Wild & Scenic Film Festival Comes to Lexington

EVENT DETAILS:

Date and Time:  Tuesday, December 3. Doors open at 5; Films run from 6-9 pm.

Location Address: Kentucky Theater, 214 East Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky.

Ticket Prices: $10 Adult; 12 and under $5. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at: http://kyheartwoodwildscenic.brownpapertickets.com
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Lexington: The 2013 Wild and Scenic Film Festival rolls into Lexington’s historic Kentucky Theater on Tuesday, December 3 with a lineup of 16 motivating, hopeful and  inspiring films. Doors open at 5; film program starts at 6 pm.

The Wild and Scenic Film Festival combines stellar film-making, beautiful cinematography and first-rate storytelling to inform, inspire and ignite solutions and possibilities to restore the earth and human communities while creating a positive future for the next generation.  Selections from the 3-day festival in Nevada City, California, go on tour and are hosted by local environmental organizations. In this way, the festival reaches over 100 cities annually, the largest environmental film festival in North America. And thanks to the folks at Kentucky Heartwood, it’s coming to Lexington.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival was started by the watershed advocacy group, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) in 2003. The festival’s namesake is in celebration of SYRCL’s landmark victory to receive “Wild & Scenic” status for 39 miles of the South Yuba River in 1999. The 3-day event features over 100 award-winning films and welcomes over 100 guest speakers, celebrities, and activists who bring a human face to the environmental movement. The home festival kicks-off the national tour, allowing SYRCL to share their success as an environmental group with others organizations such as Kentucky Heartwood.  With the support of their National Partners: Patagonia, CLIF Bar, Osprey Packs, Sierra Nevada Brewing and Mother Jones, the festival reaches audiences in tour venues coast to coast.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is a fundraiser for Kentucky Heartwood, a non-profit forest preservation group that has been dedicated to protecting the beauty and integrity of Kentucky’s native forests for 21 years. For more information on the festival and selected films visit www.kyheartwood.org.

Highlights of this year’s film festival include:

The Old Breed - “Getting to the top matters.” So says Mark Richey as he prepares to climb Saser Kangri II, at 7,518 meters the world’s second highest unclimbed mountain. In “The Old Breed”, co-director and alpinist Freddie Wilkinson takes us with him on an adventure of true exploratory alpinism. Climbing with Richey and Steve Swenson, both in their 50s, we watch as they push the limits of physical health and will power and experience first hand the monumental risks that climbers are willing to take to be the first to stand atop a mountain. www.cowboybearninja.com  (USA, 2012, 25min)

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The Way Home - “You shouldn’t have to convince people to go to paradise,”-Shelton Johnson, Ranger, Yosemite National Park. Although our national parks belong to all Americans, it’s a sad fact that very few people of color ever set foot in some of our country’s most beautiful places. Take a journey to Yosemite National Park with the Amazing Grace 50+ Club, a Los Angeles-based senior church group whose members are looking to reverse that trend. Moving Mountains Award, Mountainfilm. www.npca.org/news/magazine/all-issues/2012/the-way-home.html (USA, 2011, 9min).

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Huck - Waterfall kayaking has emerged as a dominant subset of whitewater paddling—thrilling audiences and pushing athletes to constantly tempt higher falls. It is constantly glorified and frequently misunderstood by all but the small group of kayakers who make waterfalls their life. Evan Garcia explores what it means to kayak off of big waterfalls—considering both the risks and rewards of a life driven by freefall. www.andymaser.com  (USA, 2012, 6min).

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Ernest - Ernest Wilkerson is struggling to hold onto an independent lifestyle while facing a changing world and his own advancing age. Born in 1924, this humble mountain man cherishes his active life: “I cannot picture myself just sittin’ around doing nothin’.” A local legend in Monte Vista, Colorado, Wilkerson learned to fend for himself at a young age, becoming a government-hired wildlife trapper, taxidermist, conservationist and teacher of backcountry survival skills. His specialty is snow caves, but he says, “Your best survival tool is your brain.” (USA, 2012, 5min).

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The Return - THE RETURN is a follow-up to the feature-length documentary FACING THE STORM: STORY OF THE AMERICAN BISON. It documents the historic transfer of wild, genetically-pure bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck tribes of northeastern Montana. These are the first bison in over 100 years to leave the Yellowstone area alive. www.highplainsfilms.org (USA, 2012, 16min).

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Georgena Terry - This short documentary is about Georgena Terry, founder of Terry Bicycles. Terry revolutionized the women's biking industry by creating a frame specific to a woman's body. This is the story of how she got her start and the challenges within the women's biking movement. www.amandazackem.com (USA, 2012, 6min).

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Sanctuary - Taos, New Mexico is bordered by a backyard of wildlife and wild land. Both take a beating as outdoor users love the Carson National Forest to death. Some of those users recognized the damage they caused and decided to instigate a movement for resource recovery. Illegal trails close. Sanctuaries open. Habitat bounces back. Wildlife comes back. See a refuge restored in just a few short years. Presidents Choice - Best Outdoor TV Story,  2012 Outdoor Writers Association of America; 1st place Hunting/Shooting, 2012 Outdoor Writers Association of America; Honorable Mention, Int'l Wildlife Film Festival. www.tightlinemedia.com (USA, 2011, 13min).

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The Gimp Monkeys - What has four legs, five arms and three heads? The Gimp Monkeys. Craig DeMartino lost his leg after a 100-foot climbing fall. Pete Davis with born without an arm. Bone cancer claimed Jarem Frye’s left leg at the age of 14. While the three are linked by what they are missing, it is their shared passion for climbing that pushed them towards an improbable goal – the first all-disabled ascent of Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan. There was no cause. No call for awareness. No fundraising. “We are climbers first, disabled second,” says DeMartino. “If you’re a climber, you want to climb El Cap.” The Gimp Monkeys follows their successful ascent of Zodiac, a 1,800-foot route on the Southeast Face of El Capitan. Exceptional Athlete Award, Boulder Adventure FF. www.ducttapethenbeer.com   (USA, 2012, 9min).

For more information: Contact Kentucky Heartwood, kentuckyheartwood@gmail.org, (859) 334-0602. www.kyheartwood.org

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