"The REEL ROCK Film Tour brings the best climbing and adventure films of
the year to live audiences throughout the world. REEL ROCK shows are
high energy, community events that go beyond mere film screenings to
include prize giveaways, athlete and filmmaker appearances, non-profit
fundraising, and a party atmosphere."
"Every year, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival presents the
wildly popular Radical Reels night – a presentation of the best
high-adrenaline films entered into the Banff Mountain Film and Book
Festival competition."
This focuses on the action/adrenaline films presented at the BMFF. It includes climbing films such as those in the Reel Rock tour, but it also covers other adventure sports.
"The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour brings Banff to audiences around the globe. Immediately after the Festival
ends in November, a selection of the best films go on tour across
Canada, the United States, and internationally from Scotland to South
Africa to China, Japan, New Zealand, Antarctica, and points in between.
Each year, the films travel to 40 countries reaching more than 330,000
people at over 735 screenings."
This includes a broader range of films than is shown in the Radical Reels Tour--more animals, culture & conservation.
Both of our jobs contribute to secondary trauma, so I am glad that we both enjoy getting outside to refresh our minds and bodies. This weekend we went biking, walking and paddling. Here are a few shots from this morning on the Shiawassee River.
We thought this bridge looked pleasant, but as we entered the culvert on the right, we realized it was full of large spiders with very large webs. After a discussion that lasted .5 seconds, we decided to get out of there, and I started back-paddling like mad. Then we pulled over to the right to portage, and were greeted by this:
We avoided the snake (later we learned that it was a northern water snake) and continued on the other side of the road, where peace and tranquility returned.
Then when we got back to the portage, the snake was on the move.
Thanks for lending us the kayak, Dad! I got frustrated while trying to figure out how to set it up (see crossed-arms picture), but Charissa's patience prevailed and we eventually got the pumps and valves in order.
In the soft dusk, we could see all the family lined up ashore. They flashed their headlights and honked their horns, jumped up and down and waved madly, and we did the same. Slowly we drifted farther and farther away with the wind. We were both sad to have to leave so soon, but grateful that the weather had afforded us those precious 24 hours spent there. After half an hour had passed, we saw the lights of the cars heading home and turned to take on the passage ahead.
Time with family is a precious gift! Regardless of our lineage, I hope we will learn to treat each other like the One Great Human Family that we are!! One Love!
When my marriage and my career unraveled simultaneously, I found myself slipping into a downward spiral of anxiety, fear and loss of faith as my world fell apart around me.
In the past week I've come across two anecdotes centered in Uganda that speak to me in different ways.
First, in the book that accompanies the film 180 South, Yvon
shares this anecdote to describe the sub-title of the film—"Conquerors of the
Useless."
I’ll tell you what happened to Doug and me one time when we
went to Uganda. I’ve always loved those great nineteenth-century explorer books
– you know, Burton and Speke, and Livingston and Stanley – they were always
looking for the source of the Nile. They figured the source of the Nile was
Lake Victoria, but then Lake Albert drains into Lake Victoria, and then the
stream that fills Lake Albert comes out of the Ruwenzori Range, the Mountains
of the Moon. Anyway, the highest peak there is Mount Stanley. Doug and I stood
on the top of Stanley and took a piss. For a brief moment in time we were the
source of the Nile.
That’s useless, right? (p. 218)
In the film Yvon explains that the accomplishments are
useless but there is value in the way time in the wilderness changes us. That
is, if we are conscious about how we undertake adventure, we will improve at
leading well-examined lives. For example, both Yvon and Doug now support
environmental organizations (check out 1% and Sin Represas). I share more about this in my Spectrum film review.
Donald Miller tells a very different kind of tale in his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. In this book, Miller describes his discovery that the characteristics that make a good screenplay or movie also apply to living a good story in real life. Along the way we meet Bob Goff, who later wrote the book Love Does.
In a chapter on inviting others to join life's parade rather than merely remaining an observer, Miller shares this story of when he planted a tree with Bob in Uganda:
When we were in Uganda, I went with Bob to break ground on a new school he was building. The school board was there, along with the local officials. The principal of the school had bought three trees that Bob, the government official, and the principle would plant to commemorate the breaking of the ground. Bob saw me standing off, taking pictures of the event and walked over and asked if I would plant his tree for him.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Absolutely," he said. "It would be great for me to come back to this place and see the tree you planted, to be reminded of you every time I visit."
I put down my camera and helped dig the hole and set the tree into the ground, covering it to its tiny trunk. And from that moment on, the school was no longer Bob's school; the better story was no longer Bob's story. It was my story too. I'd entered into the story with Bob. And it's a great story about providing an education to children who would otherwise go without. After that I donated funds to Bob's work in Uganda, and I'm even working to provide a scholarship to a child I met in a prison in Kampala who Bob and his lawyer helped free. I'm telling a better story with Bob.
