The 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival Roundup

The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) took place from Feb. 12 to 20 at a number of locations in Vancouver.

By Drew Copeland

VIMFF has progressed from humble beginnings in the North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre, when 1,700 hundred viewers would come out to watch a few mountain films. The 19^th season just passed and with the addition of a new venue, the Inlet Theatre in Port Moody, VIMFF continues to bring engaging narratives to mountain enthusiasts. Twenty-thousand people across Canada now get out to see VIMFF films each year.

VIMFF is about awesome adventures in amazing places, but it’s also about telling stories.

“The story telling aspects are what we consider the most important when curating the festival – a unique narrative and strong set of characters can override all other factors in filmmaking. I think these are the aspects that really connect the film to the audience and these films are the ones people remember,” says Tom Wright, the director of programming for VIMFF.

In addition to the films, speakers explored a range of subjects adding depth to the event.

Opening night this season, we heard from Kevin Jorgeson. He elaborated on the incredible and involved mission of climbing the Dawn Wall, considered one of the hardest climb big wall free climbs in the world.

Jimmy Martinello shared about ski ventures to remote places in BC, Alaska and the Himalayas. Paul McSorely talked about a few of his recent adventures to climb a new route in the Waddington Range here in BC, and another in Norway.

John Vaillant’s book, The Golden Spruce has been turned into a play, Hadwin’s Judgement, which showed at the festival. He answered questions from the audience and explained a few of the finer points on this mysterious and politically significant story.

Katrina Van Wijk is a professional kayaker and founder of Tits Deep, a movement to celebrate physically and mentally strong women in extreme sports. She gave her perspective on the full integration of risk, responsibility and reward as it relates to paddling.

Bill Hawley and Spencer Searooke talked about the cutting edge of slacklining in North America. Lynn Hill was incredible. She talked about growing up competition climbing, about her first free ascent of The Nose and some of her forays into alpine climbing.

It all wrapped up with some words from the legendary Leo Houlding. In total, four venues, 29 shows, 77 films and 31 guest speakers filled the week.

The grand prize went to K2: Touching the Sky. For the full list of winner, visit here.

– Drew Copeland is a writer and climber based on the West Coast, and a regular contributor to Gripped.