Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Awesome Adventures
Film festival celebrates the great outdoors
As the short film “Where the Wild Things Play” opens, three guys are sitting at a bar, wishing they were out skiing or climbing or doing something exciting — and wondering where the girls are.
The answer, the film by Krystle Wright posits, is that women are out there doing everything exciting — skiing, climbing, even doing the splits on a tightrope high in the air.
“A couple of years ago, I was posted up with a broken ankle from a skiing accident, and during this forced downtime, I began conjuring up new project ideas to pursue,” says the adventure photographer. “One particular conversation that had started getting on my nerves was this recurring complaint that there weren’t enough females being represented on the big screen. I felt that I personally knew a lot of bad*** ladies who were already ripping it in the back country, and I wanted to create a fun ‘stoke’ film to celebrate this.”
The result was “Where the Wild Things Play,” one of 10 films being screened Wednesday in Fayetteville as part of the touring version of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, founded in 2003 in California. The event, the first ever held in Arkansas, is hosted by Pack Rat Outdoor Center as part of the business’ efforts to “engage with the community at large” and expand its philanthropy partnerships.
“The film festival also strongly correlates with our … efforts to get people outside, educate the public about the importance of protecting our outdoor places, and empower them to take ownership for Mother Earth’s well being,” says Emily Dixon, community events coordinator for Pack Rat.
“Where the Wild Things Play” also supports the idea that “there is a growing population of women explorers making space for themselves,” Dixon says. “Pack Rat staff is primarily female and are led by a female owner, so if you are a lady in the outdoor [world], Pack Rat is definitely a place where you can find a lady who’s into the same type of outdoor sport that you are.”
Filmmaker Wright reminds that girls just want to have fun, too.
“Sometimes I think we get caught up in being serious all too often, and I know that the reason I get outside to adventure is to have fun,” she says. “I wanted to add some fun to the mix that we see at film festivals, and so far it’s been awesome to hear the feedback and how this piece has resonated with viewers who just felt stoked to get outside after watching it!”
Dixon says the outdoor adventurer in Northwest Arkansas is still most frequently male and primarily in his late 20s or mid- to late 30s. But not always.
“We put on an event in the spring called the Brewha Bushwhack that is an adventure race where you race for points and not time, and we see lots of rough and tough men and women participate even into their 60s,” she says. Hiking is the biggest outdoor draw in the area, she adds, with climbing the fastest growing interest. It makes perfect sense, she says, for a business like Pack Rat to encourage filmgoers to be “active stewards” of the outdoors.
“The health of the environment directly correlates with the health of our business,” she says. “People can only explore if there are places to explore.”