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
A nice short film about mountain biking featuring the world cup from Fort William. Some great footage  of the downhill and good interviews with various pro riders.

SMITTEN
Believe it or not, this film follows Australian climber/BASE-jumper Lucky Chance (yes, that is his real name!) and some of his crazy stunts. The film is very very funny and Lucky comes across as a real character - especially when he talks about his narrow escape on a jump where his canopy fails to open! A must see.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS
A very artistic short film featuring surf photographer Mickey Smith and what he puts himself through to get the perfect shot. Not much surfing in this one, but a very nice poetic short film by Mickey.

SKETCHY ANDY
I had seen this excellent short film about the 'Slacklife' of Andy Lewis once before but I was really looking forward to seeing it again. Andy has, almost singlehandedly, pushed the development of slack lining and trick lining. Andy is an amazing character and this film really captures his personality. The film was just as enjoyable as the first time I saw it and I'd encourage everyone to check it out - even if you're not into BASE-jumping or slack lining, you can't help but appreciate Andy's talents... and his craziness! Randomly I remember seeing Andy performing with Madonna at the Superbowl 2012 halftime show - what a guy!

ALL I CAN
Emily and I had already seen this short skiing film but we didn't mind watching it again, as it is very different from any other skiing films we've seen. It focuses on uban skiing tricks and is beautifully shot and edited. A must see. 


THE LECTURE

LEO HOLDING - AUTANA - THE YOPO WALL
This is what I had been looking forward to the most in the EMFF line-up. Leo is a climber who I have been following for a number of years now and I have been extremely inspired by his adventures and achievements. Leo started off his talk by talking about his early like in The Lakes and his early climbing achievements on the Hold Man of Hoy and El Capitan amongst many other things! He then talked a bit about his climbing accident in Patagonia and his recovery. Leo then talked briefly about his expedition to Everest and The Asgard Project before moving on to the main event: Cerro Autana. Recently, Leo had led an expedition to Venezuela to climb the East Face of Cerro Autana (along with Stanley Leary, Jason Pickles and Alastair Lee). He told some amazing tales of the tribes, the jungle, the journey, the climb, and the logistics involved in such an expedition. It was quite fascinating to hear about all the logistics involved in adventure film-making and all the political obstacles that had to be overcome to make such a trip possible. Can't wait for the full film!