The Brochure (PDF 5MB)

The
Adventure
Travel
Film
Festival
14 – 16 August 2015
Mill Hill, London
FOR ALL YOUR
OUTDOOR
CLOTHING
AND EQUIPMENT
NEEDS.
STAFF KNOWLEDGE
AND ADVICE
Our staff are actively involved in all
sorts of outdoor, travel and
adventure activities and it’s for their
first hand experience that they are
selected to work in our stores. We
are proud to have an enthusiastic
and highly experienced team of staff,
who can offer sound advice based on
their own extensive experience.
KIT TALKS
We can provide kit talks for groups
preparing for expeditions that are
tailored to your requirements
either in-store or at a venue of
your convenience.
2015
Welcome
to the
Adventure Travel
Film Festival…
A weekend of films, camping and outdoor action,
hosted by Austin Vince and Lois Pryce
2015 marks our fifth birthday and a fabulous new venue in our great capital
city – the beautiful rolling grounds and grand buildings of Mill Hill School.
We have been digging deep to bring you the most impressive line-up of films
yet, ranging from the 1930s to the present day, on all forms of transport in
every corner of the world, made by an international folio of film-makers.
Prepare to have your minds seriously blown!
This year’s festival focus is the Lost Art of Hitch-hiking, and we are proud to
present our cover star and speaker, legendary French traveller and author,
Andre Brugiroux, who hitched around the world in the ’60s and ’70s and has
visited every country in the world! We’ll be showing hitching films, discussing
the highs and lows of thumbing a ride and giving a prize to whoever hitchhikes
the furthest to attend the festival.
To celebrate our move to London we have some brand new features including
workshops on Travel Photography and Crowdfunding, ‘Ask The Experts’ panels
on Human-Powered and Vehicle Expeditions, and the highlight of the weekend
– Austin’s epic Adventure Travel Quiz.
And of course, there’s all the favourite bushcraft action, film-making and
travel-writing workshops, the campfire cooking competition and live music on
the Saturday night. We can barely contain ourselves…
See you there!
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 3 The Rumble
“The best weekend of the
summer!”
– Bob Hutton, Oxfordshire
“I’m a festival fanatic and this is
my new favourite. 100% FUN!”
– Mark West, Bath
“The outdoor, starlight screenings
were magical”
– Lucy Crawford, London
“The friendliest festival of any kind
that I have ever attended”
– Lars Eriksson, Sweden
“The films are staggeringly good.
I can’t believe I’d never heard of them
– where do you find them?!”
– Derek Banner, Oxfordshire
“Lovely, easy-going atmosphere and
interesting people to talk to everywhere”
– Catherine Devereaux, France
In The Jungle…
“A great place to meet like-minded
people and get ideas for new
adventures”
– Mike Lawson, East Sussex
“The weather was great but it
wouldn’t have mattered, your
speakers and the films are the
stars of the show”
– Jeremy Lewis, Devon
“So nice to be at a wellorganised, welcoming event
and not to be bombarded
with corporate logos and
advertising. I felt like I was
at a special private party!”
– Carol Van Buren, Bristol
“I’m not in the least bit
adventurous – and I
loved it!”
– Phylis Vince, Bournemouth
“Made new friends and came away inspired
to live life to the full”
– Andrew MacLintock, Dumfries
… flew the coop aged thirteen when she and three school-friends spent their summer
holidays cycling and camping around Cornwall – with no grown-ups! The seed was
sown. She has since motorcycled solo from Alaska to Argentina, from London to Cape
Town and around Iran. Her best-selling books have been published throughout the
world and have inspired thousands to hit the road. She was recently included in the
Telegraph’s list of 10 Great Female Travellers to celebrate International Women’s
Day. Her hitch-hiking teeth were cut on the M4, as a teenager thumbing lifts from her
hometown of Bristol to gigs in London. One day she never went back…
4 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
… made his first solo overland journey from London to Delhi, aged 18. He started
hitch-hiking, aged 12, as a means of avoiding the tedious hikes meted out to him at
Scout Camp. Formerly a trainspotting maths teacher, he’s made his name as the man
who created the cult travel show Mondo Enduro and the recreational hitch-hiking TV
series Roadside USA. As well as curating this festival he masterminds Europe’s leading
dirtbike map-reading events in the Catalan Pyrenees. His latest film, Mondo Sahara, is
an all-action, Anglo-American desert adventure which has received worldwide acclaim.
