Because of the COVID-19 lock down, we have had to cancel the Victorian Backcountry Festival for 2020. However, in lieu of the festival that was scheduled for 4 – 6th September, we are planning a relaxed Sunday afternoon (Sept 6) full of backcountry speakers, seminars and workshops to be held over Zoom.
Western Faces is a new film featuring a fantastic line-up about a trip to ski and explore the western faces of the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains.
“Australian mountaineer Tim Macartney-snape, freeskier Anna Segal and Freeride World Tour rookie Michaela Davis-Meehan, are set to explore some of the steepest faces in their backyard. With New Zealand freeskiers Fraser McDougall and Hank Bilous along for the ride, they’re slogging deep into the backcountry to find freeride terrain that will have their Kiwi-counterparts do a double-take”.
The digital launch will happen on Thursday July 16.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Melbourne screening cancelled for now
With the Andrews government now announcing a State of Emergency for Victoria, we feel that the responsible thing for us to do is to cancel this screening of the festival.
We will monitor the situation and re-schedule when it’s appropriate (hopefully May or early June to ensure pre season stoke!).
In the meantime, stay safe, walk some trails, look out for each other, and wash your hands!
The Backcountry Film Festival is produced each year by Winter Wildlands Alliance as a celebration of the human-powered winter experience and a gathering place for the backcountry snowsports community.
The Melbourne show will happen on Wednesday 25 March.
TIME: Please feel free to arrive from 6.30pm. Films from 7pm – 9.30pm.
VENUE: Building 80, Level 1, room 2, Melbourne.
445 Swanston Street Melbourne (between Franklin and A’Beckett streets). Easily accessible by public transport (trams on Swanston Street or trains via Melbourne Central).
TICKETS: Suggested donation: $8 conc & students/ $15 waged. There are no online sales. Tickets available at the door. There will be plenty of room. Sorry, cash only sales on the night (there are ATMs nearby). There is a seating capacity of 180 people.
Co-hosted with RMIT Outdoors Club.
All proceeds will go to the Friends of the Earth climate campaign.
We will start the evening with some short locally made backcountry films.
The BCFF program features 10 films (check here for details).
Facebook event page here.
MARCH 13: Coronavirus update: The Australian government has cancelled all gatherings of more than 500 people. We will keep an eye on government recommendations and make a call on whether to proceed with the screening a couple of days ahead of the event. Check this page or the facebook event page for updates closer to the 25th.
If you love winter, then chances are you love a good ski or snowboarding film. This year’s batch of new films have been released over the last couple of months (pre Northern winter). One thing that’s really obvious in the ski/ riding genre is the ever growing number of films that are focused on human powered adventure. It’s great to see this tradition continue this year with a number of films focused on low carbon adventures.
Here’s an introduction to a few of them:
There will a screening of the 2019 Backcountry film festival (BCFF) happening at Harrietville on Saturday June 1.
The BCFF features 10 great films, including an edit of the Ode To Muir splitboarding film.
There will be soup, bread and drinks available by donation.
All funds will go to the Avalanche Training Centre planned for Mt Hotham.
Harrietville community hall, Great Alpine Road, Harrietville from 6pm.
For the past four years, the backcountry film festival has been attracting good numbers of people and is showing in more locations.
It seems like it might be time to have our own festival – with films made in Australia.
At previous Melbourne shows, we have added a film about skiing and boarding on The Bluff, and this year saw OFF GRID, a new effort on Mt Bogong from SoO Airtime.
The plan is to hold an Australian backcountry film festival in late spring 2014 with only local content. There are some fantastic film makers out there, and we hope to be able to showcase some of these.
We are seeking expressions of interest from film makers who would like to submit films.
Any human and gravity powered backcountry adventure would be welcome: walking, skiing, boarding, MTBing, paddling, climbing, …
As this is an entirely volunteer effort, with no budget, we are not able to offer payment for showing the films.
Films can be in two length categories. We hope to show an hours worth of short films (3 to 7 minutes) then up to 2 longer films (30 – 40 minutes).
At this point we are looking at doing a Melbourne showing, with the ability to offer the festival to other places once its packaged up.
If you’re keen, please get in touch: cam.walker@foe.org.au
And get out there and getting filming!
Mountain Journal 
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