MOUNTAINFILM 2011 Join Durango Nature Studies for our fall fundraiser. Place: Smiley Building Date: Friday, November 4th Time: Doors at 5:30, Films at 7:00 Cost: Tickets are $10, $7 for students and $5 for kids under 12 Food and drinks will be served.

List of films:

Kadoma – 44 min- "Kadoma" was a nickname for Hendri Coetzee, a legendary South African kayaker who had explored some of Africa’s wildest rivers. In December of 2010, American pro kayakers Chris Korbulic and Ben Stookesbury followed Coetzee into the Democratic Republic of Congo for a first descent of the dangerous Lukuga River. Seven weeks into the expedition, tragedy struck. Coetzee was paddling tip to tail in between the other two men when a fifteen-foot crocodile surfaced silently and swiftly pulled him underwater. He was never seen again. The cover story for Outside magazine in February, the horrific story is now recounted in this tense documentary that was directed by Stookesbury and is premiering at Mountainfilm.
 
Chasing Water – 19 min- In Chasing Water, photojournalist Peter McBride sets out to document the flow of the Colorado River from source to sea. A Colorado native, McBride hails from a ranching family that depends on the Colorado for irrigation, and this is the story of his backyard. His simple desire is to find out where the irrigation water of his youth went after his family used it, and how long it took the water to reach the ocean. His experience, however, is not so straightforward, analogous, perhaps, to tracking down a special friend from childhood—one who was always full of vitality—only to find her utterly changed and diminished. Writer John Waterman joins McBride on this 1,500-mile journey, one that shows how the thirst of the 30 million that the Colorado supports takes a unhealthy toll.
 
Way Back Home - 7 min- With trial bike in hand, Danny MacAskill returns to the old country to try a few new school tricks. Filmmaker Kris Moyes captured MacAskill at play in his hometown of Dunvegan, Scotland. 
 
Berber Turns – 8 min- Telluride local Kim Havell teamed up with Kris Erickson and Chris Rubens to explore the far reaches of Morocco’s skiing, including some turns on the second highest peak in Northern Africa.

One Plastic Beach  - 8 min- For 12 years, Judith Selby and Richard Lang have collected plastic trash along a one-kilometer stretch of beach near their home in Northern California. At a rate of 35 pounds per hour, it isn’t surprising that they have accumulated tons of debris. What may be surprising is the art they produce with it—sculptures and abstract prints reminiscent of Paul Klee and Henri Matisse that feature 1949-vintage toys, Korean lighters, Astroturf (a common find), bubble blowers and hair curlers that may have last adorned a human head thirty or forty years ago. The artwork has exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and now, the Langs can add Mountainfilm’s 2011 filmmaker awards to their resume. Let’s hope that those pieces never find their way back to the sea, where they would join an estimated 46,000 visible pieces of plastic that float in every square mile of Earth’s oceans.
 
Eel Water Rock Man – 7 min- The team behind Stone River <http://www.mountainfilm.org/film/stone-river>  (Mountainfilm 2010) and Orion magazine bring us this short film, which, simple, balanced and richly shot, is fully consonant with its theme of nature’s timeless cycles, unchanging truths and abundance. Watch the Delaware River as it flows around, past and through an ancient stone weir designed by a decidedly old-school fisherman to catch migrating eels. The moving river creates a sound like applause—a rippling, bubbling, liquid ovation—for the virtues of patience, acceptance and devotion.
 
I Know What You Spilled Last Summer – 4 min - n this spot-on parody, “I Know What You Spilled Last Summer” features four young oil executives, including a Jennifer Love Hewitt lookalike(ish) trying to cover up a terrible disaster.
 
Yelp – 5 min - This short film’s full title is Yelp (With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”). Directed by Tiffany Shlain and narrated by Peter Coyote, it is a brief essay (really a rant) about technology and how we need to–as Peter Coyote shouts to the world–“unplug, unplug, unplug and revisit the present tense.”