Colourful Craig Potton Headlines New Mountain Book Festival

Colourful Craig Potton Headlines New Mountain Book Festival

Craig Potton - Mangatini

The NZ Mountain Film Festival will run for the 14th year in Wanaka and Queenstown from the 1st to the 9th of July with the addition of Mountain Book competition and literature events. Like the film genre, the mountain book event entails a competition element. The literature competition has now closed after attracting many well know New Zealand authors to submit their work. Over $4,000 in prize money is made available to filmmakers and writers from both New Zealand and around the world and film entries close April 30th.

Rippon Hall will provide the stunning setting for the Book Festival events that will include author readings, old fashion story telling and presentations by two of New Zealand’s best-known authors Craig Potton and Laurence Fearnley.

Prominent New Zealand author Craig Potton will be headlining the Mountain Book event as keynote speaker. Potton is New Zealand’s best-known landscape photographer. His love for the outdoors, landscapes, travel and creativity are captured in his beautiful photography, books and documentaries. He is known to be a talker and an adventurer, a philosophical character and a fierce conversationalist and conservationist. Potton is an Ambassador for the New Zealand Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society and has been actively involved in conservation his entire life.

The new event will also include a session called Words and Wine; this involves a panel of authors reading excerpts from their books while the audience enjoys a glass of local Rippon Pinot and a roaring fire. Returning after rave reviews in 2015 is a session called Old Fashioned Story Telling where mountaineers and adventurers present informal relaxed renditions of some of their favourite expedition tales. The easy-going formats, with no fancy technology, presented at dusk, with the backdrop Lake Wanaka behind, provide perfect conditions for magical story telling.

The NZ Mountain Film Festival will continue to host educational opportunities for aspiring filmmakers with the two-day Adventure Film School. The Adventure Film School provides an opportunity to gain fundamental filmmaking skills including production planning, camera and sound work, editing and outputting of the finished film. Youth Scholarships are available for two under 18 years olds to attend for free and applicants can apply online.

The NZ Mountain Film festival Charitable Trust is also approaching Central Otago High Schools offering free transport to Wanaka for a special free youth day of films and speakers before the Festival kicks off on July 1st.

The full programme will be revealed and tickets will go on sale online at mountainfilm.net.nz on June 1st.

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