THE FILMS
Nord for Sola (North of the Sun) Inge Wegge & Jorn Ranum (Saturday, 9:00 p.m., MAS; Sunday, 9:30 p.m., MAS)
Last winter, if you had happened upon a particular isolated and frigid beach north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, you might have been surprised to find two young men, two surfboards and a pile of garbage. Inge Wegge (age 25) and Jørn Ranum (age 22) spent nine months of the year — of which all could arguably be considered winter in the frozen north — testing a hypothesis that they could live happily, and even comfortably, off the waste of others. They chose this beach because it held a wellkept secret: some of the world’s finest undiscovered surfing waves. Bringing only their surfboards and their enthusiasm for adventure, the duo picked up driftwood to build a shelter, found a barrel to use as a stove, hiked to a nearby town to collect free expired food from a grocery store, caught fish and also caught waves. Almost as an aside, Wegge and Ranum piled washedup garbage (despite its remoteness, the beach seems to collect a lot of human detritus) to remove at the end of their stay. The location of their makeshift home will remain a secret, but they are generous enough to share the story of their winter North of the Sun with us. —EL (Norway, 2012, 46 minutes)
THE FILMS
Pandora’s Promise Robert Stone (Saturday, 3:45 p.m., NUG; Sunday, 9:45 a.m., PALM)
Off the Hook Hawkeye Johnson & Craig Stein (Friday, 9:30 p.m., PALM; Sunday, 9:45 a.m., HC)
IN PERSON: Hawkeye Johnson & Craig Stein
World Premiere Jake Conner loves to mountain bike. Because of a spinal injury that left him paralyzed, he rides a specially designed hand cycle and tears up the local terrain in this short produced by the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program. —DH (USA, 2013, 4 minutes)
IN PERSON: Robert Stone
Robert Stone’s first film was an anti-nuclear weapons documentary called Radio Bikini, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1988, and his more recent film Earth Days (2009) is about the rise of the environmental movement. So Pandora’s Promise may come as a surprise. In the detailed director statement on the film’s website Stone says, “It’s no easy thing for me to have come to the conclusion that the rapid deployment of nuclear power is now the greatest hope we have for saving us from an environmental catastrophe.” His reasoning is simple: While nuclear energy does have its own complicated environmental and social costs, it’s carbon neutral and, thus, doesn’t contribute to global warming. Stone’s newest film questions much of what we accept as fact about the negative side of nuclear as an alternative to fossil fuels. Whether or not you agree with his premise, after seeing Pandora’s Promise, nuclear might be included in your future discussions about climate solutions. —EL (USA, 2013, 90 minutes)
Paradise Found Tom Swartwout (Friday, 6:30 p.m., NUG; Sunday, 9:30 a.m., NUG)
IN PERSON: Tim Laman, Edwin Scholes
World Premiere Tim Laman and Edwin Scholes have spent nearly a decade documenting the 39 species of birds of paradise that live in Papua New Guinea. The birds — which are both gorgeous and silly — prove to be elusive prey for the cameras of Laman and Scholes, but, as usual, the adventure is as much about the journey as it is the destination. This short film provides a great sense of the duo’s work, but don’t miss their presentation on Saturday at the Palm at 12:30 p.m. Also, look for banners of their photography around Telluride. (USA, 2013, 13 minutes)
Reindeer Eva Weber (Saturday, 10:00 a.m., MAS; Sunday, 12:15 p.m., NUG)
The sound of pattering hooves is punctuated by a pig-like rutting noise — but deeper and more mysterious — and we see a mesmerizing sight: a herd of reindeer spinning in circles, their instinct to run so ingrained that they continue, even when penned. Eva Weber traveled 250 miles above the polar circle to the village of Karigasniemi in Utsjoki, Finland, where she spent three days braving freezing temperatures to capture this small slice of herding life. —EL (United Kingdom, 2012, 4 minutes)
Return to the Tepuis Jenny Nichols (Friday, 9:15 p.m., MAS; Saturday, 9:30 a.m., SOH)
IN PERSON: Jenny Nichols & subject Joe Riis
World Premiere “Science is important,” says Bruce Means, whose investigative work into a species of tiny toads in remotest Guyana, South America, is featured in this engaging short. Science is also, by the look of it, exotic, exciting and not without a hint of danger. His work is about understanding biodiversity in order to help conserve it and to do so, he has to reach the toad’s habitat. In his second foray to the ancient and lost world of the Tepuis, he is joined by National Geographic photographer Joe Riis and professional climber Mark Synnott. The two men help Means, who has 45 years of experience in field ecology and almost none in climbing, descend — and ascend — a sheer, multipitch face, making this fun and worthwhile short as much about adventure as science. —PK (USA, 2013, 9 minutes)
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