ShAFF 2019: Climb Films 1 15

A selection of the best of this year's climbing films. Screening as part of Sheffield Adventure Film Festival 2019. Part of Sheffield Adventure Film Festival 2019 (ShAFF 2019). 100+ of the best adventure, travel and extreme sports films over one weekend in the UK's Outdoor Capital City.

1. Blocbuster - 6 minutes

   Bouldering. Why do people across the world dedicate their lives in pursuit of the sport? Following his documented 4th ever ascent of the 8B+ boulder problem 'Voyager Sit Start' in the Peak District, Moon Climbing athlete David Fitzgerald set his sights on Europe. Follow the journey as David takes on some of Europe's hardest boulders and explore the reasons why bouldering means so much to so many people.

2. Brothers Of Climbing - 7 minutes

   How can you be what you can’t see? Mikhail Martin, co-founder of Brothers of Climbing said, “I literally typed, ‘Are there black climbers?’ in Google … someone said, ‘black people don’t climb.'”
   A small group of climbers began to challenge that thought. The Brothers of Climbing is a crew that's making the climbing community more welcoming. Watch to see how they created a community where one wasn’t.

3. Reach -16 minutes

   You don't have to travel to the ends of the earth to find adventure stories. Often they happen closer to home. This intimate story of determination and grit shows just what can be achieved when you chose the right friends and refuse to set limits for yourself. If you visit the Foundry climbing centre in Sheffield, you may be greeted by a rather unique spectacle: electric wheelchairs, walking frames, and ventilators left abandoned on the ground, while their owners climb high above. This is all because of a charity called Climbing For All Sheffield, which believes in opening up the vibrant and exciting Sheffield climbing scene to people with a wide range of disabilities. What will be less obvious to a casual observer is that this charity has its origins in the actions of a single teenage girl, who dared to dream a little different. This intimate documentary film tells the extraordinary story of a girl who found out what happens when you refuse to sit in a sewing group and watch other people make sock monkeys, and instead dare to ask the question 'What if I could learn to rock climb?' If you would like more information, would like to volunteer, chat about a ‘climbing for all’ initiative, or are curious about climbing and don’t know where to start, head to https://climbingforallsheffield.com or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/cfasheffield/

4. Queen Maud Land - 27 minutes

   A dream team of six elite climbers mount an expedition to one of the world's last great climbing frontiers: the remote frozen towers of Antarctica. Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker tackle a new route on the 3,600foot Ulvetanna; Savannah Cummins and Anna Pfaff summit the towering Holtanna; and Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright make a harrowing and hilarious blitz of 13 different spires spread across the ice field, including one pitch that Honnold calls "the scariest I have ever led." Queen Maud Land the name of this icy region showcases a stunning, rarely visited wilderness, and the suffering and vision needed to climb at the bottom of the world.

5. Blood Moon - 39 minutes

   The film follows Robbie Phillips, Calum Cunningham and Alan Carne as they attempt to open a new climb, ground up, on a 700m Big Wall; Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar. The walls of Tsaranoro are as wild and bold as the country, the rock beautifully carved and the story... that of a real adventure of friends taking the risks that come hand in hand with pushing boundaries. Once the free climbing begins disaster strikes, Alan takes a bad fall shattering his lower right leg, an epic ordeal unfolds to get Alan from the remote big wall to safety. From here the mood changes, Robbie and Calum are left with some big questions and bigger fears as they must decide whether to continue with their push or give in to their emotions as they learn the hardest way possible what it takes to open a Big Wall on one of the sheerest vertical faces in Africa.