The Banff Center Mountain Film Festival World Tour recently came to Jamestown. This film festival is presented at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts and is sponsored by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. The film festival is shown in only approximately 150 locations in the U.S. and Jamestown is fortunate enough to have cultural centers like the Reg Lenna and the Roger Tory Peterson Center to host this event. This event has grown every year and has now expanded to a two-night event.
Attending an event at the Reg Lenna is a great experience at this historical theater that focuses on an array of cultural events. The film festival tour brings award winning film entries, and shows 6-10 shorts, some a few minutes long, others 20-40 minutes. The films/documentaries are the world’s best mountain culture, sport, adventure, exploration, environmental films, which were entries submitted to this international Film Festival.
Two of our youth Andy and Connor attended and both expressed how interesting the films were and how much fun it was to be at the Reg Lenna. They described the films as ‘Inspiring, Engaging, and Invigorating.’ They selected Wild Waters and Free to Run as two of their favorite films. One was a Swiss film about Nouria Newman, a young female kayaker ranked as one of the most skilled kayakers of her generation, with incredible footage from around the world of her kayaking over waterfalls. The other film was a US film about a UN human rights attorney and mountain runner Stephanie Case as she showcased her Free to Run organization benefiting Afghanistan women, allowing running and the safety to do so. Andy commented that he learned a lot as he did not know how serious the danger was for women in that country to do normal things like exercising and the threat of the Taliban. You can check out a trailer of Wild Waters on You Tube, and you can watch the full video of Free to Run on You Tube. Better yet, check out any of the shorts that are Banff Film Festival on You Tube, and you too will be a Banff Film Festival annual goer. It’s addicting! We are so fortunate to live near Jamestown and have the opportunity to have Theaters like the Reg Lenna host cultural events, along with the National Comedy Center and Chautauqua Institute.
Narda Gatgen LCSW-R
“Annual Banff Film Festival attendee”