REEL PADDLING FILM FESTIVAL  FILM

 

We're proud to host the Reel Paddling Film Festival on its world tour. These are the best watersports films of the year from around the world, including kayak touring, whitewater kayaking, adventure travel, canoeing, trekking, standup paddle boarding and more.

You're welcome to spend all weekend at the Film Festival, but we hope you'll be able to tear yourself away to explore the rest of the Expo!

Africa Revolutions Tour    
Duration: 33 min [Festival Version 3:53 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
The Africa Revolutions Tour creates a new genre of action sports documentation that couples the adventure and excitement of extreme sports with cause-driven initiatives. Profits from this film will be donated to the Sun Catchers Project, a non-profit that installs solar cooking facilities in African orphanages, hospitals and communities.    
Director and Producer: Rush Sturges & Tyler Bradt        
Website: www.river-roots.com

Armada    
Duration: 12 min [Festival Version 11:20 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Twenty friends gather on the Upper Red Deer River in the Alberta foothills to end the 2008 summer with a weekend of whitewater canoeing. Ranging from pro-star to experienced swimmers, all are ready to get their paddle on and have a good time.
Director: Aaron Janzen    
Producer: Aaron Janzen & Graham Nelson    
Website: www.selahfilms.ca

Campfire Stories    
Duration: 19 min [Festival Version 5:30 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: n/a    
This is a lifestyle film that delves a little deeper and takes a look at all aspects of exploring the rivers and creeks around you.     
Director and Producer: Mike Copeland        
Website: www.stoneandwaterproductions.com

Canadian National Team Trials - Whitewater Slalom    
Duration: 3 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
This film promotes the 2009 Canadian Whitewater Slalom Team trials at the re-opened training course in Ottawa. Situated below the historic Fleet Street pumping station, this man-made course opened after more than three years of rehab by the N.C.C.    
Director and Producer: Tim Cutts        

Canoeing Old Growth    
Duration: 10 min [Festival Version 8:25 min]
Year Produced: 2007    
Year Released: 2007    
After years of paddling the rocky coastline of Ontario's Georgian Bay, four friends decide to visit another of Ontario's natural wonders: The old growth forests of the Temagami region.    
Director and Producer: David Bain

Facing East    
Duration: 20 min [Festival Version 19:40 min]
Year Produced: 2007-2009    
Year Released: 2009    
The ability of China's rivers to sustain the communities that depend on them has never been in more danger than now. China is now home to the largest hydroelectric project on earth. Vital Films presents the story of the Yangtze River before it is transformed into reservoirs. Come on a journey with a group of kayakers and explorers as they make the final descent of the Yangtze River.    
Director: Matt Hobbs & Cael Jones    
Producer: Matt Hobbs    
Website: www.vital-films.com

Falling    
Duration: 5 min [Festival Version 4:30 min]
Year Produced: 2006    
Year Released: 2007    
This short film is both a thrill ride and a poetic meditation about harmonizing with the awesome forces of nature. Legendary kayakers Hayden Glatte and Lars Holbeck are featured running the waterfalls of Agua Azul in Chiapas, Mexico.     
Director and Producer: John Armstrong        

Finding Farley    
Duration: 62 min [Festival Version 46:07 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
When filmmakers Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison (Being Caribou), along with their two-year-old son Zev and indomitable dog Willow, set out to retrace the literary footsteps of Farley Mowat they do so literally. Their 5,000-kilometre trip - trekking, sailing, portaging and paddling from the Prairies to the Maritimes - ends at Mowat's Nova Scotian summer house.    
Director: Leanne Allison    
Producer: Tracey Frieser    

Following Directions    
Duration: 4 min [Festival Version 3:10 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Following Directions brings a smile to your face in the spirit of the classic short, silent film. Inspired by a real-life conundrum. Filmed and edited by amateur filmmaker Melanie Buckle of Toronto, Canada.    
Director and Producer: Melanie Buckle        

Friday 13th    
Duration: 11 min [Festival Version 10:40 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2010    
Chris Darlington takes advantage of water coming from a hydro generator and leads us on a November journey down the Upper Snowy River.
Director and Producer: Les Herstik        
Website: www.les.herstik.com

International Whitewater Hall Of Fame 2009    
Duration: 14 min [Festival Version 12:31 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
The International Whitewater Hall of Fame has inducted it's fifth class of outstanding contributors to the whitewater community. 2009 honorees represent six different countries; Explorer Lars Holbech, Pioneer Mikhail Kolche Vnikov, Champions Stepanka Hilgertova and Pavol & Peter Hochschorner, and Advocates Rafael Gallo and Bill Mason.    
Director: Matthew Urdan    
Producer: Pat McDonnell    
Website: www.noc.com

