Thrills and Spills – THE EXCITING TELLURIDE MOUNTAINFILM FESTIVAL RETURNS TO UCSB

Climbing Trango Towers on the north side of the Baltoro Glacier in Baltistan, a district of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, in the film 'A New Perspective Corey Rich photo
Climbing Trango Towers on the north side of the Baltoro Glacier in Baltistan, a district of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, in the film ‘A New Perspective
Corey Rich photo

Every year the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival receives 500 submissions from all over the world, and Emily Long gets to whittle them down not just for the Fest, but working with UCSB’s Roman Baratiak, she’s reduced them to 14 gems for this touring production. The Mountainfilm in Telluride Tour comes to UCSB’s Campbell Hall this Wednesday, bringing a selection of shorts that, as the Fest’s slogan goes, “Celebrate the indomitable spirit.”

Some of that may mean the kind of crazy, death-defying adventure found in the opening film, “Cascada,” from Skip Armstrong and Anson Fogel, where kayakers head to the Mexican jungle and brave the elements and plunging waterfalls. Some include cute, animated films like “The Squeakiest Roar” by Maggie Rogers about a tiny lion cub learning to be just like mommy and daddy. (Yes, the evening is family friendly.)

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Up in the Clouds – Annual Telluride Film Fest returns with the best in nature docs

A scene from the film "As It Happens"
A scene from the film “As It Happens”

Since its inception 32 years ago, the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival has always been a place to celebrate the beauty of nature, the exhilaration of rock climbing and the thrill of discovering the unknown. The six films that make up the touring program coming to UCSB deliver on the above articles, but also provide more, including New York surfers, Scottish skiing and Russian Sasquatch hunting.

Curator Justin Clifton oversees the dozen people who screen the 600 or so films up for submission. Clifton whittles it down, though.

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