Vancouver is an outdoorsy town. Both locals and visitors love the easy access to hiking, mountain biking, skiing, rock climbing and more. So it’s no surprise that Vancouver has it’s very own mountain film festival: the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF). It’s a great way to spend a cozy evening indoors watching inspiring films and listening to accomplished speakers.
The main festival runs every February, but Vancouverites couldn’t get enough, so there is an annual Fall Speaker series as well. This year, the series runs from November 14th to 18th at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver and the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver. There are four separate shows.
Reel Rock 14 is a rock climbing show that will be screen four times – once in North Van and three times in Vancouver. It features three climbing films including “The Nose Speed Record” about Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell’s attempt to break the fastest known time to climb the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
The Mountain Bike Adventure show includes 4 bike-centric films, two of which feature BC trails and athletes. The feature is “Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya on MTB”, which follows three world-class mountain bikers trying to ascend, then descend the tallest mountains in Africa. Speakers Elladee Brown and Leslie Kehmeier will also give a presentation about bike packing in the mountains of Croatia.
With winter coming, there are two nights of ski films in the VIMFF Fall Series. Ski Show 1 features a presentation and film by pro skier Cody Townsend about his attempt to ski all the lines from the book “Fifty Classic Ski Descents in North America”. Four other short ski films will also be screened.
Ski Show 2 includes a presentation by pro-skier and avalanche safety advocate Michelle Parker. The three films screened at the show highlight Whistler’s legendary Spearhead Traverse, adventures in Russia’s Caucasus Range, and one BC man’s quest to summit 100 peaks without using fossil fuels.
The Fall Series also includes an on-going Mountain Photography Exhibition featuring award-winning images from the 2019 festival. It runs from October 4 to November 21 at the Delbrook Community Recreation Centre in North Vancouver, and then from November 22 to Januarly 11, 2020 at the Ledge Community Coffee House in Squamish.
Tickets are going fast and the Fall Series usually sells out every year. Buy tickets and get more details on each of the shows on the VIMFF website.
