Banff film festival adventure shorts to screen at Carrie Furnaces

Venture Outdoors is taking its name literally for this year’s presentation of the world tour of the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival, a showcase of adventure films from around the globe.

In previous years, the event was held in the Byham Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. On Oct. 15, this year’s films will have two showings on the big outdoor screen at the historic Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Rankin.

The festival usually hits Pittsburgh in the spring, but the pandemic scotched an April date, said Ebony Montgomery, Venture Outdoors director of development and communications.

Searching for a way to reschedule, board members worked with Rivers of Steel, which oversees the furnace site and hosts a weekend drive-in-style Carpool Cinema there.

Fortunately, Rivers of Steel President and CEO Augie Carlino is a Venture Outdoors board member. “I knew about the issues related to the film festival, when they had to cancel at the Byham Theater,” he said.

“One of our roles is to work with everyone who wants to rent our facilities,” Carlino said. “It’s a little bit of an oddity that they would come to an old industrial site, but we do have access to trails here.”

By collaborating, each organization’s patrons are introduced to the other’s work, and both benefit, he added.

Getting outside

Tickets already are sold out for the 7 p.m. screening, but spaces are available for the 10 p.m. show.

The later program includes 10 films, ranging from 4 to 36 minutes. Filmmakers represent the United States, France, Lithuania, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Topics include sports like cross-country skiing, running, snow-kiting and Nordic skating, along with profiles of mountain rescue workers, a blind Navy veteran on a Grand Canyon river trip and the mother of one filmmaker, who encouraged him to live a life connected to the outdoors.

Attendance is limited to 230 people due to pandemic restrictions, Montgomery said. Some films may not be suitable for all viewers; discretion is advised.

“Tickets for the early show sold out about an hour after we opened up sales,” she said. “I was joking to our CEO that I feel like we’re the Backstreet Boys in the early 2000s.”

Based in Banff, Alberta, Canada, the festival features short films showcasing “stunning landscapes and remote cultures, and bringing audiences up-close and personal with adrenaline-packed action sports.”

Following the Banff event, a world tour brings selected films to cities around the world.

“We’ll have a variety of films with adventure sports like kayaking, snowboarding and hiking in mountains, along with some more low key things like people in older age and even kids just getting outside in a variety of settings,” Montgomery said.

“The first word in our mission statement is ‘inspire,’ and we want to inspire ordinary people to get outside,” she said.

Tickets for the festival, at $35 per person, are available at ventureoutdoors.org.