WOW, what a week!
I had just spent 2 weeks off-grid on the Pamir Highway and finally managed to connect again when this email showed up in my inbox (amongst a few others):
Oct 5th 2017
Dear Chris
Congratulations – your film DREAMWALKERS – The Faroes Project has been chosen as an official selection for the 2017 Banff Mountain Film Competition!
In its 42nd year, the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival is one of the most prestigious mountain festivals in the world. Presented by National Geographic and The North Face, it takes place October 28 – November 5 2017, at Banff Centre here in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
Beyond stoked I immediately started making travel plans. About a year ago, when I first sat down with David and Yuri and we started planning this project I always said, if we do this right, this could be a film for the Banff Mountain Film Festival. And here I am, 12 months later… invited to the festival that has inspired me so much over the past years. And now I get to hopefully inspire others! Full circle!
The next few weeks in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were spent quite distracted shooting cultures, landscapes and our travels along the Silk Road as well as desperately finding a solid Internet connection to upload the final version of my film for the festival all while figuring out how I’d get from Uzbekistan to Canada…
Shortly before my departure in late October the even organisers contacted me again. If you can trim down your film to around 15min there’s a chance we might take it on the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour.
So I began cutting…
You see, when you’ve spent almost 8 months on a project cutting and trimming an adventure into a 30min film, halving it isn’t exactly an easy job.
But with the help and feedback of the World Tour organisers we somehow managed and a 16min version of the film will be going on the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour! Whoooo.
30 of the 85 finalists will be touring all around the world during the next year, with around 1100 screenings. 6-10 of those 30 films are selected and screened at each event. So, with a bit of luck, my film DREAMWALKERS should be playing near you sometime in 2018.
While this is a dream come true, I will still be releasing the film online later this year. So even if it won’t screen near you, you’ll be able to watch it for free at the comfort of your couch, but I can assure you, seeing it on the big screen in a theatre alongside plenty other action packed adventure films is more than worth it. If you have the chance I can highly recommend going to a BMFF screening.
The official release date for the film will be January 7th 2018*. (sign up here to be notified)
*Patreon Supporters will get early access in late December.
