ShAFF2018: Spirit Of Adventure Films 1 12A

Beyond the Wall - 10min

In spring 2016, the first climbing gym was opened in Palestine as part of the Wadi Climbing project, to help develop the Palestinian climbing community. Based in the West Bank city of Ramallah and close to the nearby wall crossing point of Qalandiya to reach East Jerusalem, these are places better known as flashpoints for Israeli/Palestinian tensions. Primarily through the eyes of West Bank residents, Anas Askar and his brother Urwah, the film takes a look at being a climber in Palestine and the problems that impromptu roadblocks and illegal settlements can mean in order to just reach the crag. Ultimately, irrespective of where we live the film hopefully shows that to a lesser or greater degree the reasons why we climb are the same. Filmmaker, Ray Wood, and writer, Ed Douglas, worked together on the short film that Paul Difley put together in the edit room. 

The Frozen Road - 24min

Shot and edited whilst cycling around the world, this short film charts my winter journey into the Canadian Arctic as I completed my bike ride up the American continent. Compelled by Jack London’s assertion, that ‘any man who is a man can travel alone’, I sought an adventure of perfect solitude. Yet, as I came to realise, the harsh truths of travelling in such a formidable environment were a long way from the romantic images I’d held of this land. The Frozen Road is an honest reflection on my solo trip; of the wonder, terror and frustration I experienced when riding through the unforgiving emptiness of one of the world's 'last great wildernesses'.

DugOut - 53min

Ben and James have been on several 'adventures' together, from pulling a sofa across southern England to swimming the length of a knee deep river in Dorset. Making films about their trips has become a part of the journey. They wanted to build on these journeys in their latest project but also make something about more than themselves - to capture the beauty of the landscape, the people and the wildlife they encountered would have to be more important than any distance or number of miles they could travel.

It was with this in mind that they came up with the idea of DugOut, an idea as simple as the name suggests: they would travel to the Ecuadorian Amazon, live with an indigenous community, learn from them how to build  a canoe, then take that canoe on a journey.

The film covers the two month trip, documenting their time in the Huaorani community as they built a dugout canoe, then the journey downstream through Ecuador's Yasuni region - one of the most biodiverse areas of the world.

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