He was voted Adventurer of the Year in 2012 by the USA’s prestigious Expedition Portal.
As featured in…
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 5 Gold of Bengal
Friday Night
Starlight Screening
Saturday Night
Starlight Screening
South To South
This is the proof that after 363 empty days
without a film-festival, the wait is over! Oh
Lordy, another staggeringly good film of an
achingly perfect project. French engineer,
Corentin de Chatelperron is our utterly
gorgeous host who takes us on a sailing trip
we’ll never forget. Not for him the heart-ofdarkness gloom of Donald Crowhurst but
an affirmation of everything that is bright
and good and true. Corentin sails his tiny
home-made boat crafted from jute fibre
(yes, that’s a kind of organic string) with
two chickens in the cabin and an allotment
in the bows. He pilots his floating ‘good life’
from France to Indonesia with a wide-eyed
childish joy that is normally crushed in any
schoolboy by the time he is ten, practicing
a consciously lo-fi organic back-to-basics
credo that will have eco-warriors swooning.
Corentin’s brilliant ‘off the grid’ ethos gives
him the carbon arse-print of someone for
whom each buttock is the size of a tic-tac.
Prepare to be impressed and for this young
garçon, to give carbon credit and adventure
travel praise where it is due.
Olivier Aubert and Mike Blyth used their
trike-type microlights to fly around the
world way back in 1999. Yup, Ushuaia
to New York and across Greenland to
Britain. Then downhill to France, Spain,
Morocco and along the west coast of Africa
to Cape Town. Quite how this film isn’t
internationally famous as possibly the
greatest adventure travel project in the
history of man is a mystery. It is a huge
pleasure to present it as the Saturday night
‘best in show’ at the festival which will
literally leave you breathless. This amazing
film is exactly what you have a bought a
ticket for; daring, interesting, difficult and
spectacularly good fun. We recognise that
adventure travel is a case of horses for
courses but we defy anybody to stand up
at the end of this film and exclaim, ‘I don’t
ever want to do that!’
2014 • Colour video • 52 mins
1999 • Colour video • 56 mins
6 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 7 Into The Sea
Do Something
EXTRAORDINARY
Award-winning tour operator Wild Frontiers has been designing
and running unique adventures to some of the world’s most
remote and exciting destinations for over 10 years.
Journey along the mighty Congo River
Explore Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor
Camp in Oman’s Empty Quarter
Walk in the Kashmiri Himalayas
Ride with Gauchos in Argentina
Discover the real Iran
“Wild Frontiers really pushes the boundaries
of travel, opening up some of the world’s most
remote corners, allowing us a taste of true
exploration”
Kate Humble
Extraordinary travel experiences
Part of the joy of this being a truly
independent film festival, unbeholden to
over-bearing sponsors or Arts Council
bureaucrats is that we can bend the rules
on a whim. When we first found out about
this film we weren’t sure it technically fitted
the ‘adventure travel’ spec but we were so
impressed that we simply had to include
it. Suffice to say that a French female filmmaker who documents a women’s Irish
surf champion teaching local girls to ‘hang
ten’ in the wildest and most conservative
part of Iran simply cannot be ignored. Just
when you think you’ve seen it all, something
like Into The Sea turns up and we have
to recalibrate and adjust the datum once
more. This is a truly stirring and original
idea, genuinely one of a kind and the
resulting documentary is an inspirational
delight!
