Utah’s High Adventure Mountain Film Festival is a four-day festival comprised of film and panel discussions that will promote the spirit of high adventure mountain film in a high adventure mountain town.  Sponsored and created by Ogden Climbing Parks, the festival will take place annually and all of it will be available to the general public. 

Who, What, Where?

Films, Panel Discussions, and award ceremonies will take place at the historic Egyptian Theater and the Eccles Conference Center in downtown Ogden, UT.  Filmmakers will be invited to present their films and will have a short question and answer session after their film has screened. 

Film Categories include four days of the best of High Adventure Mountain Film:
Climbing Films (alpine, ice, and mixed)
Back country and steep skiing
Mountain Biking
White Water Adventure
Mountain Classics
“Amateur Night” or “Show Your Shorts”
Mountain Environment Sustainablility
“Above the Summit”; Unique to our film festival-films based on people with disabilities participating in high adventure mountain sports, and people who have gone beyond the summit to give back to the community.

On Friday night, we will feature films highlighting legendary award-winning mountain filmmakers and father-son team, Roger and Michael Brown.  Michael Brown’s Endless Knot, a film about climbers Alex Lowe and Conrad Anker, will be screened as well as Roger Brown’s 1979 classic Ama Dablam.  Roger and Michael Brown are guests of honor and they will be recognized for their several decades of contribution to the mountain film genre.

Premieres

White Water Jungle
Tom Tatum’s film stars kayaker Matt Wilson who traveled into uncharted territory in Madagascar to film first and second descents of rivers never before seen by kayak.

Go Wild! Outside Las Vegas
Doug Robinson’s invitation to get out of town and explore the desert. Of course there’s rock climbing, only 20 minutes from The Strip at Red Rocks and beautiful hiking with the surprise of a lush oasis and a band of bighorn sheep. Nearby are dedicated mountain bike trails, which lead to the tantalizing thought of exploring further into Nevada.

Crank it Up! the White Rim Adventure
A new documentary by Mark Wellman features three paraplegics, hand-peddling specialized adapted mountain bikes, the One-Off, on one of the most rugged and forbidding mountain bike trails in the world, The White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park, Utah .

Shake that Bear
Chris Alstrin will be presenting his new film about climbers Rob Pizem and Mike Anderson wrestling with an epic offwidth crack climb in Zion National Park.

Filmmakers Tom Tatum, Doug Robinson, Mark Wellman and Chris Alstrin will be here to present their films.

Panel Discussions

Strong Women Friday 9/19   4-6pm Ogden Eccles Conference Center
Appetizers will be served

• Jennifer Lowe-Anker, author of Forget Me Not, and founder of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation and its Khumbu Climbing School
• Jennifer Jordan, author of Savage Summit and director of the film, Women of K2
• Kelly Perkins, heart transplant recipient who climbs mountains that few thought possible
• Margo Talbot, competitive Ice Climber
• Ali Geiser, book editor and Climber

Above the Summit Saturday 9/20  11:00am – 1:00pm  Ogden Eccles Conference Center
       Lunch will be served

• Chris Waddell, the most decorated male skier in Paralympic history
• Malcolm Daly, Executive Director of Paradox Sports and amputee climber
• Warren Macdonald, adventurer, author and motivational speaker and double amputee
• Jeff Lowe Executive Director of Ogden Climbing Parks and  world class climber now dealing with Multiple Sclerosis
• Mark Wellman, a twenty-year veteran of pioneering disabled extreme sports
• John Librett,  Executive Director of the ‘SPLORE Foundation, providing outdoor adventure for people with disabilities for over 30 years.

Preserving the Crags (Mountain Environment Sustainability)
Sunday 9/21 11:00am – 1:00pm Ogden Eccles Conference Center:
Lunch will be served

• Jeff Lowe Executive Director of Ogden Climbing Parks and  world class climber
• Doug Robinson, author, filmmaker, environmentalist
• Jock Glidden, nationally respected climber, retired WSU philosophy professor and prominent Sierra Club member.
• Representatives from the outdoor industry, the Forest Service, Ogden City, and other interested stake holders

International Jury

Films will be judged, and prizes awarded by an International Jury – led by Jury Chair Walter Daroshin, President of the Leo Awards (Major Motion Picture and Television Awards in Canada). Other jury members are leaders in mountain adventure sports and media and include: Pat Ament, author, climber and award-winning filmmaker; Dr. Deanna Byck, Director, Utah’s High Adventure Mountain Film Festival; Alan Formanek, Director Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival;  Jennifer Jordon, award-winning author, filmmaker, screenwriter and journalist; Patrick Lovell, President, The Adventure Corporation and award-winning filmmaker; Gary Nate award-winning photographer and filmmaker for Warren Miller Films; and Rex Weyler, writer, journalist, ecologist and founder of Greenpeace International.  In addition, all audience members will have an opportunity to vote on their favorite films.

Special Guests (not mentioned above)

• Roger Cotton Brown, legendary Filmmaker and Director, Ama Dablam
• Michael Brown, President Serac Adventure Films
• Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama, who set a new speed record on The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite. The two climbed the 870m line in a mere 2 hours, 43 minutes and 33 seconds in March of this year
• Dean Perkins, Ogden skiing legend and pioneer climber

Great Parties!

Party on the town at the “Filmmaker’s Bash” on Thursday September 18th with “The Bastard Redheads”

Join us for the “Gala Awards Dinner” Saturday September 20th.

Why Ogden?

Utah’s High Adventure Mountain Film Festival 2008 will be unique among mountain film festivals for several reasons:

• Ogden is a superior location for people who want to participate in mountain sports in addition to watching films.  We have excellent climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and skiing within minutes of downtown.
• The proximity to Salt Lake City International Airport provides easy access for film makers, speakers, special guests and the general public.  
• Utah’s High Adventure Mountain Film Festival will screen many of the selections and all the award winners at the Peery’s Egyptian Theater; “a movie palace that is the showcase of the West”.  Peery’s Egyptian is one of an estimated dozen Egyptian-style theatres of movie palace status remaining in the United States.
• Our film festival will highlight the best of Mountain Film.  We will screen the winners of many of the world’s major mountain film festivals from this year thus assuring that we’ll have the “best of the best” of mountain film.  
• Additional films of exceptional quality will be chosen by our jury for screening and for competition for our own awards.
• We will have several premier showings of brand new film works.