If you love outdoor adventure, there’s only one thing better than being outside: watching inspiring films about being outside. That’s why March is a good month for outdoor lovers in Colorado Springs. It’s the perfect time to get your cinematic stoke — there’s still plenty of snow season left but spring and summer are on the horizon. Time to get out the map, patch up the gear and get your plans in place. You’ll be more than ready after attending one or all of these outdoor film festivals: Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, Reel Rock 17 and the Fly Fishing Film Tour.
All three of these leading film festivals will be playing locally, bringing inspiration, emotion and plenty of wish-I-was-there moments for fly fishers, rock climbers and outdoors-people and nature lovers of all sorts. Here’s a rundown of all three upcoming outdoor film festivals. Pro tip: Get your tickets early. You don’t want to miss them, and these venues are limited.
Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour
March 7-9
Stargazers Theatre
Widely considered one of the best outdoor film festivals around, the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival awards and screens a full spectrum of visual stories about people exploring, conserving and navigating life within outdoor spaces and wild places. And it delivers all the feels. Some films are epic and extreme, others poignant and thoughtful. The beauty is you don’t even have to travel to the Canadian Rockies to see it. The global world tour brings them all right here to Colorado Springs.
You can thank Mountain Chalet for that. Every year, the outdoor gear shop hosts the festival as a fundraiser for the local preservation, restoration and trail-building efforts of Rocky Mountain Field Institute. This year, the Springs gets the full three-night Banff Mountain Film menu. Each night at Stargazers Theatre features completely different films, ranging from five to 45 minutes each. You can get tickets for one night or a package discount for all three nights.
Banff Mountain Film Highlights
Danny MacAskill’s Do A Wheelie
Anything Danny MacAskill does on a bike is jaw-dropping and full of fun. This five-minute film is no exception.
Clean Mountains
No foreign climbers were scaling the Himalayas during the pandemic, so a Sherpa family climbed Mount Everest to clean the garbage left behind by others and restore the holiness of the mountain.
Wild Waters
As Nouria Newman prepares to become the first female to run a 100-foot waterfall, we watch her grow from a young Olympic hopeful to one of the greatest kayakers of all times. But navigating and pushing back against the expectations placed on her as a woman and athlete are an even greater life challenge.
Read more in our previous article Banff Mountain Film Festival Celebrates Outdoor Community. Get details and tickets at mtnchalet.com
Reel Rock 17
March 16
Colorado College, Armstrong Hall
Reel Rock never fails to send it with some of the best climbing and adventure films around. The walls are formidable. The challenges are massive. The cinematography is breathtaking. But it’s the human spirit and shared experience that shines brightest in this collection of films. Sponsored by CityRock and hosted by Colorado College, Reel Rock is a one-night festival premiering three heart-stopping new films.
Reel Rock Film Lineup
DNA
The 29-year-old French phenom Seb Bouin tackles what may be the world’s hardest sport climb in France’s Verdon Gorge. Stunning footage captures the pursuit of a new cutting-edge route in a massive limestone cave.
Resistance Climbing
In conflict-torn Palestine, a diverse group of climbers finds community, solace and redemption. The film follows Andrew Bisharat’s journey to Palestine’s West Bank to explore the power of climbing to change lives.
Burning the Flame
Elite Austrian power duo Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher attempt a coveted free ascent of The Nameless Tower in Pakistan. Just reaching the remote spire is a feat of survival.
Get details and tickets at reelrocktour.com.
Fly Fishing Film Tour
March 18
Stargazers Theatre
You’re going to want to pick up a rod and reel and head for open, exotic or any kind of waters after watching the Fly Fishing Film Tour, aka F3T. Sure, you’ll get plenty of fishing porn and gratuitous aquatic beauty, but there’s more than just pretty pictures in this one-night film fest. Fishing is only the medium for the deeper human stories built around the water and the fly fishing lifestyle.
There’s a win-win to this festival too. Local fly shop and outfitter Angler’s Covey has been bringing F3T to town for the last 15 years as a fundraiser for various organizations. This year, 100% of proceeds will benefit the mental health work of the Morning Hatch Foundation and its partners such as Project Healing Waters.
F3T Film Highlights
4 of a Kind
Famous anglers Oliver White and Jako Lucas travel to Oman in pursuit of the elusive, saltwater Africanus, their fourth and final species in fly fishing’s grand slam. It’s a visually stunning and epic adventure.
Wading for Change
To become “like the pictures he saw in magazines,” conservationist and angler Jr Rodriguez left his home and family in Houston for Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This film shares his journey of learning to love the outdoors and his experience as an outdoorsman of color in Western mountain towns.
After You’ve Gone
A female fishing guide in the Adirondacks overcomes the hardships of battling cancer and losing her husband. She then takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Argentina where she is reignited with hope, passion and life.
Get details and tickets at stargazerstheatre.com.
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