Kitsap Scene+
Subscribe
Cover photo

Outdoors-themed Banff Centre Film Fest comes to the Roxy Theatre

Kitsap Scene

Apr 20

Since 1976, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada has hosted a film festival highlighting some of the best films showcasing the great outdoors.

This year's Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival ran from Feb. 22-25, but it's not over. The festival is now in the midst of its world tour, and it comes to Bremerton April 30 at the Historic Roxy Theatre.

“We take the best of the festival and put it on tour,” said Paul Fish, who brought the tour to Bremerton, among other Washington cities. “When I go up to the festival, it’s three or four days of solid dawn-til-dusk — way past dusk — of watching films to help pick the ones I want to [take on] tour, and get feedback on them. We take a nice curated assortment on tour that gives a good sense of what the festival is like.”

Fish has been an outdoors enthusiast for almost 50 years, he said, and for years he owned and operated an outdoor supply store in Spokane called Mountain Gear.

He brought the Banff film festival to Spokane about 33 years ago, and although it was partly a marketing tool for his store, it was more importantly a way to indulge his passion of getting people to love the outdoors, and he soon brought the festival to other cities, he said.

“It was a nice combination of being able to get people engaged and excited about the outdoors generally in kind of the off-season, and it was a little bit of marketing for my company at the same time," he said.

Fish previously had hosted the festival in Port Townsend, but he said Bremerton appealed to him because it was a bigger population center.

“The Bremerton theater seemed a little closer to the population, and is a little bigger for them to work with, so we chose to go with the Roxy this year," he said.

The festival brings an interesting mix of outdoors-themed films. “We try to get it right for the crowd," Fish said. "There’s something everybody will love and probably something that they’ll say, ‘It’s not my favorite.’ But it’s a great mix.”

This year, Bremerton will feature one night of films, but as the world normalizes from COVID, it'll move to two nights in the future, he added.

Some highlights of the films that will be shown:

  • Follow the Light. Fish describes this film as "a beautiful mountain biking film that was filmed in Cappadocia, Turkey. Great biking and amazing scenery."

  • FINALLY. Fish describes this film as "kind of a pandemic ski film ... that’s fun, interesting. Some good skiing and a little bit of philosophy in there."

  • My Midsummer Morning. Fish said this film is the "story of a guy who’s adventured all over the world, biked around the world, climbed amazing peaks, and his latest adventure is learning to play the violin, which he does not know at all, and ... going with no money, and busking his away across Spain. ... It was just an amazing, approachable film. It was not quite everybody’s favorite, but it was really wonderful because I’m going, ‘I just started playing guitar and maybe I’ll take my guitar somewhere and try busking and see if I can feed myself for a few days on a trek or something.’ Anybody can have an adventure; it doesn’t need to be to Mount Everest. It really was a beautiful story."

  • BEAR-LIKE. "It’s two guys who spend a summer up in Alaska getting very close to Grizzly Bears," Fish said of the film. "And I’ll say I found it as interesting and terrifying as I found ‘Free Solo.’”

Fish said he considers BANFF the premier North American mountain/outdoor film festival.

“I got engaged with them and I loved the people," he said. "The people are wonderful, the filmmakers are wonderful, and they’re just really good to work with.”

The festival was held virtually in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fish said. This year's festival at the Banff Centre was smaller than in recent years.

With COVID putting so much entertainment on hold over the past two years, Fish said it's wonderful to see people out enjoying the festival again.

“In both Vancouver and Spokane, the two shows I’ve done so far this year, for many people, it was their first time out in a group setting [since COVID]," he said. "First of all, the audience was incredibly respectful and kind to everybody else. It went very smoothly. And then people were just like, ‘Oh, I missed this so much.’ And I love seeing it live and I’m so glad that right now it feels comfortable to do that. … The people in the audience share a common love for the outdoors and nature, and to be amongst a group like that was really wonderful.”

The film festival is 7 p.m., April 30, at the Historic Roxy Theatre in downtown Bremerton. Tickets are $18. Buy them here.

Help us continue to produce local journalism, like profiles of local businesses, coverage of crucial issues like housing affordability, and interviews with local musicians by signing up for a premium subscription to Kitsap Scene+. You'll get access to exclusive articles, a members-only Facebook group, and more. Start your 14-day free trial today.

Subscribe to Kitsap Scene+
By subscribing, you agree to share your email address with Kitsap Scene to receive their original content, including promotions. Unsubscribe at any time. Meta will also use your information subject to the Bulletin Terms and Policies

More from Kitsap Scene+
See all

Rapper Jordy Sam on his eclectic musical influences, engineering his own music, and the hidden talent in Kitsap's hip-hop scene

Jordy Sam's music influences are diverse, from Gospel, to R&B, to rap. Hailing from a musical family, the Bremerton rapper started playing music at a young age. Having put out music on local record label Lions Den 360 and worked with local studio BoomHouse Studios, Sam is well integrated with the local rap and hip-hop scene — a scene that, he ...
May 20

Kitsap reacts to the potential demise of Roe v. Wade

A leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito spells the likely demise of Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that enshrined a right to abortion in U.S. law.
May 19

Five things to do in Kitsap County, May 16-22

There's always a ton going on in Kitsap County. Here's a curated list of five events happening this week, from concerts to community festivals and more.
May 16
Comments
Log in with Facebook to comment

0 Comments

Share quoteSelect how you’d like to share below
Share on Facebook
Share to Twitter
Send in Whatsapp
Share on Linkedin
Privacy  ·  Terms  ·  Cookies  ·  © Meta 2022
Discover fresh voices. Tune into new conversations. Browse all publications