Banff films come to OCC

Andrew Edwards

Not all adventure movies are based on space travel, robots or

mysterious realms. Some are true stories.

Tonight will be the sixth year Orange Coast College will host a

stop of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, college

librarian and event organizer Carl Morgan said.

The show will include a sampling of movies exhibited last fall at

the festival in the Canadian Rockies. Morgan described the festival

as being “like Sundance in a way, except they’re all outdoor

adventure films.”

The show’s playlist includes the award-winning “Alone in

Australia,” as well as “A Russian Wave,” a humorous piece about

kayaking. And there’s “Balance of Risk,” a short about a climber who

returns to a spot in the French Alps where his climbing partner was

killed.

“We always have a really great mix of films,” Morgan said.

The festival’s tour will make close to 300 stops in the United

States and Canada, according to tour manager Jim Baker. Most stops on

the tour are staffed by road crews, who pack up into vans in November

and drive cross-country through May.

The 2004 Banff festival finished in November, and “Alone in

Australia” won the festival’s People’s Choice and Best Film on

Mountain Environment awards. The piece chronicles filmmaker Jon

Muir’s 128-day journey across Australia. The film shows Muir living

off the land, joined by only his dog, Seraphine.

“It’s an absolutely incredible adventure story,” Baker said,

noting Muir made his trip without a satellite phone or any type of

backup.

There are some long shots in the film that were taken by a film

crew, Baker said, but they were shot after Muir completed his journey

and returned to his route with other filmmakers.

Last year, Brian Cameron, a senior assistant manager at Patagonia

at Adventure 16, an outdoors store in Costa Mesa, visited the film

festival at the college. He said he will miss tonight’s show because

he’s scheduled to work, but recommended the event to “someone who

loves the outdoors and loves film.”

The screening will begin at 7 p.m. in the Robert B. Moore Theatre

at Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road in Costa Mesa.

Tickets cost $10 at the door. The event will be a benefit for

Orange Coast College’s Friends of the Library.