Mountain Film Festival: Adventure and inspiration at its best

Lukas Kirchner enjoys the view of La Perouse and the West coast from Middle Peak Hotel on Aoraki Mt Cook. Photo / Gavin Lang

Slide, glide, or hike to the Starlight Cinema in Taupō for an inspiring night out on Wednesday, July 27 to watch an outstanding collection of unique adventure and award-winning films in the 2022 New Zealand Mountain Film Festival's National Tour.

The content, the magnitude of the exploits, along with the cinematography makes for an impressive programme that will truly inspire Taupō's adventure-orientated community.

"This programme with four mesmerising films has something for everybody, whatever your adventure is," local organiser Brett Cotter says.

The Grand Prize-winning film House of the Gods follows UK adventurer and climber Leo Houlding and their team on their real-world quest through 100km of untracked jungle, into a unique slime forest and up the desperately steep cliff of Mount Roraima which soars from the depths of the Amazon rainforest like the prow of a gigantic ship.

Shrouded in cloud, drenched by torrential rain and guarded by vertical jungle, deep mud and overhanging cliffs this distinctive landscape was the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and the Disney/Pixar's animated movie UP.

Also in the lineup, We Don't Usually Have Ice Creams, the winners of the Spirit of Adventure Award which showcases a group of Wellington over-65s that go tramping every Wednesday. This isn't your average pensioner walking group. They don't believe in tracks or bridges. They scale untracked ridges, ford or swim rivers, scramble up waterfalls, abseil over bluffs and seldom get home before dark. These men are tough, but the women are tougher.

The Best Snow Sports Film Award winner is O'Parizad, an adventure combining skiing and mountaineering with four skiers chasing their goal to return on the trail of their pioneering ski ancestors to ski an 8000m Himalayan giant- Gasherbrum II.

Climbing without oxygen or fixed ropes by the southern spur, borrowed 45 years before them by French mountaineers Marc Batard, Yannick Seigneur and Louis Audoubert, before descending it entirely on skis this film pays tribute to the "mentors", to the "great figures".

Winner of the Hiddleston/MacQueen Award for Best NZ-Made Film is Traversing the Night which documents four New Zealand alpine kids (as they call themselves) as they set off from Arthur's Pass with a dream to traverse the spine of the Southern Alps for the next three months until they reached Fiordland.

The mountains are wonderful, beautiful and healing – but they are healing because they make us confront things that get drowned out in regular civilisation.

"Our local audience savour this annual adventure film fest; what could be better than sitting alongside fellow outdoor enthusiasts letting your imagination go wild and planning your next adventure?" Brett says.

The Details
What: The NZ Mountain Film Festival National Tour.
Where: Starlight Cinema Taupō.
When: Wednesday, July 27, 7pm.
Tickets: $22 for adults, $17.50 for under 17-year-olds, and $13.50 for under 12-year-olds; available online at www.trybooking.co.nz and from Starlight Cinema, and on the night at the cinema.

GIVEAWAY

The Taupō & Tūrangi Herald has a double pass to The NZ Mountain Film Festival National Tour at Starlight Cinema to give away. To enter, send your name and phone number to news@taupoturangiherald.co.nz by 10am on July 25.