MountainFilm makes Carbondale stop

CARBONDALE ” Thirteen feature and short films that capture diverse landscapes, adventures, viewpoints, and cultures will be screened at MountainFilm on Tour, which makes a two-night stop in Carbondale on Friday and Saturday.

Each evening’s program begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Barn and each night features an entirely different slate of films, plucked from the MountainFilm festival in Telluride that takes place each May.

For Roaring Fork Valley fans of the tour, the annual stop in Carbondale is their one local shot at catching the screenings.

This is the seventh year CRMS has hosted MountainFilm as a fundraiser for the private school’s outdoor curriculum.

“It’s the Sundance of adventure film. It’s the biggest adventure film happening in the valley, and it’s a great fundraiser for the school,” said CRMS Communications Director Jeremy Simon. “It really mirrors the marriage with the arts and adventures that the school promotes. And Carbondale being an extreme kind of town, it’s been successful through the years.”

Local audiences have come to expect the Mountainfilm on Tour, and shows have sold out in the past, he noted.

“It’s at the point now that if we didn’t do MountainFilm I’m sure we’d hear about it,” Simon said.

Tickets purchased in advance are $12 for adults and $6 for children, age 12 and younger, available at Sounds Easy in Carbondale, Glenwood Music and at CRMS. Full programs are available at these locations. Ticket price at the door is $15 for adults and $8 for chldren under age 12.

(About 127 minutes, plus intermission)

” (USA, 6 min.) Few forces in nature are as frightening, or as dazzling, as an avalanche. Marvels of physics, they have the capacity to sweep climbers or skiers to their death, or destroy entire villages, and will the senses with awe. (By Ken Bailey and Michael Friedman)

” (USA, 12 min.) In a quest for first ascents in Yosemite, two partners climb the most outrageous roof cracks they can find. (By Peter Mortimer)

” (USA, 55 min.) Can a story change the world? In the spring of 2003, three young Americans traveled to Africa in search of just such a story. They lost their innocence while gaining life-changing purpose. (By Bobby Bailey, Lauren Poole and Jason Russell)

” (USA 10 min.) A light-hearted look at the national dish of Mongolia: Boodog. Demonstrating a cooking method that dates back to the time of Marco Polo, nomads share their recipe with Francoise Casset as she treks across Mongolia and discovers the country, culture and how sharing a good meal always brings people together. (By Deborah Schildt)

” (Bermuda, 15 min.) An annual visitor to the Annapurnas, author and photographer Andrew Stevenson uses a video camera to record a way of life that will soon fade into the lost horizon of a forgotten time. Walking 100 miles in the middle of winter through the Himalayas, Andrew stays in the homes of locals he has befriended over the last two decades. These spectacular images of mule trains, yak caravans and local traditions depict the cost of completing this military highway. (By Andrew Stevenson)

” (USA, 49 min.) ” Written and narrated by celebrated author David James Duncan, this documentary follows the transformation of bamboo from a vibrant plant on the hillsides of southern China to a featherweight fly rod on a Montana river. In a lyrical cinematic journey, Trout Grass reveals a century-old method of connecting with the natural world and proves, once again, that fly-fishing can be about much more than just catching fish. (By Ed George)

(About 121 minutes, plus intermission)

” (France, 13 min.) In 2004, the French Soulflyers Team”Loic Jean-Albert, Val Montant, Pascal Zunino and Pierre Desmet”concoct a grand plan: to fly over each of the emblematic summits of the Earth, including France’s Mont Blanc and Japan’s Mount Fuji. Join the Soulflyers as they play through the air and across the snow”skiing, free-flying and wingsuit skydiving and paragliding. (By Dominique Janiszewski)

” (Canada, 24 min.) Learn the remarkable story of the people of Havana and how they averted a food-shortage disaster by creating thousands of urban farms in a city better known for its music and nightlife. Faced with food shortages and widespread hunger, Cuban city dwellers began growing food wherever possible: on rooftops, in schoolyards and in front of office buildings. (By Richard Phinney)

” (USA, 8 min.) World leaders say that they want world peace”but at what price? Through the prose of a veteran, this film explores the tragic irony of war waged to establish peace. (By Dawn Westlake)

” (USA, 10 min.) Environmental crusader Martin Litton, now 90, details his role in saving the Grand Canyon during the 1950s, as well as his current campaign to save the last remaining giant sequoias in California. (By Mark Fraser and James Fox)

” (USA, 5 min.) Not all sports are created equal. Follow one man’s journey to bring to the sport he loves the respect he thinks it deserves. Free Zoltan! (By Eric Crowe, Brendan Kiernan and Frank Pickell)

” (USA, 1 min.) Native American tribes on the northern Great Plains can harness enough wind energy to provide our nation with one-third of all annual electricity consumption. This public service announcement introduces the subject of the first utility-scale wind turbine erected on tribal lands. (By Chip Comins)

” (USA, 60 min.) Ninety-four-year-old Maui resident Woody Brown has lived a life full of extraordinary adventure and accomplishment. He invented the modern catamaran, set world gliding records and surfed Hawaii’s 25-foot surf in the 1940s. But what sets this legend in the worlds of surfing, sailing and soaring apart is an enthusiasm and generosity that has made him an inspiring role model for three generations of Hawaiians. (By David L. Brown)