Above and Beyond Dream (2010)
In a field of already spectacular films this masterpiece will have you shaking your head in disbelief and muttering: Could anything be more perfect? Benjamin Jordan’s idea was simple; to power paraglide across Canada, set a Guinness world record but above all, to raise funds for children’s camps across his great nation. He achieved all [...]
Call of the White (2009)
The Adventure Travel Film Festival is always keen to debunk the myth that the square jawed ‘adventurer’ is male. An all-woman team attacks the South Pole and is victorious! Turn your computer on and start googling ‘Felicity Aston’. This staggeringly adventurous alpha-female ice maiden is a legend in the European snow-scene and rightly so. In [...]
Grass (1924)
As well as jaw-dropping long distance travel this stunning film serves up great granite slabs of astonishing social history and anthropology. Once you’ve seen it, you will be richer. It’s unusual to bring the Third Reich into this brochure but here goes: Allegedly, Hitler’s favourite film was King Kong. The giant ape’s tragic journey from [...]
Le Grande Detour (2009)
With no unkindness intended, round-the-world bicyclists are a dime a dozen. However, within that listing, gifted, artistic film-makers are super rare — but we’ve got one here. Delphine and Damien have done a truly stupendous around the world tandem bicycle ride. But cycling is a slow, steady rhythmic world that doesn’t favour those who want [...]
Mazungu (2008)
A film that adds weight to the notion that all the coolest adventures are happening on water. The mighty Congo River rises in Zambia and after 3000 miles of lazy uncoiling, discharges into the Atlantic. Recent foreign office posts advise that the interior of The Democratic Republic of Congo is not to be visited by [...]
MotoSyberia 2.0 – Reactivation (2010)
Adventurous, surreal and utterly original. There is nobody in the world today attempting such penetrating and frankly, bizarre forays into the interior of Russia’s remote far east. No-one that is, except Maciek Swinarski… Swinarski and his Polish co-riders have established a global cult following, and rightly so. Some might argue that riding a motorbike along [...]
North Korea: A Day in the Life (2004)
All at once uplifting and soul-destroying. Every human being should see this film to better understand the complexities of our species. This is the only film at this year’s festival that doesn’t really chronicle a long distance journey. However, it has been included in the schedule because of its mind-boggling insight into a far away [...]
Paddle to Seattle (2010)
A 1300-mile sea kayak trip down Canada’s Pacific coast. Breathtaking scenery galore but also an utterly perfectly crafted travel film. Watch and learn! Have you ever built a wooden canoe from scratch, packed it with snacks and camping gear and then spent the next three months with one of your best friends? If not then [...]
Roadside USA (1997)
If there’s one thing you can say about the USA, it’s that you can’t generalise about Americans… Austin Vince started his hitch-hiking career in 1977 as a means of avoiding the long hikes demanded of his scout troop, the 11th Harrow. His first longish American hitch wasn’t until he was 22 with a warm-up four [...]
Sea of Sand (1972)
Australian travel legends Mal and Mike Leyland give us a crackerjack billabong desert adventure. The vintage films at this festival are popular not simply because of deep saturated colours inherent in the Kodachrome 16mm film saturation process but for another reason altogether. The older films were always made by people who had no concept of [...]
The Alastair Humphreys Micro-Films (2011)
Alastair Humphreys is a British Adventurer, Author and Blogger. He spent over 4 years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and 5 continents. 2011 was Alastair’s Year of Microadventure, a whole year when, instead of exotic foreign adventures, he worked to encourage people to get outside, get out of [...]
The Pan-American Highway (1960)
A superb historical document that showcases, in glorious colour, a South America that to a large extent, has gone forever. Students of this film festival will remember the Canadian couple, Mel and Ethel Ross and Headless Valley, the film of their legendary assault on the white water rivers of the Yukon in 1955. Five years [...]
Trials of Miles (2012)
Rhythmical, hard, free, addictive, selfish even. Locking away endless hours inside your own head. For trail runners, blazers of a new era in running, crossing old landscapes quickly is adding a new dimension to their go-everywhere running feet. Wild landscapes increasingly nourish the physical cravings and mindful wanderings of the long-distance runner. What was once [...]
Twice Upon a Caravan (1933)
A terrific solo motorcycle adventure and priceless sociological archive all in one. All delivered with a hushed breath of quiet humility and gratitude. In 1932 New Yorker and architecture student Robert Fulton Jnr had finished a year’s post-grad study in London. Most Yanks would have boarded a steamer at Southampton and been home in a [...]
Wakhan (2009)
Short, but perfectly formed. This film is full of hope, love and Afghanistan. Kyszytof Samborski is a hero to this festival. Totally oblivious to the traditional ‘off-the-beaten-track’ destinations he and his buddy Iza head for Afghanistan. Despite the journey being everything, their story only starts once their motorbikes have already ridden 7000 miles from their [...]
