It’s always a pleasure to have a film showing at the UK’s premiere outdoor film festival, the Kendal Mountain Festival. ‘Tierra Del Fuego” had it’s world premiere there & was shown 3 times during the weekend. I got good feedback from the film with many people saying the really enjoyed it (including 2 of the judges). And Barry even showed up in the programme!

As a filmmaker who largely works on my own, it’s fantastic to see the latest & greatest outdoor films that are out now. I always get ideas for my next films & am inspired by some of the stories. I met Paul Diffley, director of “Wide Boyz“, a great film that picked up best climbing film and the people’s choice award. As the way in which people watch films is changing, he is offering people the chance to watch his latest film, Odyssey, for free on the internet. If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, then you need to do it TODAY as it’s a limited offer. Click here.

Other great films included ‘Crossing the Ice‘ & ‘Journey on the Wild Coast’. Alastair Lee continues to make climbing movies look more like Holywood films with great cinematography, soundtrack & special effects. His latest flick Autana won best mountaineering film. I also really enjoyed a film by Pete Astles from Peak UK which played on the wild water night. It told the story of his Nepali friend Babu who trekked up Everest, paraglided down and then kayaked to the sea.  It seems he did it with little fanfare – just because he wanted to. It was great.

We went to listen to the amazing Karen Darke. I already knew lots about Karen and all the wonderful adventures she has been on since becoming paralysed from the chest down; like hand biking across the Himalayas, skiing across Greenland, climbing El Cap and winning silver in the London Paraolympics.  But it was great to hear her talk about what drove her to do these things and her philosophy. You can’t fail to see right through all of your own excuses for not doing things when you see what Karen has achieved. I really enjoyed her first book, If you Fall, and I can’t wait to read her new book, Boundless. Barry gets a mention in the book as he kayaked around Corsica with Karen a few years ago.

Now, I’m home I’m back to editing ‘This is the Sea 5′ which will be launched in March 2013.

One Response to “Finalist at Kendal Mountain Film Festival”