Reel Rock 9: Valley Uprising, Friday, Nov. 14, at Vancouver's Rio Theatre at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre, part of the VIMFF Fall Series, Nov. 12-15. For tickets, $15, and info, visit vimff.org.
The filmmakers behind a new award-winning documentary screening in North Vancouver Saturday night, set out to give cinematic treatment to the wild history of rock climbing in Yosemite Valley, Calif., as well as embrace the counter-culture of outdoor sports.
According to the film's co-creator Nick Rosen, reached Wednesday from his home base of Boulder, Colo., Valley Uprising follows in the footsteps of more traditional films profiling the area's climbing history, however goes further, taking inspiration from films by Stacy Peralta, Dogtown and Z-Boys, and Riding Giants included, which explore the origins of skateboarding and surfing, respectively.
"What we're telling is almost a different thread that started in Camp 4 in Yosemite but has broadened out to backcountry skiing and kayaking and mountain climbing, base jumping or anybody who just puts on a Patagonia fleece and goes for a hike with their dog. This real love of the outdoors and the wilderness, that's the culture that we're coming from and the story that we're telling and I think it's kind of unique in that way," he says.
Valley Uprising covers the area's climbing history going back 50 years, starting with the rebellious pioneers who chose to adopt a bohemian lifestyle and live off the grid in campgrounds on the valley floor, similarminded to the likes of Jack Kerouac and John Muir, to today's top climbers, who keep the tradition alive while simultaneously pushing the envelope, incorporating base jumping and walking high lines.
No matter the generation, Yosemite's cliffs have continued to beckon. Rivalries, camaraderie, dumpster-diving, run-ins with the national park service, wild parties, a drugsmuggling plane crash, you name it, the area, home to massive granite walls and Yosemite National Park, has seen it all and continues to attract a spirited cast of characters, each interested in making their unique way in pursuit of their passion.
Valley Uprising was produced by Sender Films, a Boulder-based film production company focused on climbing, mountaineering and adventure films. Rosen is a partner in Sender Films as well as a partner in the Reel Rock Film Tour. The ninth edition of Reel Rock will see the newly released Valley Uprising screened in 500 cities around the world, including Vancouver and North Vancouver this week as part of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Fall Series, on now. Valley Uprising was screened to a sold-out audience on the festival's opening night, Wednesday, at Vancouver's Rio Theatre, and will be repeated tonight at the Rio at 7:30 p.m., and tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 15 at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre at 7:30 p.m. When asked why this was a story Sender Films felt compelled to tell, Rosen explains he and his collaborators' objective is to tell stories about the world of climbing in as compelling and broad a manner as possible.
"The history of Yosemite climbing is really the story, the origin story, of American climbing. .. and has played a huge role in the origins of world climbing," he says. "We knew that this 50-, 60-year period of Yosemite climbing history was just jam-packed with amazing characters and stories and capers and rivalries and legendary lore - climbing lore - as well as really the birthplace of the culture of American climbing, which is something distinct and counter-culture to the norm and something that's had a broad influence even beyond the sport of climbing."
Tackling that history was "a no-brainer," says Rosen, the challenge being how to fit all of it into one coherent film.
"That was really the biggest challenge and why it took so many years to do this. I'm glad we took so long because it allowed us to really make the film that we wanted to but it was challenging just from a storytelling and structural perspective," he says.
Sender Films has been plugging away at the film for the last seven years, seeing them focus on it more closely in the last year or so.
Filmmakers conducted a major archival search, global in reach, searching high and low for imagery to help them tell the story. As little film footage from the early days exists, they relied heavily on photography.
"There were a couple great sources of film footage, which is kind of like gold for documentary filmmaking, particularly from a historical perspective, but there wasn't a lot of that. I think climbers were a little too poor to afford 16mm film cameras back then," says Rosen.
Filmmakers drew upon a trove of discovered and undiscovered photographs ranging from iconic images, like one depicting three men, Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell and John Long, in what Rosen describes as "psychedelic Jimi Hendrix shirts" posing in front of El Capitan after the first one-day ascent of the Nose in 1975 used on the film's poster, to thousands of previously undiscovered pictures. For some of those, they drew upon the work of photographer Glen Denny and his book, Yosemite in the Sixties, and his untapped archive of negatives.
However just getting their hands on the photographs wasn't enough.
"Climbing is this sensual, dynamic experience, as would be just being in the valley, and partying in Camp 4 back in the day," says Rosen. "We really knew that we wanted this to be a film that moved to a rock 'n' roll pace and we didn't want it to be this traditional slow documentary with still photographs."
Fortunately they had a great partner on the project to help them bring their vision to life, visual effects artist Barry Thompson, who contributed motion graphics to the film.
"He is really a true artist," says Rosen.
"He really breathed life into these photographs and made the experience cinematic. At least, artistically, that's the real distinguishing characteristic of this film," he adds.
Filmmakers rounded out their storytelling with interviews with many of the climbing legends from across the eras. They interviewed approximately 40 people for the film, including: Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost and Steve Roper from the '60s; Jim Bridwell, Lynn Hill and John Long from the '70s; and a number of the cutting edge climbers of today.
Valley Uprising, narrated by actor Peter Sarsgaard, has been garnering positive responses from audiences - good news for the filmmakers.
"The real ambition we had with this film was that it would communicate to as broad an audience as possible," says Rosen.
The film has also been earning accolades within the industry, including being awarded the grand prize at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, held Nov. 1-9. "Banff is kind of the 800-pound gorilla of the mountain film festivals, so to win the grand prize there is pretty great recognition," says Rosen.
DVDs of Valley Uprising will be available on Black Friday via senderfilms.com.