2014 • Colour video • 52 mins
Call 020 7736 3968 for more details or visit www.wildfrontierstravel.com
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 9 20,000 Miles On A Horse
Solidream
They say that certain TV commissioners
will order a series simply on the strength
of a good title. If anyone can come up
with a better one than this then there’s
a prize of £1.27 waiting for them at the
registration tent! Louis Bruhnke (American)
and Vladimir Fissenko (Russian), celebrate
the new détente of glasnost by teaming
up to ride a couple of horses from the tip
of Argentina to Alaska over five years in
the late ’80s and early ’90s. This film is so
astounding you will once again wonder how
on earth it isn’t on the Discovery Channel
every single night! Adventure travel?
Oooooh yes, we think so. Not content with
all the normal aggro that accompanies selffunded, unsupported, trans-continental
travel; these guys endure extra hardships
that only strict EU directives on ‘spoilers’
prevent us from revealing. Ensure you
catch this film, it will put your Colwyn Bay
pony-trekking stories into perspective…
It is with great joy that we announce that
the most popular genre of film submitted
to this festival is that of ‘Cycling Around
The World’. It seems that everyone is at
it and three cheers for that. However, if
you are one of the film-makers then this
would be a bad year for you since you were,
unbeknownst to you, up against Solidream.
Quite how someone could make a better
long-distance cycling film than this is
beyond us. Four French chums, who, like
Jacques Dutronc and Sacha Distel are
about eight-thousand times dishier than
the average British adventure cyclist, set
off around the world. They pedal their way
over 30,000 miles, often choosing the road
less travelled and tackling every setback
with good humour and a refreshing lack
of moaning. Such are the challenges of
human-powered expeditioning that this film
was three years in the making. We must be
eternally grateful for the effort these chaps
made, this film is a legendary success!
2007 • Colour video • 00
108mins
mins
1920
2014 • Colour
• 92 video
mins • 00 mins
1920video
• Colour
10 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 11 Arctic Air
This festival is pleased, nay, proud, to
promote the hardy world of humanpowered adventure travel alongside the
trans-global epics achieved by people
on motorbikes, horses and cars. This
exquisite film falls into the former category.
The McCann brothers make their way to
Greenland and then arrange to be dumped
in the most inhospitable location. They
could have chosen somewhere in the
Bahamas but no, for them the jagged
mountain snow-packed wilderness of
Eastern Greenland’s Caledonian Alps
– a godforsaken wilderness of ice and
granite if ever there was one. The feisty
McCanns make this their playground and
demonstrate that the British are STILL
world leaders in low-budget DIY adventure
goonery and that yes, two youngsters with
a fire in their belly and a few key skills
can turn in a first-class adventure film.
Adrenalin, check. Ice-climbing/paragliding,
check. Manly McCann masculine mayhem,
check.
1920
2014 • Colour video • 00
32 mins
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 13 the
centre
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Daniel Rintz is fast becoming something
of a legend in the world’s adventure
motorcycle community. His old-fashioned,
unpretentious and consciously un-macho
movie may well be the shape of things to
come. Part of the new cohort of ‘digital
nomads’, Daniel makes his way around the
world and every now and then is able to
earn a few euros with some dongle-based
computer wizardry. His route starts in
Germany, careers (hoho) over to the UK,
takes in North Africa and Asia on his way
to Nepal before sliding down to Australia.
The multiplicity of cultures, religions and
experiences are lapped up by this twowheeled drifter but not without him first
hovering up the scene with his hungry
lens. This is a heart-warming and visceral
film that re-establishes the fact that long
distance trans-continental travel isn’t
about miles, it’s about people. Daniel,
we salute you.
2013 • Colour
1920video
• Colour
• 62 video
mins • 00 mins
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 15 Hitchtanbul
Dimitri and Karsten are heroes of this
festival. They take DIY goonery to a new
level and via one of our favourite mediums,
hitch-hiking. This festival firmly attests that
there’s no sweeter adventure than being
thrown into the cab of a total stranger’s
car and having to ‘get on’. The class-A,
24-carat uncertainty of what hitching will
bring is surely what makes it so rewarding.
