What: Pemberton Games' Extreme Explorations film festival
When: Sunday, May 23 to Friday, May 28
Where: New Pemberton Community Centre, Pony Espresso (check schedule for locations)
Cost: $12 suggested donation at the door, $10 in advance
Just when you thought the Sea to Sky region was safely out of the Games-related woods, there's another week of fun headed to the area in the form of the Pemberton Games.
The event is being organized by Peter Chrzanowski, a longtime adventure sport filmmaker who has been in and out of the Sea to Sky region, traveling and studying since the late '80s, though he recently settled down and built a house in Pemberton.
"It's really a lot simpler than it seems: we all have these fringe sports that we do and on their own it's really hard for us to get sponsorship and attention, and I think now, after the Olympics, the world is really looking at Whistler and here, and we have all these tourism possibilities."
Now, he wants to look beyond the mainstream activities like biking and kayaking and introduce people to the more obscure activities, like speedriding, skydiving, base jumping, kiting and paragliding.
"I just thought, 'Wow, this is the best weekend, there are probably 2,500 people up here anyway. If we give them a few things to do at night and a few things to do during the day, we'll just peg that date as a festival date.'"
In future years, Chrzanowski hopes the Pemberton Games will become an annual event, akin to the popular Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival and Kokanee Crankworx events, attracting larger sponsors and offering prizes to athletes and filmmakers.
"There's going to be a lot of speculation in Pemberton and rather than an open pit mine or another logging project or another B.C. Hydro project or asphalt factory or something, let's give this eco-tourism a kick!"
The idea is that the event will become a long-term tourism draw for the area.
"It's a different crowd. I think the Pemberton Music Festival was a crowd that comes and spends money and it's all great, but they leave and they don't necessarily keep coming back to do other things. I think if people actually come and enjoy and participate in the sport, they are the people that are going to come back with their family and friends."
Of course, the passionate paraglider wants to raise the profile of his sport, at the same time.
"People know so little about it; there are 500 people that fly in Canada, 60,000 in France, 25,000 in Germany, and 13,000 in the Czech Republic," he said.
Chrzanowski's motives aren't entirely altruistic - he's also using the festival as a vehicle to premiere his latest film, a documentary entitled, Paracinderella , which chronicles his journey to Europe, visiting Poland, the Czech Republic, France and then South America on a quest to find love.
"It was actually a friend of mine's idea because I was originally working on a film called Airhead Diaries , sort of about our paragliding lifestyle here in Pemberton with a bunch of locals and just people really obsessed with flying," he explained.
He had been shooting and accumulating footage for that project for a few years before a filmmaking friend suggested he tackle a more personal subject: love.
"A really good filmmaker friend of mine said, 'Peter, I mean I know you've been single all this time and I know you've been looking around a little more, why don't you make a film about finding a partner that flies?'"
The end result was a feature-length documentary, an introspective personal project narrated by Chrzanowski, shifting the focus to himself and framing his personal story within the larger context of paragliding.
"I've never opened myself up like this in a film; it's been mostly third person."
Chrzanowski is debuting Paracinderella to the Pemberton Games crowd on Sunday, May 23 at 8 p.m.
But the longtime filmmaker's newest film is just one of the screenings at the festival. In addition to the sporting events Chrzanowski has been sure to include artistic and cultural aspects with the Extreme Explorations Film Festival.
"With this high-tech age, a lot of people are really interested in Indie sports and filmmaking and photography and improving their skills, and there's so much talent around that we have a lot of locals that are going to exhibit their stuff," Chrzanowski said.
The evenings of Tuesday, May 25 through to Friday, May 28 have been set aside as the film festival and speaker component of the event, showcasing films, photos and experiences from the mountain sport culture. After many of the screenings and presentations, filmmakers and guests will host Q&A sessions.
The tentative schedule includes An Evening with Captain Powder (David Moe), on Tuesday, May 25, which features a presentation with the founder and publisher of POWDER Magazine about his globe-trotting journeys, followed by Goldenrush , a film that follows the town of Golden as it undergoes a massive transformation when a new ski development comes to town. On Wednesday evening there is a presentation on speedriding, an exciting new sport that blends skiing and flying, complete with pictures and videos by Arnaud from the Speedriding School in Les Arcs, France. That's followed by a Peru Colombia night, where Chrzanowski will present three of his past films: Ski Peru, Journey to the Heart of the World and Sacred Flight . On Thursday evening, Jim Orava, Canadian Paraglide Champion, gives a presentation on his latest adventures to Colombia, Venezuela and Verbier, Switzerland, followed by materials and experiences from local pilots. Finally, on Friday, Polish paraglide pilot Filip Jagla, an athlete and competitor for the prestigious XALPS race, will present a series of slides from the Red Bull-sponsored event, as well as several films.
In addition to the full-length films and presentations each night, the festival also features the Cultural Video Production Program from The Ts'zil Learning Centre in Mount Currie and The Lil'wat Nation, who have been invited into the event to showcase their projects to the extreme sport-loving masses.
For more information on the lineup, visit www.pembertongames.com.
