REEL ROCK Film Festival
Friday, February 28
8:00 PM, McCosh 10

Sponsored by Outdoor Action and
the Princeton Mountaineering Club

REEL ROCK shows are exciting events where climbers and outdoors lovers come together to celebrate the ultimate in adventure filmmaking. Prize giveaways, appearances by top climbers, and fundraising for non-profit organizations are just some of the ways that REEL ROCK events are more than just film screenings. For our eighth year, Sender Films and Big UP Productions are combining the biggest names in the sport with stories of pushing the limits like never before. From battling Himalayan peaks to the early history of climbing in Yosemite. This year’s films are nothing short of intrepid tales that will get your palms sweating from beginning to end.

Tickets are available at the Frist Ticket Office or online.

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Films

The Sensei

Forty-three-year-old Yuji Hirayama is one of the great legends of modern climbing. Near retirement, he plans one big swan-song mission to complete a project, one of his hardest ever, at the spectacular summit of Mount Kinabalu, on the island of Borneo. But first he must find the right partner. Enter Daniel Woods, the young American boulderer who is one of the strongest humans in the climbing world, but lacks mountain experience. Daniel-San travels to Japan to prove himself worthy of Hirayama’s mentorship, and the unlikely duo team up for the expedition of a lifetime.

Spice Girl

The UK climbing scene is known for its strict
traditional ethic, yielding dangerous routes and a competitive machismo among the driven young climbers risking it all to prove their boldness. It’s the last place you’d expect to find a nice little blond girl putting all the lads to shame, but Hazel Findlay is doing just that. The first woman to climb the British grade of E9 (super hard, super sketchy), Hazel is a connoisseur of loose rock, dodgy gear, and big runouts. Having mastered the scrappy seacliffs at home she teams up with Emily Harrington to tackle the massive, untamed bigwalls of Taghia Gorge, Morocco.

High Tension: Ueli Steck and the Clash on Everest

Mount Everest made headlines around the world this year when it was reported that Ueli Steck and Simone Moro, the strongest duo in alpinism, were attacked by a crowd of angry sherpas at Camp 2 while attempting a cutting edge new route on the highest -- and most crowded -- mountain in the world. Fearing for their lives, the climbers fled the mountain, and the incident sparked a flurry of gasps and angry recrimination: sherpas, western climbers, guiding companies, even the legendary mountain itself were pounded with criticism from all sides. Amidst the bizarre event, REEL ROCK was embedded with the climbing team and given an exclusive look at what happened that day, and why.

The StoneMasters

Sender Films is currently working on a feature documentary about the counterculture climbing scene in Yosemite over the last 50 years. Provisionally titled “Valley Uprising,” the film brings all the legends to life: from Royal Robbins’ epic battle with Warren Harding to the fabled drug plane crash of 1977 and the escalating tensions between climbers and national park rangers. This year’s REEL ROCK Film Tour will include a teaser clip from the film that focuses on the sex-drugs-n-rock era of Jim Bridwell and the Stonemasters.

 

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