Into Perpetual Ice    
Duration: 21 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Five kayakers visit Greenland to explore the whitewater kayaking possibilities of this remote island. After a tough time making it to the rivers they are rewarded with excellent kayaking and a remarkable adventure.    
Director: Jared Meehan & Olaf Obsomer    
Producer: Jared Meehan    

Just Like You Imagined    
Duration: 35 min [Festival Version 3:35 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Featuring amateur Ottawa-area paddlers in 11 segments of whitewater fun, from Ontario and Quebec to New York, North Carolina and Ecuador.    
Director and Producer: Mike McKay & Mike Kobzik        
Website: www.five2nine.ca

Kayak - Scotland to the Faeroes    
Duration: 14 min [Festival Version 13:45 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
In June 2009, Patrick Winterton and Mick Berwick set off on an attempt to make the first kayak crossing from Scotland to the Faeroe Islands - a distance of over 180 nautical miles across one of the most tidal and stormbound sections of the Atlantic. It's a journey few have tried and no one has succeeded.    
Director: Richard Else    
Producer: Margaret Wicks    
Website: www.tripleecho.co.uk

Kayak Fishing: Game On 2    
Duration: 5 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2010    
This film follows world-renowned big game kayak angler Jim Sammons on the adventure of a lifetime. Features Sammons' epic, three-hour battle with a 120-pound tuna.     
Director: Ken Whiting    
Producer: Will Richardson    
Website: www.helipress.com

Let the Slave Run
Duration: 17 min [Festival Version 14:10 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
The Slave River in Canada's Northwest Territories offers world-class play spots, river running and even creeking first descents. This video features four sets of rapids and raises awareness about the damming threat to this unique river.     
Director and Producer: Jacqui Whitehead        
Website: www.jac-hotmessproductions.blogspot.com

Low Head    
Duration: 8 min    
Year Produced: 2006    
Year Released: 2006    
Every year, low head dams account for numerous deaths in the U.S. This video shows how to avoid such dams and, using a dam simulator, demonstrates how paddlers, canoes and kayaks can get caught at the base of a dam.    
Director and Producer: Tom Lindblade        
Website: www.hauntedbywaters.com

Lucky 13    
Duration: 6 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Lucky 13 chases a West Kootenay-based group of whitewater kayakers in search of a wild paddling in their backyard. Compiling footage and outtakes from the last two seasons of spring paddling.    
Director and Producer: Carl Jacks        
Website: www.daintydeathy.com

Mad Boys    
Duration: 25 min [Festival Version 7:50 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
This is the short story of a group of paddlers running some of Italy's hardest alpine runs while testing the new Mad Boy river running design from Dragorossi. The film includes footage of Corran Addison's near-death experience on the trip.
Director and Producer: Corran Addison        

Means of Production    
Duration: 46 min [Festival Version 11:20 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
A Norwegian odyssey interspersed with adventures from around the globe.
Follow whitewater kayaker and filmmaker Max Bilbow and his friends as they tackle the gnar from the glaciers of Norway to the jungles of Madagascar. Jam-packed full of action and humour.
Director: Max Bilbow    
Producer: Liquid Satisfaction    
Website: www.liquidsatisfaction.com

Paddle to Seattle: Journey Through the Inside Passage    
Duration: 85 min [Festival Version 40 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2010    
In homemade Pygmy wooden boats, J.J. Kelley and Josh Thomas travelled the 1,300-mile Inside Passage. For three months, Kelley and Thomas paddled to Seattle facing the hardships that accompany a lifestyle removed from civilization. The film is a stunning display of the awe-inspiring landscape of the Pacific Northwest and of the light-hearted spirit of the young adventurers.
Director: Josh Thomas    
Producer: J.J. Kelley and Ben Gottfried    
Website: www.paddletoseattle.com

Paddling the Kootenay River    
Duration: 7 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
A three-day canoe trip by the Bow Waters Canoe Club on B.C.'s Kootenay River in August 2009.    
Director and Producer: Rolf Stengl        

River Life    
Duration: 26 Min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Nine paddlers travel up the Chipman River from Black Lake to Selwgn Lake on the border between Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories during an eight-day canoe trip in the summer of 2009.   
Director and Producer: Rio Fitch        

Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown    
Duration: 19 min [Festival Version 16:50 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Exciting, practical sea kayak instruction from one of the world's top coaches guides kayakers from the fundamentals, through forward paddling, turning and steering, and into rough water and tidal races. Beautifully shot on a four-day voyage along the west coast of the Isle of Skye, we explore caves, waterfalls, dramatic sea stacks and 5,000-year-old historic sites.
Director and Producer: Simon Willis        
Website: www.seakayakwithgordonbrown.com

Soft Power Health
Duration: 19 min [Festival Version 5 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Dr. Jesse Stone gave up traditional medicine to purse her dream of becoming a world-class whitewater kayaker. While kayaking on the White Nile River in Uganda she realized malaria is an epidemic and decided to do something about it. Director and Producer: Polly Green        
Website: www.flairfilms.com

