By Jim Stanford on March 14, 2007
Now in its third year, the Alpinist (née Barry Corbet) Film Festival has been a model for how to build such an event: organic, paying homage to tradition, rooted in the community. No velvet ropes.
Screenings have been packed, last year’s festival was a smash hit, and organizers are expecting a full house this week for all three nights of films in the brand-new Performing Arts Pavilion at Center for the Arts.
As of Monday evening fewer than 100 tickets remained for each night. Thursday is devoted to snow films, Friday to surf, Saturday stone.
You’ve probably heard about the headliners: Mark Newcomb, Gerry Lopez, Dean Potter, deans of their respective sports.
But sharing the bill are a host of lesser-known athletes/filmmakers who make the lineup outstanding. And Thursday’s snow night particularly continues the festival’s theme of reaching out to the locals.
“We’re turning it into an all-Jackson Hole night,” Alpinist editor Christian Beckwith said Tuesday.
It’s hard to believe, but it was just over a year ago that Doug Coombs, in full ski gear, rappelled from the rafters of Walk Festival Hall to introduce his film The Otter Body Experience at the fest. Thunderous applause shook the hall as he cast a silhouette on the screen. The moment was classic Coombs: larger than life, full of surprises. Two months later, he was dead of a skiing accident in La Grave, France.
Appropriately, this year’s festival picks up where last year’s left off, with friend Rick Hunt showing a short film of Coombs talking about skiing, shot two weeks before his death. The six-minute clip is called “In Doug’s Words.”
Teton Gravity Research will follow with its five-minute tribute to Coombs, the exuberant mountaineer widely regarded as the best skier in the world.
David Gonzales of The Snaz.com will show a short film about Igneous Skis. Gonzales has been working feverishly on the nine-minute piece, following the Jackson ski manufacturers on the slopes and in their shop in South Park.
TGR has two more shorts: one documenting a BASE jump by Eric Roner, and the other the infamous “Jesus Jump” by skier Jamie Pierre near Grand Targhee last winter. Pierre allegedly set a world record by plummeting 245 feet over a cliff and landing on his head. Watch the clip here.
Chris Kitchen and Sam Pope of KGB Productions will debut a 10-minute film about the Jackson Town Downhill, Darrell Miller of Storm Show Studios will show “Poor Man’s Helicopter,” a five-minute piece about his paraglide ride to the top of the Tetons, and Salt Lake City-based Derek Weiss of Piton Productions will present “Legends of the Fall Line,” a thirty-eight-minute history of Teton skiing.
All these will set the stage for Newcomb to present The Line, a personal account of his journey to ski the 8,000-meter Himalayan giant Shishapangma. Nice to see the thoughtful, low-key Newcomb, a 17-year Exum mountain guide, in a starring role.
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Friday’s surf night brings a swell of sensuous waves sure to delight those of us starved for the beach. Gonzales will show another short, about surfing Lunch Counter Rapid on the Snake River, a clip of which can be seen on The Snaz.
A full schedule for all three nights is posted here.
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While the name change rankled some in the community, I’ve been assured by people working on the project that the festival will continue to honor Corbet, the mountaineer for whom the legendary couloir is named and whose likeness adorns the poster.
A lineup like Thursday’s goes a long way toward erasing any doubts.
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Shanking? Don’t have a ticket yet?
Not sure why, but tickets cost $18.56. The desk-bound can purchase them online, but a trip over to the Center for the Arts box office is well worth the walk. I had a look inside the theater yesterday for the first time and marveled at the curved balcony that wraps toward the stage.
Couldn’t help but look ahead to the John Prine concert on May 14, as well as many more musical acts hopefully to follow.
Posted under climbing, entertainment, movies, skiing, surfing, theater
It’s killing me that I’m not going to be around this weekend to catch this show.