PODCAST:

On Friday, March 6 through Sunday, March 8, the Shenandoah National Park Trust will host the 11th annual Banff Mountain Film Festival at the Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ella Powell:

On Friday, March 6 through Sunday, March 8, the Shenandoah National Park Trust will host the 11th annual Banff Mountain Film Festival at the Paramount Theater in downtown Charlottesville. For Arts this week, we spoke with Molly Strauchler.

Molly Strauchler:

My name is Molly Strauchler. I’m the events and volunteer manager at Shenandoah National Park Trust, the official philanthropic partner of Shenandoah National Park, and we host the Banff film festival every year at the Paramount the Banff Film Festival is our largest annual fundraiser, and it is an epic cinematic experience over the course of three days. Each screening shows completely different films every night, and they’re all jam packed full of mountain culture and mountain adventure.

Ella Powell:

So how long have you all been hosting this festival at the Paramount?

Molly Strauchler:

This is our 11th year hosting the film festival at the paramount. It’s kind of become a Charlottesville staple. Before we hosted it, it was hosted by Blue Ridge Sports. There used to be a sports store, and when they closed, the owner of the store, Steve Nause, gave us Banff. 

Ella Powell:

I guess, how have you seen the festival grow or change over those 11 years?

Molly Strauchler:

Well, last year was our 10th Anniversary hosting the Banff Film Festival, so we added a third night, and now we’re in prime-time slots we have, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, three days the festival typically sells out. One of the cool things about adding a third day is that it took just a little bit longer for it to sell out. So people who had never been to the festival, who didn’t know that they needed to buy their tickets, like weeks ahead, they still had time to get tickets. So we see a lot of repeats. Typically, people who go to Banff. Come back. They love it. Last year, we raised over $150,000 from Banff, and it’s just been a steady increase over the past 11 years.

Ella Powell:

So what can you share with me about the three films that y’all are showing at the festival?

Molly Strauchler:

Each night is a pre packaged program of films, so they’re a bunch of short films. So basically how it works, if you go Friday night and doors are at six, and the screening starts at seven, and you sit down, and it’s basically three hours of short films, all those seats are general admission seating. So if you get there early, you get the best seats. We don’t say, like exactly what the films are. I don’t think this information is going to meet a lot to people, but we’re showing Moore rain program on Friday, the Ciroc program on Saturday, and ice fall on Sunday. They’re all different, but in each one, you’re gonna get a good compilation of rock climbing and mountain biking and just crazy adventures. And the cinema is just beautiful footage to watch. I mean, these people are in amazing places, doing amazing things, and you’re really on the edge of your seat the entire time. We have all sorts of different films. We have films about a guy who builds beehives. There’s a film about adaptive mountain biking. There’s a film about these dads who take their two year olds on like, a big bike trip across Europe, there’s something there for everyone. 

Ella Powell:

How do y’all kind of source the films for these compilations? Like, do people submit or?

Molly Strauchler:

Yeah, Banff mountain Film Festival comes out of Banff Canada. There’s Banff National Park, and there’s, I think it’s called the Banff Center for Arts, and they have this huge festival every year. It’s actually their 50th year of this festival existing. And people submit their mountain films to Banff. Then Banff has, like, their big festival, their big contest. And then once that’s over, they basically tour the festival all around. You can see it in like, just about any country. They have showings in India and Bangladesh and Germany, Switzerland, all over the world, and there’s a ton of showings in the US as well. Florida doesn’t show them, but almost everywhere else. What’s cool about Banff? It’s really a community event, but yeah, Banff basically packages them, and then they give us four options, and I choose three of them.

Ella Powell:

How does sponsorship work with Banff?

