ELORA – There’s a new film festival coming to Elora and founder Ian Evans hopes it will appeal to film buffs, adventure lovers and those who find a brief lull in their calendars between Monster Month and holiday shopping.
The Elora Adventure Film Festival will make its debut Nov. 3 to 5 at the Gorge Cinema.
The idea was born at a dinner party, Evans said in an interview at his home.
“Last winter I had a little film festival in my garage,” he said.
“And then we had discussion about the films with friends over dinner. That’s really where it started.”
Evans is well known in the community as being an adventurer himself.
He often speaks about his adventures to students, seniors and at corporate keynote events – treks to Antarctica, cycling around Iceland and Australia, climbing five of the seven summits – and a film called Lunatic was made about his quest to reach the South Pole.
That will not be one of the films in the film festival and Evans is not giving away the titles of the films that will be shown.
But there are hints.
One film is about a desert trek with man’s best friend. One is about hang gliding with birds of prey. Another is about biking and rafting in Mongolia. And another asks the age-old question, why stop as you get older?
Evans has divided the films into programs. Each film is between three and 30 minutes long.
Each program runs for 140 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission, and will be shown twice over the weekend.
Program one will be screened on Nov. 3 at 7pm and again on Nov. 4 at 2pm. Program two will screen on Nov. 4 at 7pm and again on Nov. 5 at 2pm.
Attendees can book tickets through the film festival website eloraadventurefilmfestival.ca or through Evans’ own website, ianevans.ca.
For $20 to see a bunch of films, it’s pretty reasonably priced, Evans said.
“My goal is for the films to be inspirational, challenging and entertaining. I want people to leave feeling happy they’ve seen these films,” he said.
“And I hope the film festival will create a vibe in town and become a fixture in the social calendar.”
Evans said he has embraced adventure all his life. He’s also had some experience with film festivals when Lunatic was released.
“So I’ve seen what (a film festival) does for a community,” he said, listing possible spin-off benefits to retails shops, restaurants, pubs and hotels.
“I hope to provide the opportunity to see fantastic adventure films in a place that does extraordinary things all the time.”
For more information and to book a ticket, visit eloraadventurefilmfestival.ca.
