Almost two years after the fact, the crowd Sunday at the Boulder Theater couldn’t help but cheer on Matt Segal.
As he cursed and clung to an overhanging face in Eldorado Canyon, his grunting and monkey-like agility splayed across a 30-foot screen, the crowd urged him upward.
“Come on, Matt!” “Yeah, Matt!”
As the name of Boulder filmmaker Peter Mortimer’s film “First Ascent” implies, Segal did reach the top of a short and brutish route he dubbed Iron Monkey while Mortimer’s cameras rolled on a summer day in 2005, marking the first ascent of the fabled canyon’s hardest climb.
“It’s like a piece of Eldorado history, captured as the raw experience,” said Segal, 23. “It’s cool all these people got to see it here. I like to try to inspire people.”
More than 20 adventure films on the Boulder Theater’s screen over the weekend made up the third annual Boulder Adventure Film Festival. The festival reflects Boulder’s diverse collection of artists, activists and athletes, with rich, visionary story lines and jaw-dropping video from around the globe.
“Nowadays, with all the technology and equipment, anyone can get really good video. What we want is a really good story,” said festival founder and elite climber Jonny Copp, who organized the Boulder-based jury that gleaned the final films from more than 150 potential candidates. “We wanted all types of adventure and good writing.”
The festival’s movies ferried the rowdy audience from Alaskan peaks to massive monoliths to Central American surf breaks to British Columbia bike trails to urban rivers. If not for the Boulder Adventure Film Festival and the growing number of similar film festivals like Telluride’s Mountainfilm, the latest accomplishments of outdoor athletes would never reach beyond a small clique of insiders.
“What’s cool about these festivals is they cater to the small, independent, technologically capable filmmaker,” said Brad Lynch, a Boulder resident whose film “Aerialist” (www.aerialistmovie.com) delivers a glimpse into the mind of Dean Potter, one of the world’s boldest climbers. “These festivals are so progressive, they allow us to deliver our film almost immediately.”
Lynch’s look at Potter took the festival’s “best adventure biography” award.
“The first thing I can remember is a dream of flying or falling,” Potter says early in the still-unfinished film. “I’m not sure if I’m sticking it or falling to my death … ”
Lynch captures steal-your-breath footage of Potter free-soloing 5.12 pitches in Yosemite National Park, ropeless, hanging on a single finger wedged in a crack a thousand feet off the ground. Then there’s video of Potter slacklining – a sportier tightrope walk – between two towering Utah spires without any safety rope.
“Everything I’m trying to do is fly … and go beyond the physical and not be hindered by this, this carcass,” Potter said in the film. “When you feel like you are unstoppable, that’s when you should stop. And you should have the presence of mind to stop and feel content with what you have.”
Other highlights from the Boulder Adventure Film Festival, which is planning an early-fall Denver stop on its nationwide tour, include:
“Roam”: The latest from the band of filmmaking mountain bikers known as The Collective (www.thecollectivefilm.com), “Roam” pulls the curtain back on the latest development in free-ride mountain biking. Darren Berrecloth’s spins and risky riding at Whistler are more than inspiring, with spectacular camera work and high-speed shooting making sure every iota of athleticism is represented. Ryan Leech, the world’s most-gifted trails rider, stuns with incomprehensible urban riding in Prague.
“Learning To Fly”: Follow the obsession of Chris McNamara as the aspiring B.A.S.E. jumper starts at a bridge in Idaho and one year, 225 sky dives and 175 B.A.S.E. jumps later, leaps off the Eiger in Switzerland. The wingsuited headcam shots by McNamara are fantastically gripping and representative of the convergence of extreme athleticism and camera technology.
“Swim For The River”: Chris Swain didn’t turn yellow like Kramer in “Seinfeld,” but Swain did swim the entire 315-mile length of the Hudson River in New York, gargling with hydrogen peroxide every few miles. His effort was crafted to raise awareness of a river that seems more toxic than watery. While swimming through Troy in upstate New York, a passerby spots him and calls 911, thinking he is committing suicide.
“If people believe the river is only good for drowning, there is still a lot of work to do,” Swain said in the film.
“Pedal To The Midnight Sun”: Two Minnesota pals – JJ Kelly and Josh Thomas – pedal across Alaska to the Arctic Circle. They grab 35 hours of video during 28 days and 1,289 miles, capturing the wretched and glorious moments in a 15-minute film. Kelly, at the end of the hilarious film, sums up the trip with this line, which pretty much summarizes the Boulder festival: “You’ll find it’s not the place you end up, but it’s the things you learn along the way.”
Learn more — Watch for news on a Denver tour stop for the Boulder Adventure Film Festival and other stops in Colorado at www.boulderadventurefilm.com.
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-654-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
