A Global Reach

By Debra Hornsby
 

World Tour Road Warrior and Festival Volunteer Coordinator

On any given night somewhere in the world, the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival theme music booms from speakers in a darkened theatre. Audience members lean forward in their seats, eager for an evening of adventure films. Each year, the Festival’s World Tour presents screenings in over 500 locations across 45 countries, reaching annual audiences of over half a million people. But this juggernaut of mountain culture began—as so many great things do— small, with a handful of staff, and a single screening in Banff in 1976. The idea of taking the best films from the Banff competition on the road was launched five years later, in 1981.

Patsy Murphy was the brave woman tasked with delivering that first tour to six Canadian cities, in partnership with the Alpine Club of Canada. “It occurred to me that without the films, there would be no show, so I somehow managed to talk the airline into letting me bring six giants—and very heavy—16 mm film canisters as carry-on luggage!” Those early screenings were no-frills affairs, held in school gyms and community centres. “There was only one copy of each film, no back-up,” Patsy remembers.“My biggest nightmare came true in Toronto with an old projector set in the center of a gymnasium. In the middle of the event, a film snapped. On went the overhead lights and I proceeded to splice the film together with scotch tape, in full view of everyone. Luckily the mend held and the show went on.”

It was Bernadette McDonald who firmly established the Banff Festival on the world stage. “There was an enormous amount of energy expended in gathering the films for the competition—a lot of work for what was then a two-and-a-half-day festival,” she notes. “So, the tour was a way to extend the impact of those films beyond Banff.”

For McDonald, who was Festival Director from 1988 to 2006, the tour light bulb moment came during a sponsorship course. “The instructor used our festival as a case study, and he pointed out that it was gold,” she says. “It provides value for filmmakers, value for audiences, value for outdoor companies who want to reach those audiences, and value for the local hosts in each city. Win-win-win.”

Under Bernadette’s leadership, the Festival signed partnerships with industry leaders such as Patagonia, Eagle Creek, and National Geographic. And the Festival extended its reach—establishing screenings across the United States, and then internationally.“I think one of our first international shows was in Cape Town, South Africa, in conjunction with a UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) conference. Prague was another early location—and Tokyo, where we did a week of screenings at the Canadian embassy. And the Tour just continued to expand, year over year.”

Technology has changed—16 mm films gave way to VHS, then DVDs, and today the films are delivered on hard drives and through digital downloads. But Bernadette’s win-win-win formula continues to work its magic. 

Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival films are translated and subtitled into 17 non- English languages for viewers on every continent. And in North America, 76 per cent of the 450 tour screenings benefit a community cause—from outdoor programs for disadvantaged youth, to mountain rescue organizations, to land conservancies. And perhaps most importantly, as Bernadette points out, “The heart and soul that adventure filmmakers pour into their projects reaches audiences around the world.”