Got the ski bug? The VIMFF can help with some tips from the experts
North Vancouver’s Jordan Manley showcases A Skier’s Journey at VIMFF Fall Series
Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Fall Series
Nov. 22-25 | Rio Theatre, Vancouver, and Centennial Theatre, North Vancouver
Tickets: $21 at vimff.org
There’s an itch that skiers get this time of year.
But before a huge dump of snow and the words “open for the season” can fully suppress that itch, many skiers and boarders turn to adventure ski films as a temporary respite to their snow-crystal cravings.
On hand to help satiate the skifilm lover is the Fall Series of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival. The popular festival, now in year 19, delivers evenings of films and speakers covering climbing, forestry, cultures, travel and of course skiing.
The latter is under the heading of the Ski Show (Nov. 24, Centennial Theatre) and includes Whistler skiers Johnny (Foon) Chilton and one of the hottest guys on two free-skiing planks, Kye Petersen. The pair will talk extreme skiing and the movie In Search will be screened.
“It’s the start of the ski season so our ski program in the fall is extremely popular because people are getting excited for the winter ahead,” said VIMFF program director Tom Wright.
Taking the ski adventure on a global and visually diverse journey is North Vancouver’s Jordan Manley. The filmmaker will be talking about his beautifully shot web series A Skier’s Journey and will present the three final episodes from that four-season series.
A perfect mix of travel, discovering and skiing, the VIMFF episodes see Manley capture skiers Forrest Coots and Chad Sayers, both of whom are, like the series, sponsored by North Vancouver-founded outdoor clothing and sporting goods company Arc’teryx.
“He goes where you might not expect there is a ski culture,” said Wright.
The trio discover a universality to skiing that probably never crosses the mind of the recreational skier.
"There are certain surprises along the way,” said Manley about A Skier’s Journey. “I think when you get on the ground and realize some of the history of these places it’s amazing. Asia, skiing goes back quite a ways. That was a surprise. Getting to Dubai, that was a surprise. It was probably the biggest surprise, realizing there was an actual ski culture there.”
Manley started out as a photographer providing pictures for magazines and websites. But he began to feel there was more to the skiing culture than big air off a Whistler wind lip and sick lines down Chugach chutes.
"I was interested in trying to make some videos and branch out into cinematography and filmmaking and I saw an opportunity to pitch Arc’teryx on a show about ski travel that not only celebrated not just skiing itself but also travel,” said Manley, who has been skiing since he was seven years old.
“The series really evolved into an exploration of landscape, culture and the skiing that occurs in these different places around the world."
The VIMFF Fall Series is a tasty appetizer of sorts for the full festival in February, which will mark the event’s 20th anniversary.
While this fall outing is shorter, it doesn’t lack quality by any means.
"We are located here right in the middle of the Coast Mountains and there’s a lot of amazing filmmakers, photographers, adventurers who live within a two-hour drive of Vancouver city,” said Wright. “We get a lot of top, world-class content just from local people, which is an amazing resource.”
The main festival in February expands to include many global filmmakers and influencers.
Festivals of this nature not only deliver beautiful images of nature, they also do them justice by offering a large-screen experience — which is not a regular occurrence in today’s era of personal device.
“One of the challenges we face nowadays in the mountain film and adventure film world is a lot of the films are getting released for free on the Internet too, but we always think there is a value to watching the really well-produced material on a big screen with a proper sound system,” said Wright.
"I think the filmmakers and producers want their film to be seen on the big screen and not a tinny 13-inch laptop computer.”
Manley, whose series was produced for the web, is shot with a big screen mentality and is thankful for the theatre screen.
“Yeah, it’s great. I think ultimately that is the end goal for people to sit down and concentrate and have an experience,” said Manley. “That’s nice for filmmakers to have people to sit down and not be doing anything else when they are watching something. We put a lot of effort into the images and the sound; so being at a theatre is the most immersive experience. I appreciate that.”
Manley almost didn’t finish this beautiful series as he suffered a severe concussion from a fall mountain biking on Mount Seymour in late 2012.
"I wasn’t able to do any work for a couple of years really. It was quite debilitating,” said Manley.
“My relationship to risk has definitely changed since then. I don’t take the same sort of risks or travel at the same speeds. But I was able to pull this year off. So that was a really good test for me.”
With A Skier’s Journey behind him, Manley would like to expand his adventure filmmaking canon to include a broader look at the natural world.
“I would like ultimately to spend more time in British Columbia working on stories about our relationship to the landscape here,” Manley said.
Aside from Manley’s work, this year’s VIMFF Fall Series lineup includes a total of six films with complementing live elements.
Alpine Style is an evening that includes the award-winning climbing movie Citadel and climbing great John Walsh.
Back to the Roots has experts, activists and filmmakers wading in on the B.C. forestry industry, while climbers Vikki Wheldon and Rich Wheater take you on trips around Europe and the North Shore mountains.