The lights dimmed, music poured from the speakers and viewers were transported from the seats of the Buskirk Chumley Theater March 28th and 29th to the mountain ranges and outdoor landscapes.
The theater hosted the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour March 28 and 29 in conjunction with Indiana Outdoor Adventures, an IU program providing resources for students to get outdoors through classes and trips. The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, an arts organization based in Canada, chose 14 films to show split across the two nights.
Hannah McConnell, assistant director for IUOA, described the event as more than just a screening of films.
“It’s about accepting the beauty and rawness of life in all of its forms while also immersing yourself in a natural environment even though you are sitting in a movie theater,” McConnell said.
Tyler Kivland, coordinator of skill development at IUOA and announcer for the film festival, said he had been attending the event since he was an IUOA trip leader in 2008. As the master of ceremonies, Kivland acts as the face of the festival — welcoming guests, promoting audience engagement and hosting giveaways.
The films featured a range of topics such as mountain biking, outdoor rock climbing, skiing and running, giving viewers new and diverse perspectives on the activities. Two films that stood out were 2 legs is 2 easy, is a story about Steve Karczewski who is a one-legged skier, and Ian showcasing a 72-year-old outdoor climber named Ian Elliot. The goal of Banff is to tell stories about common human experiences of overcoming challenges, and acheiving goals. Kivland said while all the films have different outdoor themes, they can still inspire viewers.
“There’s really phenomenal stories in the films as well that really make you think about your relationship with the world,” Kivland said. “It does open your eyes to different cultures.”
There were brief intermission in between films to allow audience members to partake in a raffle hosted by Kivland’s daughter Ruby.
Sita Cohen, an attendee, said the range of perspectives that the films cover every year is inspiring to audiences.
“It gives you many, many, many different cultures, and it gives you men, women, children, Black, white, all kinds of different people, and it is extremely inspiring,” Cohen said.
Michael Glasgow, an attendee and program manager for the IU Office of the Executive Dean , said the festival does more than just inspire viewers.
“It gives the opportunity for small filmmakers and people in all these different countries to have exposure on a world stage,” Glasgow said.
Glasgow too mentions what the diversity of the festival brings.
“The diversity these films bring to Bloomington is astounding,” Glasgow said. “We see all forms, all different walks of people from all these far corners of the world, extremely different ways of life than from what we live here.”
A portion of ticket sales were given to the Buskirk-Chumley Ttheater to help upkeep and preserve the building, but Banff is also a fundraiser for IUOA.
“Money from Banff goes toward supporting student engagement on outdoor trips, which isn’t accessible or affordable to every student here,” McConnell said.
However, this fundraising aspect of Banff may not be known by viewers, McConnell said.
“This year, which is different from other years, we are running a crowdfunding campaign during the festival, which will give our participants an additional opportunity to give to Outdoor Adventures this year,” McConnell said.
Along with fundraising for students, the festival has a free raffle every year that gives audience members the chance to win Prizes. This year the festival offered a trip to Lake Louise, a group package trip to the Bradford Woods Tango Tower and a $600 gift certificate for rental gear offered through IUOA.
If audience members don’t walk away with a prize, viewers may leave the festival with a reinforcement of why diversity matters, Kivland said.
“It just is a good reminder to people of why our differences are valuable,” Kivland said, “why our differences are really exciting, and why our differences are useful.,”
