Film festival at Schuler Auditorium Sunday

Michael Boge has played host to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Coeur d’Alene for the last nine years, in Sandpoint for the last 11 years, and in Ketchum/Sun Valley for the last six years.

What started as a simple request to host a night of films in Sandpoint has turned into a seven-day run each winter throughout these Idaho mountain communities, raising thousands of dollars for various nonprofit groups.

The best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival will be shown at the North Idaho College Boswell Schuler Auditorium on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Doors will open at 5:30.

The Coeur d’Alene showing will include eight different films including “The Magic Mountain,” the People’s Choice Award recipient. This offbeat story is about educator Cynthia Hunt, the founder of Health, Environment and Literacy in the Himalayas, and her efforts to empower illiterate women. The film propels viewers on a rare journey as she hikes over 16,000-foot passes and through a frozen river gorge deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Another film highlight is “The Lost People of Mountain Village,” which is the story about a lost backcountry skier who stumbles onto a monumental complex of uninhabited structures. The only thing upon which experts agree is that they may never know what really happened to the lost people of Mountain Village.

Coeur d’Alene film tickets are $10 per person and are available at all North Idaho Zip’s Drive-in locations, Vertical Earth, the Camera Corral, Mountain View Cyclery and Sport, The Two Wheeler Dealer and the Ski Shack.

The Sandpoint film festival closes tonight with a showing at 7 p.m. Tickets are $11 per person.

For Boge, the Banff Mountain Film Festival is the essence of why we enjoy living in Idaho so much – quality of life, great opportunities for a wide variety of outdoor sports, fresh water and clean air.

“At times it sounds a bit sappy but walking away from the shows each year, I believe that so many ideas are spawned from watching what others are doing on the larger stage,” Boge says. “Out of this has also grown the ideas of helping out community groups.”

Last year the Banff Mountain Film Festival raised more than $16,000 for nonprofit community groups. This year the groups and the causes remain the same with The North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation in Kootenai County and the Mickinnick Trail in Bonner County receiving a portion of the film festival proceeds.

New this year is a program call “Satipo Kids” that Boge and his wife, Anavel, started for 15 children in the jungle community of Satipo, Peru.

“These children are being chosen from families that have no means to ever send their children to school,” Boge says. “We would like to take the long term approach of providing education to them so they will be able to help themselves and their families in the future.”

Their plan is to take care of the students’ education needs for the next 10 years, the amount of time it takes to graduate from the school system in Satipo. Satipo is Anavel’s hometown and is located on the eastern side of the Andes within the Amazon Basin.

In addition to the Film Festival, 18 of last year’s winners in the Banff Mountain Photography Competition will be exhibited the night of the show. The North Idaho Centennial Trail Foundation will also be selling raffle tickets for a red and white retro Cruiser bicycle that will be given away during intermission.

The Banff Centre is a globally respected arts, cultural, and educational institution located in Alberta. For more than 70 years the Centre has provided professional career development and lifelong learning for artists and cultural leaders in performing, literary, new media, and visual arts. Work is showcased throughout the year in public concerts, exhibitions, and events.

For more information, contact Michael Boge at (208) 661-3857 or (208) 263-4282.