Roads, Rides and Rivers

by David Holbrooke, festival director
This past weekend I went to the desert to go mountain biking. I have spent a lot of time in the mountains around Telluride - but not much in the desert so the trip to Fruita - a couple of hours from Telluride - was a kick, particularly since we got to ride above the Colorado River.

I went with Telluride local and nationally know ski and adventure writer Rob Story which is always its own adventure. Rob and I continued our trademark routine of coming off the trail in the dark. My wife, Sarah, asked why I haven’t yet learned to bring a headlamp.

Our plan was to go into Fruita after riding and go to the Hot Tomato to see co-owner Anne Keller, whose compelling photography exhibit on World-Class Mountainbike racer Tara Llanes will be at MF this year. But of course, when we finally packed up, it was too late. Traveling with Rob is always … different; and he will share his unique perspective - tweaked and twisted, outraged and insightful often all at once - about his travels at MF this year. He will talk specifically about his interaction with the peculiar species, Outdoor Photographer . (I would link to his website here - but in his own inimitable Story way, he doesn’t have a website - yet). He is on a great program at the Opera House on Saturday (click to view schedule) with Anne and Tara, and a terrific short film called Malletheads about bike polo.

img_0387.JPG

The worst part of the trip (other than falling on a cattle rail - which really hurt) was missing dinner at the Hot Tomato which gets rave reviews for its pizza. The best part was seeing the Colorado. Living in Brooklyn for a long time, it has been a while since I have laid eyes on that river. I am afraid to figure out when the last time was - I did go rafting down it when I was a kid but not sure since then.

The Colorado River will be well-featured and throughly discussed at MF this year. Wade Graham, our symposium host, said that the Colorado - and the Four Corners - SouthWest area is Ground Zero for water issues in this country. It remains an enormous - and essential resource for the area - but with all of the development, it is highly unlikely the river can continue to deliver everything expected of it.

You get an incredibly good sense of both the challenges facing the river - but also just how amazing it is in the new Grand Canyon IMAX film we are playing this year at MF, Grand Canyon - River at Risk. This film - which should be one of our highlights - was directed by Greg MacGillivary who was at MF last year with The Alps. When he asked me if we had any interest in showing it in 3D, we set out on quite a journey at MF. I should actually say our Festival Producer, Stash Wislocki, set out. Mercifully, I have been out of many of the conversations but Stash, our projector expert K2, and the extremely good people of MacGillivary-Freeman Films have worked tirelessly to make this come together.

The film features MF regular Wade Davis and Robert Kennedy Jr and their daughters as they go down the Grand Canyon. After the screening, Wade will speak about the river - and will join some other experts for a discussion. If you haven’t seen Wade Davis speak before, I very much recommend checking him out (he will also do q/a after the film, Schooling the World).

One of the true LIONS of the Grand Canyon is Martin Litton, our poster “boy” this year. For those of you who don’t know him, he rowed dories down the Colorado - through the infamous Lava Falls - into his early nineties. For those of you that do, you will learn something new about his remarkable life in the film, The Good Fight. Martin was all set to come but sadly is not feeling well and won’t be able to make it to MF this year but we hope to have him back next year.

img_0388.JPG
— David
[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]

In the Home Stretch

May 5, 2008
Posted by Festival Director David Holbrooke
“Let go” they tell me …
We had a staff meeting earlier this week and everyone on the MF staff told me it was now time for me to let go.
After taking in a whole LOT of films/books/articles/conversations we have finally got the matrix as they call it […]

Last Week for Early Bird Pass Prices

Sure, it’s a shameless plug; but hey, it’s for the benefit of everyone. Early bird prices for the 30th annual Mountainfilm in Telluride festival are in effect until May 1, 2008. That’s next Thursday. The Wilson Pass, which provides admission to all festival programs, is over 15% off. You can’t beat $250.00 for a weekend […]

Beyond Ethiopian Sand

April 18, 2008
  by guest blogger Majka Burhardt, climber and author of the new book Vertical Ethiopa (All photos courtesy of Gabe Rogel)

Monday. It’s dusty in my van. I’ve had desert sand blown at and about me for three weeks straight. Fine grains nestle into my keyboard and make the space bar crunch. Across the […]

On Understanding the Lighter Side of Injury

April 7, 2008
Our guest blogger this week is Anne Keller, an extremely talented photographer, whose work will be showing at this year’s festival. Keller had the honor of accompanying and photographing world-class mountain biker, Tara Llanes, after an accident left Llanes paralyzed.

There’s a look people give me when I tell them that […]

Holding to the Vision

March 28, 2008
Special thanks to guest blogger, Katie Lee - one of the few people to travel Glen Canyon prior to the Glen Canyon Dam.
It pours over my flushed, hot face– a chilling, cold gift that flows from a breathtaking place in that hot and burnished desert. Even though my eyes and […]

World Water Day is March 22, 2008

March 21, 2008

Did you know that the average African family uses about five gallons of water per day? The average American individual uses approximately 100-176 gallons per day. (Statistics are according to U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet “Water Q&A: Water Use at Home” and the World Resources Institute, 1998-99 and 1996-97. “A Guide to the […]

Think Link: On Tour With Daiva

Posted March 19, 2007
As a Mountainfilm Tour presenter out on the road, I introduce myself to the audience du jour as their “guide for tonight’s cinematic journey around the world” and then proceed to tick off the locales we’ll collectively visit through the eyes of filmmakers, do-gooders, animals and heroes. Sometimes it’s a fleece-n-birks crowd, […]

2008 Mountainfilm Festival Taking Shape

March 14, 2008

Sidenote: We are so appreciative of the amazing posts from our guest bloggers - and the generous spirit they embody to put thoughts down and share them with us every Friday. This week is an intermission for a shameless plug of one of the events we have planned for this year’s festival. Here’s […]

Drink Tap Water

March 12, 2008

Found on Daryl Cagle’s professional cartoon index, www.cagle.com

Posted by Emily Long