Award-winning Giants coming to Sudbury outdoor film festival

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The world’s best adventure and environmental films are headed to Northern Ontario this weekend for the fourth edition of the SOAR Film Festival at the Indie Cinema, 162 Mackenzie St.

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Winners at the Banff Film Festival were announced over the weekend. One of the top awards went to the Australian feature The Giants, set to show on the big screen in Sudbury this coming Saturday night.

The Giants follows the story of Bob Brown — an environmentalist whose activism is documented over five decades. Brown takes a run for political office, becoming the first and only elected member of the Green Party to then hold the balance of power in Australian parliament.

Brown’s activism extends to his personal life, as he comes out as a gay man in the 1970s. He is an important public figure on many fronts. His courage and dedication to stand up for his values is inspiring. The Giants won best environmental film in Banff. The Sudbury screening will be the film’s Northern Ontario premiere.

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Banff hosted several world premieres, including For Winter, SOAR’s opening feature (Friday at 6:30 p.m.); and Wildflowers, which is featured in SOAR’s Women In the Outdoors programme, taking place Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. Both of these Ontario premieres will be followed by a live Q&A, moderated by Beth Mairs.

Call Me Moab screens Saturday at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a local panel. This mountain biking film, based in Utah, follows a former tech industry worker who decides to radically change his life by re-organizing his means of income around the biking scene in Moab, his adopted home.

Local panellists are drawn from among a cluster of folks who have found a way to make a living doing what they love. They will include local artist Gillian Schultze; canoeist, professor, outdoorsman and author Kevin Callan; and John Lalonde, proprietor of Sessions Ride Company.

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SOAR has organized a free high school screening on Friday that will bring together outdoor education and media arts students to screen Keepers of the Trail. A discussion will follow with filmmaker David Hartman (Haywire Media) and doc subject Kielyn Marrone of Lure of the North.

Both guests are graduates of Laurentian University’s outdoor adventure leadership program. Marrone, based near Espanola, is best known as a top-three finalist on the show Alone.

SOAR Film Festival is pleased to announce the addition of three new film awards this year: the audience-choice Best of the Fest; best cinematography; and best student film.

LU will host a special screening of student adventure films on Nov. 9 as part of SOAR. One hundred per cent of ticket sales will go towards their expedition trips, set for 2025.

To learn more about the SOAR Film Festival, go to sudburyindiecinema.com.

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X: @SudburyStar

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