Ice climbing doc ready for debut
Film by Dave Mai to screen this week at Vancouver festival
Climbing icy cliff faces is one thing, but for local filmmaker Dave Mai the nerves really start to build as he gets ready to debut his latest project at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.
“This is the first time there is going to be a bunch of people watching a film that I’ve made, in the whole setting. I’ve posted videos online with a bunch of hits, it’s kind of sporadically viewed, so not quite the same,” said Mai.
His film “Ephemera” debuts Feb. 15 at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver, part of the Arc’teryx Climbing Show. The film is an exploration of sometimes-elusive ice climbing in the Okanagan, featuring a score by local musician Sam Welsch and narration by Shayne Koyczan.
“The reality is kind of kicking in right now that I’m going to be in this room with a bunch of people. Watching my film and judging it. Makes me kind of nervous thinking about it,” Mai said with a laugh.
Around a year of work went into the 12-minute film, getting the right climbing spots, the right shots, climbers and lining up with the elusive Okanagan weather.
“A lot of time, effort and resources to even find (ice climbing spots) in the first place,” Mai said. “Getting to them is one thing. Finding the calibre of climber to ascend them is another thing as well. Lining it up with the weather. It’s difficult it’s not easy. You can’t just jump into and say ‘I’m going to go ice climbing today,’ didn’t work like that,” Mai said.
Getting through deep snow with heavy equipment and supplies, breaking trail to get to Christie Falls in West Kelowna was one of the most arduous undertakings for the film.
“All of a sudden under the snow there’s a bunch of broken trees and snowshoes are getting stuck under them. Ever step is just gruelling,” Mai laughed. “You really learn your limits and some things about yourself suffering through that. At the time it’s like ‘why am I doing this?’ and you get home the next day and say ‘oh my God that was amazing.’”
A rock climber himself, there were some transferable skills Mai brought over to the filming of “Ephemera,” but prior to making the film, he had only ice climbed twice.
“It just kind of caught on. It didn’t seem so absurd after doing it. Before I’d think of ice climbing as something silly and dangerous. Why would you want to go freeze your ass off in the cold,” Mai said. “But I started doing it and I thought, wow, I can do it and this is kind of normal.”
Not only was Mai able to garner some new skills, ice climbing bled over, perhaps more importantly, into his philosophy on life.
“Ice in the Okanagan is a really obscure thing to chase just because of crappy weather, it’s so unpredictable. There’s so much undiscovered stuff that we’re researching on right now,” Mai said. “Even if it seems obscure, if you want it bad enough it’s out there. You just got to go get it.”
He set out three years ago to get a film in a mountain film festival, which begs the question: now what?
“Now I need to set my sights on something else to achieve. I feel accomplished. Even if people don’t like my film I still find value in what I did and I hope to continue doing more of it in the genre,” Mai said.
The Vancouver Mountain Film Festival runs from Feb. 9 to 17.