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Now in its 34th year, the Banff touring festival hits 285 cities and towns annually. Starting this year’s offerings on a bit of a ridiculous note, The Ultimate Skiing Showdown (March 8) is set to the Neil Cicierega song “The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny,� which discusses a fight between Batman and Godzilla. David McMahon’s four-minute goof pays both homage and insult to the sport of crosscountry—ahem, Nordic—skiing. While the silly song plays, a group of trick-happy skiers bothers, surprises and generally acts the fool in front of a less talented but seemingly reasonable group of skiers. Among other highlights is Finding Farley (March 8; below). Filmmakers Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison chart a course across the Great White North using locales that Canadian author Farley Mowat brought to life in famous nature tales like Never Cry Wolf. With their two-year-old son Zev and spunky dog Willow, the family sets out on a quest to meet Mowat himself in Nova Scotia. The quirky MedeoZ (March 9) brings back the high-octane action. In this film, a photographer tries to take a single photo of six different mountain sports: skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering, paragliding, speed riding and BASE-jumping. Pulling off the feat isn’t easy, and director/protagonist Guillaume Broust has to marshal not only timing but egos as the six extreme disciplines come together behind one lens. First Ascent: Alone on the Wall (March 9) tells the story of a young and possibly psychotic man named Alex Honnold who lives in a van. Traveling from rock climb to rock climb, the fearless 24-year-old sacrifices home cooking and hygiene for his stony relationship with sheer mountain walls. His holy grail: to climb Yosemite National Park’s legendary face Half Dome with no ropes and nothing to save him should he lose his grip. Honnold says he climbs best without ropes. He’ll have to—one slip and all that will be left of our hero is a smudge at the bottom of the mountain and a scary story climbers tell their children. Rush Sturges’ Africa Revolutions Tour (March 8) shows what kind of trouble a group of kayakers can get into in Uganda and Madagascar. In many cases, the crew of river rats represents the first lunatics to ride the crocodile- and wasp-infested rivers in kayaks. The white-knuckle action is undercut by group companion Rita Riewerts and the Sun Catchers Project, which gives simple, solar powered ovens to rural villagers to use for cooking and sanitizing water. Banff screens Monday–Tuesday, March 8–9, at 7pm at the Smith Rafael Film Center. $18 per night. 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. 415.927.1938. Curtis Cartier

THE BOHEMIAN

03.03.10-03.09.10

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