A short film marathon made by adventurers around the globe is an ambitious way to motivate even the most devoted couch potato. As the year fizzles out and the silly season starts with the laying of tinsel across mall entrances, it will be no time at all before we arrive at that dreaded day which requires us to make remorse-riddled resolutions made after a continual cheery binge. If you missed the BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour at SA Ster-Kinekor cinemas through October then you might be short of inspiration.
Courtesy of Cape Union Mart, the annual festival, now in its eleventh year, kicked off with the SA winning submission from this year’s Cape Union Mart Adventure Film Challenge. Mowbray to Mowbray Ridge was a short by young Cape Town filmmaker Ziyaad Solomon.
“Every year, local filmmakers are invited to submit a five-minute short film on South African outdoor culture. With this initiative, we wish to provide aspiring South African filmmakers with a platform to celebrate their love for the outdoors, as celebrating the outdoors is what we’re all about,” says Odile Hufkie, marketing manager at Cape Union Mart. Speaking of the winning film, he says: “This film not only celebrates trail running and the beautiful locations it takes you to, but speaks to the much more relevant social challenge of unhealthy lifestyles, and more importantly, making the decision to get off the couch, get fit and explore.”
Solomon aims to do just that, get people off the couch. He attended the Banff festival in 2015, had a pastime of filmmaking and was an outdoor guy who was motivated to making something worthwhile. “While watching the movies I got the urge to just grab my camera and get out there to shoot an adventure movie. And then the perfect opportunity presented itself.” With a passion for running, filmmaking and the outdoors, he decided to combine all three passions to tell the story of Mowbray to Mowbray Ridge.
Solomon explains that the urban parts of the film were shot in Observatory and Mowbray, and the trail running sections on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, the route leading up to Mowbray Ridge and around the block house. “It took about two days to shoot and two to three weeks to edit. And, as is so often the case, it was completed the night before the deadline,” Solomon says.
Solomon was challenged by funding limitations, borrowing wherever possible, but then he won and furthermore says he fell in love with trail running. “I’m so excited to have won the challenge. I had my doubts about entering at first, but I felt really passionate about the story and the concept behind the video. Whether it won or not, I wanted to make this film and share it with the world. It’s a dream come true,” he beams. Since the competition Solomon has started his own company, Long Street Life, an online and video content creative agency
So, is it enough to get you off the couch? The competition will be held again next year, and all you need is a five minute short of your outdoors, your adventure, your fun in the world around you, and you could win the grand prize and have your short screen at the 2017 Banff Film Festival in SA.
Speaking of, after the screening of the SA challenge winner the Banff festival commences with a series of shorts. The adventure starts with 55 Hours in Mexico, where a group of friends fly from the States to Veracruz to climb the third-highest peak in North America and the continent’s highest volcano. They ski down it all in a weekend. Next was an artful mountain bike track in the Builder, a poetic tour of building trails through the forest and seeing tricks on a bike. From the mountain the festival flows straight to the sea, stopping at Living Rivers, where high in the mountain peaks of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, surfers are finding standing waves that never end, and riding them all the way, showing that surfers are not limited to the sea.
From the gorgeous graphics of the rivers we see Women’s Speed Ascent, a succesful attempt to achieve the women’s speed record for the ascent of the Nose on El Cap in the Yosemite National Park. Ascending further we went into Balloonskiing – Heimschnee where we watch a team abseil off a hot air balloon, don skis and jump off onto the white trail of untouched snow. From up in the air to the Isle of Man where Will Sutton: Homefree makes parkour look like child’s play and you will likely attempt to flickflack to get tissues which you will need when you watch Denali, a beautiful tribute to a man’s best friend. While you might shed a tear you will be left with a desire to hit the surf. We are then lead on to Curiosity, enough to inspire ultra-marathoners as we watch teams prepare for the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, and witness some complete and others do their best. In Pretty Faces we head back to the slopes this time airlifted to the Alaskan peaks for one woman’s dream come true. After skiing down we see a mountain bike take on every terrain in Unreal. The festival wraps up with Reel Rock 10: A Line Across the Sky, two mates successfully climb the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia, which is gruelling, challenging and inspiring.
If you find yourself enthused to film your own adventure, there is no time like the present to get going on your own five minute short to enter into next year’s competition. May the adventures of others inspire you to make adventures of your own, and capture them to further inspire.
