Thursday, June 1, 2023
6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Free Admission
Concrete Theatre
45920 Main Street, Concrete
FREE Event Kickoff! Get a sneak peek of what this year’s Mountain Film Festival is all about. Be the first to view the new Act One Art Gallery, with mountain images created by local photographers. Free tickets are limited – click the link below to get yours before they’re gone.
Act One Art Gallery Opening
Featuring mountain images by local photographers
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. to ticket holders
6:00 p.m. Artists’ Reception
6:30 p.m.
Introduction to the Festival
with Valerie Stafford
Film “Spirit of the Peaks” (see trailer below)
with special guests Jay Bowen and Kay Knott
“This Mountain Life” (see trailer below)
“Spirit of the Peaks” is a film about the struggle for balance between two worlds. For Hunkpapa Lakota skier Connor Ryan, skiing in Ute Territory has always raised questions about being in reciprocity with the land and its people. As a skier who connects with the land through sport, he empathizes with the injustices that have displaced the Utes and the erasure and extraction impacting the Ute people. This story connects conflicted pasts to an awakening in cultural awareness that can create an equitable future for Indigenous people and skiers. The film was produced in partnership with REI Co-op Studios, Wondercamp, and NativesOutdoors with additional support from Salomon, Peak Design, and Protect Our Winters.
Guest Speakers Jay Bowen and Kay Knott, members of the Upper Skagit Tribe, will share the tribal history and the experience of growing up with a foot in two different (and, to some extent, conflicting) cultures.
“People ask me all the time, ‘What can I do…I feel so helpless.’ What we are doing right now is having this conversation. It all starts from a simple conversation.” – Jay Bowen
This award-winning documentary tells the story of a mother-daughter team that attempts a bitterly cold 2300-kilometer ski trek from Canada to Alaska through the treacherous Coast Mountains, a journey that has been completed only once before and never by a female duo.
It’s also the story of a group of nuns who inhabit a mountain retreat to be closer to God; a photographer buried in an avalanche; an impassioned alpinist; a focused snow artist; a couple who has been living off-grid in the mountains for nearly 50 years. For all of them, the draw of the mountains is so strong that their lives must revolve around it.
Shot in cinematic detail, This Mountain Life is a riveting portrait of human passion set high in the snowy peaks to the north of us in British Columbia. What is it that leads these adventurous people to sacrifice everything – comfort, family, personal safety – for a life in the mountains?
