Mountainfilm on Tour

Held annually in Telluride CO, Mountainfilm is a documentary film festival that showcases nonfiction stories about environmental, cultural, climbing, political and social justice issues that matter. Mountainfilm on Tour showcases a curated selection of powerful films from the festival. This special screening is presented in partnership with the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association.

NOTE: Doors open at 5 pm with cash bar.

Safe Haven | Directed by Tim Kressin
Inner-city Memphis is not the likeliest setting for an enormous rock climbing gym. But since it opened in March 2018, Memphis Rox, the nation’s only nonprofit climbing gym — open to all, regardless of ability to pay — has proven that the challenges of technical climbing have strong appeal, and can provide benefits well beyond the traditional outdoor-recreation community. (USA, 2018, 8 min.)

Cracking Ice Ceilings | Directed by Mariano Carranza
The cholita climbers of Bolivia have been subverting the culture of machismo since 2015 by climbing mountains. Not content to stay in their traditional roles as high-mountain cooks, these 11 escaladoras wanted to see for themselves what it felt like to go to the top. Pairing the traditional cholita garb of colorful skirts, shawls, bowler hats and brooches with ice axes and crampons, these women climb for the same reason many others do: that feeling of freedom that comes with standing on the summit. (USA, 2017, 3 min)

Brotherhood of Skiing | Directed by Tyler Wilkinson-Ray, Colin Arisman
The Brotherhood of Skiers has been bringing camaraderie and dance parties to the slopes since 1973. The annual summits, which unite African-American ski clubs across the country, are fundraisers for youth programs to pass the love of skiing down to the next generation. First born of necessity — safety in numbers in the aftermath of the civil rights movement — four decades later, the Brotherhood of Skiers is still creating a safe space and upending stereotypes. (USA, 2018, 10 min.)

Sweetheart Dancers | Directed by Ben-Alex Dupris
Indigenous dancers Sean and Adrian challenge the rulebook of San Manuel’s Native American Sweetheart Special as they attempt to compete in the annual couple’s competition. Dancing not only against the other dancers, but against the drums of oppression and closed-mindedness, this Two-Spirit couple is determined to rewrite the rules of “one man, one woman” with their resplendent charisma, character and resilience. (USA, 2019, 13 min.)

The Litas | Directed by William DeSena
Growing up gay and black in Los Angeles in the 1960s, Gevin Fax felt alone. Then, at age 12, she discovered dirt-biking. “The boys grew out of it, but she never did,” her father reminisces in this short about the Litas, a 5,000-strong global women’s motorcycle collective founded in 2015. For Gevin, finding the Litas was a revelation. “I’m truly present when I’m alone on that bike and I can just be,” she says. (USA, 2018, 7 min.)

All In: Alaska Heli Skiing | Directed by Scott Gaffney
Tune in for a tutorial on how to absolutely shred Alaskan spines. (USA, 2018, 4 min.)

Mi Mamá | Directed by James Q Martin, Jade Begay
There is a force of healing in nature and a power of connection — connection with ourselves, our hopes and dreams, and with the mystery and grandeur of life on our planet. For Nadia Iris Mercado, there is also in nature a connection with her ancestry. And, the connection she makes most strongly, and most tenderly, is with her mother — who sacrificed her own hopes and dreams to give Nadia the best possible chance to realize hers. (USA, 2019, 6 min.) 

The Wild Inside | Directed by Andrew Michael Ellis
“Saying goodbye to an animal – it’s hard,” says Chris, who is leaving Florence, Ariz. State Prison after serving a six-year sentence. He’s one of 30 minimum-security participants in the prison’s pioneering Wild Horse Inmate Program, working five days a week to “gentle” the wild mustangs, which are saved from slaughter. Training them as saddle horses keeps recidivism at bay in Arizona, where inmates face a 49 percent chance of reincarceration within five years. Since 2012, only three of the prison’s 53 WHIP trainers are back behind bars. (USA, 2019, 15 min.)

R.A.W. Tuba | Directed by Darren Durlach, David Larson
“I like the tuba because it reminds me of my life, it’s the underdog.” That’s Richard Antoine White, whose biography reads like a manual in how to overcome odds. White grew up intermittently homeless on the streets of Baltimore, and went on to become a world-class symphony musician, professor and the first African American in the world to receive a Doctorate in Music for Tuba Performance. He’s got music in him, yes. But he’s also got a drive rarely seen, even in the most competitive artistic circles. As he puts it, “the only thing that will stop me from being successful is death.” (USA, 2019, 29 min.)

Jágralama | Directed by Marek Partys
In the high steppe of Little Tibet, a young boy develops an unlikely obsession: ice hockey. He fashions pucks out of stones, trains on homemade skates and worships Czech hockey icon Jaromír Jágr. And he has his heart set on an outsized dream. (Czech Republic, 2018, 2 min.)