Molly Strauchler:

Yeah, so we have local sponsors. There’s like big sponsors that sponsor Banff, but then we have local sponsors. This festival would not be possible without our local sponsors. Great Outdoor Provision CO is a premier premium sponsor this year. They’ve been one of our greatest supporters. Actually, they donate a gift card that’s $2,500 and you can enter to win that gift card. And the premiere raffle, we only sell 100 tickets, and for $50 you get a ticket, so you have one in 100 chance of winning a $2,500 gift card to great outdoor provision Cove. So we have lots of sponsors, and we have adventurer tickets. Adventure tickets, they’re sold out this year, but they’re $75 and they include your ticket and then an additional donation. If you become a Banff adventurer, you get super cool perks, like an invitation to the Banff kickoff party, which we have every year in February. On this year was at The Graduate super good time, food drinks. We had Shenandoah National Park search and rescue Ranger come out and present for us. Also Banff adventures get to come into the theater 15 minutes early, which is a very cool perk, because you get the best seats in the house. We sell those adventure tickets. We sell traditional raffle tickets. There’s four packages every night. And these tickets are 25 for three. And these tickets you’re entered to win some really cool prizes, like weekends away at Air bnbs. One is a Winter Green Season Pass. All the packages are valued at over $600 and it’s a really good deal. And all the money goes to support Shenandoah National Park.

Ella Powell:

Are there like direct things that y’all help Shenandoah National Park with, or is it kind of just everything?

Molly Strauchler:

This year we’re slated to give the park $1.4 million which is a big step up for us. We can only step up because our supporters step up. So thankful for them. But we fund things from trail and overlook maintenance to invasive plant and invasive insect management. We fund a large part of the educational programming. We fund all sorts of good stuff. One program that we’re funding right now, we have these super cool trees in the park, ash trees and hemlock trees, and they’ve been decimated by invasive insects like the emerald ash borer, we like release beetles as bio control to protect the trees. So we do super cool projects like that. You know, we monitor the streams to protect the brook trout and make sure the brook trout are doing all right. We install bear boxes in the park so food storage lockers. Not all of Shenandoah National Parks campsites have food storage lockers, and that’s dangerous for the visitor and for the bears, for the black bears in the park, because they become food reliant. And we’re restoring bolder cabin, which is one of the oldest structures in the park. It predates the park. It’s over by Skyland, and we have completely revamped it. We really encourage people to get there early. Every single seat is income for the park. We try to make it fun for you guys. But even though you have to get there early, it’s worth it, because it just means more revenue for the park.

Ella Powell:

Would you like to share a little bit about other events you have planned with Shenandoah National Park Trust?

Molly Strauchler:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So as the events volunteer manager, we have a lot of events going on. Shenandoah National Park actually turns 90 this year, so 90 years since its dedication in 1936 so we’re doing lots of events for it to celebrate its 90th. There will be a big party in the park July 3, throw on a birthday party. But there’s stuff all year round. We do wine on the rooftops, we do webinars, we do our Shenandoah soiree, which will be in Culpeper this year, another pretty large fundraiser that we do. It’s a good time. A lot of volunteer events this year as well. We have show your love on May 16, that’s a big Volunteer Day. We’re launching an SMPT Ambassadors Program so these people get to represent the trust at community events, doing training for that in March and April. So check out our website to sign up for that. SMP trust.org, be a donor. We’re launching a new monthly donor program. So when you become a monthly donor and join Club 105 you get an exclusive Virginia adventure guide. So this guide has tips and tricks from local outdoor experts, as well as some exclusive coupons from local outdoor retailers. So when you become a monthly donor, you provide reliable, stable revenue for the park. And it doesn’t matter if it’s 5, 10, $15 a month, you make a difference. 

Ella Powell:

Doors open for the Banff mountain Film Festival at 6pm on Friday and Saturday nights, and 2pm on Sunday at the Paramount Theater, general admission tickets may still be purchased through the Paramount Theater website. For more info on the festival or Shenandoah National Park trust, visit smptrust.org. Arts this week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more@pvcc.edu. For WTJU I’m Ella Powell.