This Mountain Life

Conrad Anker is one of the greatest and most notorious professional mountain climbers in history. But at 54, his career in the big mountains is winding down, especially after suffering a heart attack on a climb high in the Himalayas. His friend Alex Wildman is a novice big-wall climber and cardiac nurse with his own history of traumatic illness. Together, they team up to support each other on a climb up Yosemite's El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

The Holy Mountain

The traditional healers in the Swiss and French mountains.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is credited as being the World’s Greatest Living Explorer. Among his extraordinary achievements, he was the first to circumnavigate the world from pole to pole, crossed the Antarctic on foot, broke countless world records, and discovered a lost city in Arabia. He has travelled to the most dangerous places on Earth, lost half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and was nearly cast as James Bond. But who is the man who prefers to be known as just ‘Ran’?

A documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. The film opens with a map showing the strategic importance of the island, and the thrust of the 1942 Japanese offensive into Midway and Dutch Harbor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Cervino - La montagna del mondo

One day in the life of a 50-year-old couple. Blind Krzysztof goes skiing with Wiola, who is his wife and guide. They prepare for skiing in the early morning. Krzysztof mounts bluetooth kits on the helmets that will connect them to each other. They go to the top of the mountain in a chair lift, and the higher they go, the more we learn about their life. At the same time, weather conditions are changing, thickening mist falls on the mountain slopes. When Wiola and Krzysztof finally reach the summit, they must find each other and connect in the surrounding fog. A short documentary about love and passion.

Toad People introduces audiences to the stories of people like Steve Clegg who make up a community-led movement to save this threatened species. In different parts of the province, people from all ages and walks of life come together to do whatever it takes to help toads survive. They stop road traffic, collect toads in buckets and carry them across the road, build toad tunnels. In the Kootenays, Debbie Pitaoulis is fighting to protect the toad habitat from logging. The film follows these individuals’ passion for the natural world, their fighting spirit, perseverance but also their struggles, demonstrating that people do not need to be environmental activists or scientists to take action, they just need to be citizens who care.

"Ski The Outer Limits" is a poetic exploration of man's "conquest of the useless," his quest to expand the limists of his abilities. Racing, clowning, teaching, flipping and flying - the world's finest skiers define their limits. A philosophical narration brings the story home to anyone wishing to explore their limits.

A science fiction fantasy on skis with spectacular glacier skiing, extraordinary acrobatics, unique optical effects, and an original score. The world's polarity is mysteriously reversed, requiring the skiers to regain the realm of normal perception by performing maneuvers inspired by the ambiguous nature of the "Moebius Strip."

Glenn Close narrates this National Park Service movie about the many varied aspects of Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. Shown at Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center.

Pseudo-ethnological documents about two villages which, without roads and electricity, "stopped existing"

In 1950, a French expedition led by Maurice Herzog went to central Nepal to conquer the highest peak (8,091 meters): Annapurna. The film is not only made of what we see, but even more of what we don't see. Its imperfections are the negative imprint of the adventure. Memory is the most faithful of films.

A short film featuring a coastal forest and the rocky coastline of downeast Maine.

Fog surrounds the peak of a mountain as summer wildflowers bloom.

Come fly with us in OVER ALASKA as we take off on a breathtaking tour of our 49th state. Soar over Mt. McKinley and through the craggy crevasses of electric blue glaciers. Follow the Iditarod and kayakers as they navigate past icebergs. Then touch down to Earth and get as close to bears, whales and wildlife as humanly possible.

Although the mountain volcano Mauna Kea last erupted around 4,000 years ago, it is still hot today, the center of a burning controversy over whether its summit should be used for astronomical observatories or preserved as a cultural landscape sacred to the Hawaiian people. For five years the documentary production team Nā Maka o ka 'Āina ("the eyes of the land") captured on video the seasonal moods of Mauna Kea's unique 14,000-foot summit, the richly varied ecosystems that extend from sea level to alpine zone, the legends and stories that reveal the mountain's geologic and cultural history, and the political turbulence surrounding the efforts to protect the most significant temple in the islands: the mountain itself.

First Descent is a 2005 documentary film about snowboarding and its beginning in the 1980s. The snowboarders featured in this movie (Shawn Farmer, Nick Perata, Terje Haakonsen, Hannah Teter and Shaun White with guest appearances from Travis Rice) represent three generations of snowboarders and the progress this young sport has made over the past two decades. Most of the movie was shot in Alaska.

This Traveltalk series short takes the viewer to Alaska, focusing on the cities of Sitka and Juneau.

Program One KILAUEA: MOUNTAIN OF FIRE Ecosystems on Big Island Face No Small Challenge Kilauea, violent and beautiful, destructive and creative, continually molds Hawaii's Big Island. Kilauea: Mountain of Fire explores the incredible power of the volcano and the challenges of like in its shadow. Academy-winner F.Murry Abraham narrates. TV-G Program Two VIOLENT HAWAII From Rivers of Lava Springs Bedrock of Life Imagine a lost word with lava flowing down mountainsides, violent storms, monster waves, rock sides and even heavy snows. This isn't science fiction. It's Hawaii-where spectacular beauty was forged by fire, and created by Turbulent natural forces. Tony Award-winner James Naughton narrates this riveting HD visual journey. TV-G