Banff Mountain Film Festival

Friday, I went with some friends to the first night of the 2-day traveling Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. It was a nice collection of films this year, but much less of the adrenaline pumping craziness of years past. I love that type of thing, as I usually find it very inspiring, even if it's over the top nuts.

This year (at least for the first day), there were two long films that took up most of the night. One was an interesting story about world champion paraglider Louise Crandal and her boyfriend falconer training an eagle to fly with Louise. Eagles are the kings of the updrafts.

The other long film, Red Gold, was a touching movie about the people who subsist, intentionally in two river areas that flow into Bristol Bay, Alaska. It's a story about the salmon and the people who inhabit the region that is the most prolific sockeye salmon spawning grounds in the world. At the headwaters to these two rivers, a huge deposit of copper and gold has been found. Evidently, it's the second-largest copper deposit ever found. The film shows all that is to be risked, if the mining project goes ahead. It's interesting to see people who have chosen or been born into a lifestyle that provides satisfaction and wholesomeness, regardless of the monetary income. The mining company is right in one way, these folks could likely make more money with other jobs, but they're completely shortsighted in that money's not the point of the fishing and living from the land of the people who choose to live there. Subsistance isn't just about surving. It's a philosophical and cultural ideal that is satisfying when all is in balance.