Non-hitchers fallaciously misconceive that
it’s a skinflint’s mode of transport. Poor
children, lost in the darkness of ignorance.
Little do most people realise that today’s
‘recreational hitch-hikers’ aren’t after
savings – they’re after stories, and in the
cab of a stranger’s car is where they come
from. We rarely curse in this brochure but
frankly, this is The Shit.
2013 • Colour video • 62
1920
00 mins
16 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
Nobody’s River
This is a film that should be watched by
all festival attendees with a beating heart
and a rhythmic pulse. Too much of the
‘adventure’ landscape is cluttered up with
ridiculous posturing and feigned hardship.
The women that paddled the thousands of
miles in this film are exactly the antidote
to these maladies. Amber, Becca, Krystal
and Sabra cheerfully wheedle their kayaks
along the Amur River, across the pristine
purity of the Mongolian steppe and the
harsh landscape of industrial Russia.
They don’t waste time exaggerating their
toughness but instead soak up every
second of utterly perfect natural beauty
and wallow in the gooey joy that only comes
from being with friends in wild places.
There is a dark and sad side to this film
which naturally, this description dare not
tell. Come along, paddler or not, and enjoy
this very special film. Verily, thou shalt be
enriched by its righteousness…
2014 • Colour video • 00
31 mins
1920
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 17 With the new
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Angola is something of an enigma. Its oil
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growing economy in Africa, yet the majority
of its population live below the breadline.
Its 27-year war left it devastated, and
although in full recovery, it has still
forgotten the meaning of the word, ‘tourist’.
This film is part of a 66-day expedition
to find the source of the Okavango River,
undertaken by well-known adventure
traveller and film-maker, Andrew St.Pierre
White. The series sees him take his trusty
4×4 solo through the length of Namibia,
and then into Angola, where, from the
source in the Angolan Highlands, he follows
the Okavango to finally witness the water
disappearing into the desert, deep in
the Kalahari in Botswana. This film is the
Angolan section of that expedition, with all
the sights, flavours, colours and textures of
this astonishing and less-travelled country.
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2014 • Colour video • 00
63 mins
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www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 19 Going the Distance
Brit newlyweds Mike and Alanna Clear
decided to do things in reverse. So they
spend their first three years together,
testing their marriage to destruction! They
bought a 1930s styled URAL motorcycle and
sidecar, shipped it to Alaska and then set
their sights on Ushuaia, 20,000 miles away
in Argentina. Rather brilliantly, the stress
kicked in well before they left because
they had a secondary mission: to make a
serious documentary about what it takes
to hold a relationship together – a project
they cleverly called ‘Going The Distance’.
En route they interviewed hundreds of
couples (which in Mormon Utah comprised
of considerably more than two people) and
asked them what it took to make a marriage
‘work’. The resulting film is one of the most
original and remarkable documentaries of
the last decade. An odyssey in the truest
sense but more than that, a film that has
absolutely no competition.
1920 • Colour video • 85
2015
00 mins
20 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
General Idi Amin: Self Portrait
Most of us will remember the 2006 movie
The Last King of Scotland and its account
of a fictional doctor who ended up being Idi
Amin’s personal physician. U.S. star Forest
Whitaker received plaudits worldwide for
his portrayal of the gruesome Amin. What
is clear, upon watching this film, is that the
real Idi Amin was a thousand times more
extreme than the movie gave us to believe.
Back in the day, French film-maker Barbet
Schroeder was offered 100% access to the
dictator and Amin clearly saw himself as the
film’s associate producer. Amin’s runaway
vanity means that he relishes opening up on
camera and through the prism of 40 years
of hindsight we can recognise a complex
man who is all at once, street performer,
spin doctor, media-savvy celebrity and
bloodthirsty maniac. We show this film as
a vintage ‘classic’ since as well as being
fascinating in its own right, it is a glorious
35mm colour trip back to an Africa of hope,
optimism and the promise of better times. So
buckle in folks, the ATFF time-machine is set
for co-ordinates in Kampala, stardate: 1974.
