Banff Film Festival: 2024 Ocean Film Programme

Having attended one of this years Banff Mountain Film Festival showings at the Hall for Cornwall, we learnt that some of the previous programmes are available online.  Today we paid £10 for a pass for the 2024 Ocean Film Programme.  This particular pass gives three days access to the films.  I was able to play the films on my laptop and cast them to our TV, which made for an enjoyable viewing.

The six films are combined into one with a presenter introducing each film.  The total play time was just over two hours.  I admit, much of the time I am listening to the TV, rather than watching it.  These films though, are so beautiful and interesting that I really watch them.  They are thoughtful and inspiring and often emotional.

We began with Call of the Cold which followed three men on a trip to Iceland.  They went free diving in the Silfra Fissure, where you can touch two different continents as they are torn apart.  They went ice climbing inside a glacier.  They went surfing with a backdrop of icebergs.  This was a short film with beautiful scenery and stunning adventures.

Tess Felix: Portrait of a Artist looked at her and her work, here she uses retrieved oceanic plastics to create stunning portraits.  We have artists locally who use ocean plastics in their art to highlight the issue but I have not seen anything as stunning and accomplished as these pieces before.  It really wouldn't matter what she used to make her pieces, with the skill she possesses.

Ice Maiden was the harrowing tale of Lisa Blairs first attempt to sail solo around the Antarctic.  This was the longest of the films in this programme.  I had heard some snippets of her story on the news at the time, but had not heard the whole story.  I don't really want to spoil it by sharing it.  Let me just say that this lady is incredibly brave and resourceful.  On her second attempt she gained the world record and both attempts are a huge testament to her skills.  Many sailors would not have survived that first attempt.

The Whale Song was lovely.  Any film featuring lots of footage of whales is always going to be lovely though!  Nan Hauser, a Marine Biologist, talks of her lifelong love of whale song and share some of her incredible experiences with whales.  DJ Sam Feldt talks about producing a piece of dance music using whale song.

Metropolis is a charming look at a day in the life of the inhabitants of a coral reef.  It's a quirky, short nature documentary with lots of beautiful fish swimming around, and a few sharks.

The Call is about surfer and ocean photographer Mike Coots based in Hawaii.  It is incredibly inspiring.  Mike lost a leg in a shark attack at 18 but got straight back to the things he loved, just with a prosthetic leg.  He has become involved with shark conservation and campaigning for them.  His surfing photography was incredible but his shark photography was just wow.  

It was a lovely mix of films.  It is the second programme I have seen now and I enjoy the balance of the films.  It is clear thought is given not just to how good each film is individually, but how they work together.  It's another beautiful rollercoaster, full of inspiring people, adventure and beauty.

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