Banff Mountain Film Fest

starts Jan. 26

By DEVIN HEILMAN

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — The 25 films of this year's Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will have viewers sailing, running, skiing and climbing beyond the borders of their wildest imaginations.

"As longtime audiences know, the Banff Mountain Film Festival is powerful in the program it presents each year," said Coeur d'Alene program coordinator Michael Boge. "(It includes) films that inspire audiences to get out and enjoy our mountain life that we enjoy so much in North Idaho as well as viewing cultures in other lands or seeing adventure sports whether with 'young bucks skiing or biking' to the film 'Four Mums in a Boat' where four middle-aged women decide they want to row across the Atlantic."

Adventure runs high in "When We Were Knights," a film about the risk of death that accompanies BASE jumping. The incredible bond between humans and animals is highlighted in "The Perfect Flight," a story of the medieval traditions of falconry, as well as "Trail Dog," a tale of friendship between a man and his dog.

The films vary from rebuilding a home and reclaiming physical ability after paralysis to exploring the world and taking care of it in the process.

"It's exciting," Boge said of the festival. "It shows what we can do in a world that is so topsy-turvy that yes, indeed, we can inspire others."

Boge said when the program came to Coeur d'Alene about 20 years ago, it started out with an audience of fewer than 100 people in a high school where the projector stand needed to be modified. It has now grown from one night to three and has benefited entities such as the Tubbs Hill Foundation, the North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation and the Kroc Center's Third Grade Swim program.

The proceeds have also helped children in Boge's wife's hometown of Satipo, Peru.

"We have put up to 376 children in primary schools that could not afford it by supplying them with books, shoes, school uniforms and school supplies," Boge said. "While in the last year the government of Peru now takes care of those supplies for the 376 children, our focus changed to take on longtime students of our previous program and further their education in college."

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will be in the Kroc Center Jan. 26-28. Doors open at 6 p.m. with films starting at 7 p.m. each day.

Tickets are $17 in advance or $19 at the door. Tickets are available in Coeur d'Alene at Burger Express (715 Sherman Ave.), Tri State Outfitters, Camera Corral and Vertical Earth. They're available in Hayden at Two Wheeler Dealer.