Adventures to unfold on big screen

A still from film Waiatoto, named best NZ-made film in this year’s NZ Mountain Film Fest. PHOTO: JASPER GIBSON

Some of the best adventure films from across the globe will be shown in Queenstown next week.

The annual NZ Mountain Film Festival, now in its 23rd year, this year received a record 294 entries — the final lineup features 64 award-winning and finalist films, including 18 by Kiwi film-makers.

Being held at the Queenstown Memorial Centre next Thursday and Friday, the films will also be available to watch online from July 1 to 31.

The Thursday session here, from 7pm, starts with a ‘social session’ before a conversation with Beth Rodden, regarded as one of the greatest rock climbers of all time, who’s recently published a memoir, A Light Through the Cracks, from 7.30pm.

Four films will then be shown including Trango, directed by Leo Hoorn (US), the grand prize winner this year.

The film follows a team of ski mountaineers, including previous NZ Mountain Film Fest guest speaker Christina Lustenberg, of the US, who skied the first descent of the Great Trango Glacier in Pakistan, after a two-year attempt.

Navigating risk, grappling with grief and facing physical danger, the team pushes the limits of human experiences, facing the unimaginable together.

Other films on Thursday night are Body of a Line (Henna Taylor, US), solo award winner Far Enough (Julien Carot, France), and Alone Across Gola (Jude Kriwald, UK), the best film on adventurous sports and lifestyle.

Another seven films will screen during Friday’s ‘Pure NZ’ session, between 3pm and 6pm.

NZ Mountain Film Fest grand prize winner Trango is being screened in Queenstown as part of this year’s festival.

They include the community spirit award-winner, Spirit of the West (Pedro Pimentel), which is set against New Zealand’s West Coast and captures the spirit of the Old Ghost Ultra, All In or Nothing, directed by Gordon Duff, which won the best documentary award, and follows young athlete Matthew Fairbrother who’s up against 120 riders with full support crews as he attempts to win the overall title at the NZ MTB Rally, on his own, and Waiatoto (Josh Morgan and Jasper Gibson), winner of the Hiddleston/MacQueen Award for best NZ-made film.

It tells the story of a traverse across the Southern Alps through packraft, skis and tramping.

Starting at the Matukituki, Gibson, Nick Pascoe and Charlie Murray travelled via Tititea, the Volta Glacier and the Waiatoto to the Tasman Sea.

"We didn’t set out to make a film," Pascoe says, "the focus was on a creative adventure through an incredible corner of the country, simply for the sake of it."

Rounding out this year’s festival is Friday night’s ‘Snow Show’, from 7pm, which includes best snow sports film Painting the Mountains (Pierre Cadot, France), set in El Chalten, a remote Patagonian village beneath Fitz Roy, where three French skiers arrive to pioneer new lines.

Tickets to Thursday’s session cost $30 ($5 youth discount) and $25 for each of Friday’s sessions, with youth discounts.