Tonight, First Evening of 5 Point Film Festival

They’ve got about nine films on tap for this 5 Point Festival starter evening. Master of ceremony Timmy O’Neill should be amusing as always, though he’ll be challenged by only having a couple of climbing films to riff on during this session. Speaking of, the first flick they’ve got scheduled is Chimaera, a little arty 8 minute clip that covers, yep, skiing! The editing and audio on this guy is impressive. I found the skiing emphasis to be a bit too mechanized for my taste (though several dynamite tosses just made me jealous, I mean, why can’t I have some of that stuff?). Some of the effects made me think I was watching a Transformer movie, but overall I left my viewing with a warm fuzzy feeling and a willingness to lay my own skis down on the snow, step in, and push off! Enjoy the semi-preview below, but know that on a bigger screen with killer sound system, it’ll be much more impressive.

Other flicks on tap for this evening include “Skateistan,” another of an interesting genre we’re seeing more and more of, that being the “lets watch a hip sport in a funky country” type of flick. Some of these works can be pretty good. In this case, protagonist Fazilla dreams of being an international sport competitor when she grows up, only she’s a skateboarder living in Afghanistan. Now that should be interesting.

Moving forward (as anyone intellectual is supposed to say instead of “next”), we have “Life Cycles,” covering the life and times of the bicycle, and after that “Life of Leo,” which segues over to the climbing-in-a-funky-country category with a look at the future of climbing in Cuba. As one who’s super interested in where Cuba will be when the Castro dynasty finally fades (in a year, or 20?), I’m looking forward to this glimpse into Cuba from the climbing point of view. That said, I’m also interested in the thousands of classic cars over there, but that’s another story.

Later in the evening they’ll screen “Chasing Water,” a deep and eventually shallow look at the Colorado river from source to sea by filmmaker Peter McBride, with help from well known author and adventurer Jonathan Waterman. I’ve been tracking this one for a while. Truly interesting, but sometimes a bit on the negative side of the equation as environmental screeds often are. Indeed, while yes the Colorado River does get used, it feeds millions of people along the way, not to mention providing amazing recreation and other benefits. As always, it’s a question of balance. Are the scales tipped too far one way? Watch McBride’s flick and get closer to knowing the truth.

Ah, and closing out the evening will be “Fly or Die,” which brings reality to the fantasy any climber has had at least once in their life: That of climbing totally unencumbered except for a parachute. BASE jump flicks are notorious for being rather shallow and cavalier. Will this one break the mold? Let famed solo climber Dean Potter give it a shot.

See you there. “Before party” starts at 5:00, movies start at 7:00. 5 Point Film Festival