Mountain Film Festival 2009 Highlights Adventure Travel’s True Spirit
May 28, 2009 | Filed Under Adventure People, Adventure Tourism and Social/Environmental Issues
I was lucky to spend last weekend at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado as the guest of National Geographic ADVENTURE magazine, one of the event’s sponsors.
This was my first time to the Mountain Film Festival and I expected to see such films like the snow-boarding thriller “That’s It, That’s All” and “Solo,” which documents Australian Andrew McAuley’s ill-fated kayak trip across the Tasman Sea, but was happy to see the many issue-oriented documentaries. A couple favorites:
Without a doubt one of the highlights of the weekend was being in the audience for the world premier of Ken Burns’ new epic: National Parks: America’s Best Idea, which will air in six parts on PBS this fall. After Episode One, Ken took the stage with Bill McKibbon to discuss the ongoing saga between people and nature. Burns’ films explore many issues relative to the national park system in the United States, but I was especially caught by the tense interplay between tourism and the preservation of wild spaces that of course exists to this day.
 Inle Lake Leg-rower Burma January, 2007 photo by Christina Heyniger. |
In Burma VJ – Reporting From a Closed Country the subject is the uprising that occurred in Burma in September, 2007. The footage was filmed by a network of underground reporters using handicams and smuggled out of the country where it was broadcast internationally on CNN and back even back into Burma. I was in Burma in February 2007 with Xola consultant Adam Vaught and adventure travel industry veteran Richard Weiss, looking for ways to connect adventure companies with humanitarian and other volunteer groups so visitors might find a way to contribute to the local economy despite the military rulers’ stranglehold on the country.
Many adventure travel companies offer trips to Burma/Myanmar but without some extra effort you’ll see the glassy waters of Inle Lake and the temples of Bagan and go home thinking, “Maybe things aren’t so bad in Burma, after all!” It didn’t take much digging to discover the real truth in Burma, and I encourage all adventure travelers and tour operators interested in the country to learn about the issues and search out ways to connect yourselves or your travelers with the real people there.
This film won the festival’s “Moving Mountains Prize” and shouldn’t be missed. Read U.N. Dispatch blogger Mark Leon Goldberg’s comments on Burma here.
The Mountain Film Festival reinforced for me something I’ve observed repeatedly in the adventure industry – this is a community of “changemakers.” Adventurers, explorers – are some of the first people to see and experience global issues. It makes perfect sense that this community would be among the first to not only welcome these kinds of films, but also contribute to their production. See for yourself when Mountafilm goes on tour. – Christina Heyniger
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