By Laura Keil
The Goat sat down with Valemount Arts and Cultural Society member Ruby Hogg to learn more about their upcoming show, the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival tour, playing at the Valemount Secondary School community theatre Fri. March 8th 7:30-10pm with a concession break midway through. Tickets are $20 and are available through Infinity Office and Health or at the door for $25.
Why did VACS choose to put on this show?
Historically, the Banff Mountain Film Festival (world tour) has done quite well, so we saw there was room for another film festival. We’ve spaced them six months apart more or less. The 2024 films just came out two weeks ago so we’re at the very beginning (of the Vancouver festival tour).
Do you know the topics or themes of some of the films? Are they all short or are some longer?
They all range between about seven minutes and 45 minutes. It’s a wide variety. They cover lots of different topics. Obviously mountains are a recurring theme, but there’s also lots of sport and a large rise in environmental projects: topics like global warming and changes in the environment. And people seem to be putting out more movies that have more sense of community or something that the viewer can connect to.
Are most of the films Canadian or are they from any filmmaker?
It’s a huge variety of filmmakers. I can highlight two that we’re going to be showing: one is a surfing film. Because we’re not really in a surfing area, so it’s something completely different. And another is a biking film that’s travelling across South America, so it’s a totally new environment again that many people may not have seen. That’s one thing that’s really cool about the mountain film festivals is they show areas that people may not have been able to visit.
Any other reasons why you think people should attend the show?
For me personally, I always get pretty pumped up after watching these films. They’re all very inspiring. Quite often they’re people living far outside their comfort zones and it just reminds me to get up and try new things. There are some really powerful films out there. They’re not all about living outside your comfort zone, of course — there are some about connection, some Indigenous awareness films. There are some really amazing stories that might get us a little more pumped up for summer.
This interview has been condensed for brevity.
