New Zealand gets its first Trail Running Film Festival
New Zealand gets its first Trail Running Film Festival
Announcing “Reel Wild: The Kiwi Trail
Running Film Festival”
With stunning bush,
spectacular mountain ranges, pristine coastlines, volcanic
plateaus, rainforest and beautiful lakes all within short
driving distances from the country’s main city centres, do
we even need to explain why New Zealand has firmly
established itself as a mecca for trail runners
worldwide?
We didn’t think so.
With trail
running experiencing an explosion in popularity over the
last few years, the number of events in New Zealand has been
steadily increasing and the country is now the setting for
over 180 trail running races per year, with new ones popping
up all the time and attendance numbers consistently breaking
records.
To date, few events outside of the trail
races themselves have celebrated the sport. On April 18,
2015, local trail running crew Mediocre Astronauts will
launch the first ever Trail Running Film Festival in
Auckland. Titled “Reel Wild”, the inaugural event will
showcase the best trail running films worldwide and share
the passion for the sport.
This is the first time that
trail runners will have the chance to come together as a
community outside of organised trail events, leaving the
muddy shoes at home and taking part in an event that is set
to become a regular fixture in the trail running
calendar.
Organisers Steve Blackburn and Vera Alves
have hired Hopetoun Alpha and aim to create the laid back
atmosphere of the post run catch up with friends; “This is
an event for trail runners to come together and share their
love for the sport in a relaxed manner. We’ll be showing
films, chatting about trail running, eating some good food
and Auckland’s Epic Beer have partnered with us to make
available some of the finest New Zealand craft beer you can
find,” explains Blackburn.
The film selection is
diverse including both longer features and short films,
personal reflections and trail race accounts. Local
directors include Aaron Smart showcasing his new film on
Kiwi trail running sensation Ruby Muir, “Just Keep
Running”. Smart will be at the event to discuss the film
with the viewers. Tarawera Ultra race director Paul
Charteris will also be present to introduce the latest movie
on his world renowned Tarawera Ultramarathon (which takes
place in Rotorua on February 7th).
Overseas directors
include Joel Wolpert’s movie” In the High Country”
featuring trail running legend Tony Krupicka and
“Depressions”, Wolpert’s new movie featuring another
esteemed US runner Rob Krar.
Ethan Newberry, known
online as The Ginger Runner, will showcase “The Gorge
50K”, an overview of an amazingly beautiful trail race in
Washington State, all shot using a GoPro.
Globally
renowned film producers The African Attachment will show
their series of short films produced for Salomon as well as
the powerful documentary “The Beauty of the
Irrational”.
The film festival concludes with one of
the first ever screenings of “The Barkley Marathons: The
Race That Eats Its Young” by Annika Iltis and Timothy
Kane, a documentary about one of the most secretive,
eccentric, and difficult trail races ever created.
The
programme is yet to be fully finalised, with more films and
speakers to be announced in the coming weeks.
Finally
because it wouldn’t be a trail running event without a
trail run, the following day will see attendees given the
opportunity to lace up their shoes for a special one-off run
to be held in the Waitakere Ranges, west of Auckland. The
run will be led by Jo Johansen, elite NZ ultrarunner, winner
of the Tarawera Ultra and Hutt River Trail
races.
Alves and Blackburn hope that this festival
will become an annual event repeated in cities up and down
the county.
“We know the trail running community
shares our passion for the sport and we’d love to take
this concept on the road in the coming year,” says Alves.
“We’re lucky here in New Zealand to have such amazing
resources in our backyard and getting a bunch of likeminded
folk together to relax, raise a glass or two and watch some
inspiring movies seemed a great way to celebrate
that.”
Event details
Location: Hopetoun Alpha
off K Road
Date and time: April 18, 2015, 1pm – Late
(with optional trail run in the Waitakere Ranges the
following day)
Tickets: $35 plus booking
fee
Website:
www.reelwild.co.nz
ends