SUP on This!    
Duration: 7 min [Festival Version 5 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Stand Up Paddleboarding is taking the whitewater world by storm, with the "who's who" of the paddling world all getting on board. This film shows the potential that SUP holds for river runners looking for new challenges on their favourite runs, from class III-IV to surfing river waves.
Director and Producer: Corran Addison        

Sweetwater to Saltwater    
Duration: 40 min    
Year Produced: 2005    
Year Released: 2006    
In the summer of 2005, two northeastern British Columbia residents, Karl and Inge-Jean Mattson, and their dog Pike, embarked on a self-propelled expedition that followed the runoff from their backyard 3,700 kilometres to the Arctic.
Director and Producer: Karl Mattson        
Website: www.karlmattson.ca

Symbiosis    
Duration: 12 min [Festival Version 5 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Symbiosis features exquisite footage from numerous West Kootenay creeks that are threatened by controversial independent power projects (IPPs). Guided by members of the ECE, a regional collective of concerned kayakers raising awareness over hundreds of IPP applications in British Columbia, viewers are led down a selection of creeks and canyons special to the West Kootenay region.    
Director and Producer: Carl Jacks        
Website: www.daintydeathy.com

Terra Antarctica: Re-Discovering the Seventh Continent    
Duration: 49 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
For six weeks we explored the Antarctic Peninsula by sea kayak, sailboat, foot and small plane, observing the fast-changing evolution of this most remote place. Impacted by climate change, this part of Antarctica is also experiencing a boom in tourism. This is a one-of-a-kind look at Antarctica from a unique perspective - sea level.    
Director and Producer: Jon Bowermaster        
Website: www.jonbowermaster.com

Twenty Years: The Missouri Stream Team Story    
Duration: 28 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
The Missouri Stream Team project is one of the nation's finest. Over 4,000 teams channel the energy and enthusiasm of over 80,000 volunteers in a host of stream stewardship activities. The resulting stories are inspiring. Stream Team volunteers describe the connections they've developed with their natural resources and with each other.    
Director and Producer: Jim Karpowicz

The Call of the River    
Duration: 75 min [Festival Version 19:50 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Whitewater's history has as many twists and turns as the canyons its pioneers explored. From bribing dam-keepers to release water, to World Champions defecting from Communist regimes and utilizing military by-products for equipment. Curiosity, ingenuity and outright audacity thrived as paddlers probed the boundaries of the river experience.    
Director and Producer: Kent Ford        

The Next 340 Miles    
Duration: 60 min [Festival Version 28 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
What would you include when outfitting your boat for the longest non-stop paddling race in the world? Follow along with the Missouri River 340 - a race across the state of Missouri - as paddlers demonstrate what it takes to endure this ultimate test of pain, exhaustion, heat and even hallucinations.    
Director and Producer: Jodi Pfefferkon        
Website: www.flamingfiddle.com

The Season    
Duration: 16:30 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2010    
The Season follows three athletes through a Pacific Northwest summer. A boulderer returns to form after a series of failed knee surgeries and personal struggles. Aged by the loss of his father, a young kayaker redraws the frontiers of sea kayaking. A veteran climber dreams up a new piece of gear and makes the ultimate commitment to realize his invention's potential.     
Director: Bryan Smith    
Producer: Fitz Cahall    
Website: www.reelwaterproductions.com

This is Canoeing    
Duration: 5-35 min [Festival Version 7:40 min]
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2010    
A long overdue celebration of canoeing, showcasing some of the single blade's most talented paddlers, exploring wilderness and running challenging whitewater. Stunning, high definition footage and charming stories from multiple award-winning filmmaker Justine Curgenven.
Director and Producer: Justine Curgenven        
Website: www.cackletv.com

Tilt    
Duration: 8 min  
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
In the wildest, most westerly part of Alberta, three teenagers dared to slip on tight neoprene and learn to wrangle the whitewater of the Red Deer River.    
Director and Producer: Aaron Janzen        
Website: www.selahfilms.ca

Wet Dream Result-Trailer 
Duration: 5 min    
Year Produced: 2009    
Year Released: 2009    
This film is a tribute to those who push the limits so hard that the limits are like, "Ow! Stop pushing me!"    
Director and Producer: Tom Gerencer        
Website: www.medianortheast.com

World Cup Road Trip     
Duration: Festival Version 2:40 min
Year Produced: 2008-2009    
Year Released: 2009    
Follow the highs and lows as the world's best freestyle kayakers spend a month together on the road in the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland participating in the World Cup of Freestyle Kayaking.    
Director and Producer: Jez Blanchard        
Website: www.skippyfilms.com

 

 



Film Festival Schedule

Saturday:

Day: 10-6:00 PM

Evening: 7-9:00PM, Best of the Best in all categories, with a silent auction during the intermission.

Sunday: 10-5:00PM