1974
1920••Colour
Colour35mm
video • 00
90 mins
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 21 14 Horsepower Through Africa
The vintage films at this festival are always
a treat, if only to humble us modern
day travellers who fancy ourselves as
‘explorers’. It’s all been done before! There
exist only a few film documents from the
early years of motorcycle travel. This is a
rare and spectacular example from those
times – an overland expedition from Cape
Town to Cairo! Six Austrians embarked in
1935 on a 14,000 km journey through Africa
with three 14hp two-stroke motorcycles,
each bearing a sidecar and passenger.
On they plough, across a continent totally
devoid of asphalt and wearing what
nowadays could only be described as ‘fancy
dress’. Along the way they also climbed
Mount Kilimanjaro before crossing the
Sahara desert. They bounce their way back
to Vienna, team and bikes intact, just in
time for the Anschluss and WWII. If you
need inspiration that it’s all about your
attitude and not your equipment, this is it.
1935 • B&W
16mm•
5000
mins
1920
Colour
video •
mins
22 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
Cape Horn: Passage to California
See what it was like back in 1936 to beat
(sail) around Cape Horn against the
prevailing westerly winds known as the
‘roaring 40s’ in the 1885 German-built pilot
schooner WANDER BIRD. With his young
family (wait till you see what the children
get up to in the rigging!) and only a small
crew Capt. Warwick Thompkins made the
passage from Gloucester, Massachusetts,
to San Francisco (by way of Europe) in eight
months. Besides shooting this film he wrote
a couple of books about the experience: Fifty
South to Fifty South (1938) and Two Sailors
and Their Voyage Around Cape Horn (1939).
The WANDER BIRD gradually fell on hard
times in the Oakland Bay area but in recent
years was brought back to life by Capt.
Harold Sommer, her subsequent long-time
owner. He and his devoted friends completed
a massive restoration and got her sailing
once more. The vessel is now back in
Germany, shipped there for preservation,
and given back her original, soul-crushingly
functional name – ELBE #5. Sigh…
1936••Colour
B&W 16mm
26 mins
1920
video • 00
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 23 A TREAT FOR YOUR FEET IF
YOU DON’T EAT MEAT!
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As worn by Austin Vince
(festival curator)
Est. 1990
RETREAD BUSH BOOT SAND
BUSH BOOT BROWN
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RETREAD BUSH BOOT BROWN
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Camping with the Barstows
Robbins and Meg Barstow and their three
children were a normal Connecticut family
who lived the post-war Eisenhower consumer goods-supported American dream.
Amongst Robbins’ most prized possessions
were a range of 8mm and 16mm home–
movie cameras. How Robbins would tut-tut
if he saw today’s profligate Go-Pro antics.
Not for the Barstows the world of point and
shoot, regardless of banality. No, Robbins
Barstow was a proper amateur film-maker.
Precise, economical, disciplined and above
all else, imaginative. Shooting silent, he
told his stories brilliantly through pictures
alone, and what stories they were. This
offering (chosen from literally hundreds
of films in the Robbins archive) was filmed
over FIVE consecutive summers from 1957
to 1961. It takes this long for the Robbins
family (plus station wagon) to road-trip
their way around every single state in the
Lower Forty-Eight. This is 1950s America
and the cog-whirring genius of the inspired
amateur showcased to utter perfection.
Roll up and enjoy!
1957–61
1920 •• Colour
Colour video
8mm • 00
19 mins
Tel: 01273 691913
[email protected]
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 25 Video Postcards
We are proud to announce, in collaboration with our fabulous media partner
Magazine, the
launch of a new category of film. This year we have been sent a slew of shorts that we call Video Postcards,
the 21st century version of the slideshow of yesteryear. All these films are made by members of the public but
are all stunning in their breadth, vision and sheer technical perfection.
The Lonely Pl
anet Omelette
A charming look at an
Shop
Indian institution that
peddles er… omelet tes
2014 • Colour video
• 7 mins
The Shipping Yard
World
, Another
Thailandmy visit to paradise
A quick but drea
ins
ur video • 2 m
2014 • Colo
Peru
A shor t but colou
s
100 Tokyo Second
Japanese city
A technicolour whirl through
the
⁄2 mins
2014 • Colour video • 1
1
26 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
Despite each of them being only a few minutes in duration, they all look as if they were made by professional
crews with lashings of budget. If there was any part of this festival that showcases the staggeringly high
standard that ‘non-TV industry’ amateur film-makers have currently reached, this is it!
rful
2014 • Colo exploration of this South America
ur video • 3 m
n gem
ins
Hargeisa
A
ging insight int
stark and challen
vid
2014 • Colour
o Somalia’s seco
nd cit
The daily grit and grind of
nts
y and its inhabita
eo • 18 mins
No Soy de Aqui
An intimate portrait of a Colo
mbian coffee-growing fam
2014 • Colour video • 13
min
s
life at Dubai’s unglamorous
2014 • Colour video • 3
mins
ily
docks
s
y
Expres
atabdiof an Indian train journe
h
S
n
a
J
ss
ne
ad
m
l
fu
• 1 min
The colour
olour video
2014 • C
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 27 ??? New for this year, we are excited
to present our ‘Ask The Experts’
panels, where you can get up
close and personal with some of
the most experienced and
entertaining adventurers
on the planet!
This year’s panels focus on
hitch-hiking, human-powered
adventures and vehiclebased expeditions.
Informal, intimate and
informative, just roll
up, hang out and
ask the experts
anything you
like…
28 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
A s k T h e E x p e r ts ? ? ?
Hitch-hiking Adventures
hosted by Austin Vince
HUMAN-POWERED ADVENTURES
hosted by Hannah Engelkamp
Continuing our theme of the lost art of hitch-hiking, we have brought together the world’s
greatest lift-thumbers to share their highs, lows and top tips from the roadside…
Pedals, paddles, feet, legs, arms. These guys and gals have done it all using just their
muscles and true grit. Come and seek out their hearty, human-powered wisdom!
These overland experts have axle grease under their fingernails and Saharan sand in their
teeth. They are brimming with top tips on travelling by motorcycle, truck or 4x4. Come and
drink from their (slightly oily) cup…
André
Brugiroux
Andre Brugiroux is
the cover star of
this year’s festival
brochure. He has
spent most of his
life hitch-hiking
around the world and
remains one of the
few people who have
travelled to every
single country on the
planet. In the
words of Johnny
Cash, he’s been
everywhere, man.
Jo Magpie
Jo is a writer and longterm adventurer with
an unstoppable lust
for hitch-hiking remote
mountain roads. Even
after hitching more
than thirty countries
over the past ten
years, deserts, 40-ton
trucks and mountain
passes still make her
pulse quicken. She
is currently working
on her first book, The
Female Hitchhiker’s
Handbook.
VEHICLE EXPEDITIONS hosted by Lois Pryce
Dimi
Dumortier
Steve
Burbidge
Justine
Curgenven
Anna
McNuff
Squash
Falconer
Andy
Torbet
Chris
Scott
Toby
Savage
David
Lambeth
Richard
Kemplay
Dimitri is a Belgian
artist, soap-sculptor
and hiking guide for
disadvantaged children. In 2013, when
the demand for soapsculpting hikers dried
up he set out with his
friend Karsten to hitchhike to Istanbul. This
resulted in the wonderfully entertaining film,
Hitchtanbul, which has
its UK premiere at the
festival.
Steve is a craft baker in
Hampshire who is responsible for ‘the best
ever Danish pastry’ on
the ITV show Britain’s
Best Bakery. He has
hitched from Southampton to Marrakesh,
made several circumnavigations of Britain,
and inspired by festival
curator Austin Vince’s
cult movie Roadside
USA, thumbed his way
across the States.
Justine is an awardwinning documentary
maker of her kayak
expeditions around
the world that
perfectly combine
her sense of fun
with truly gruelling
adventure. What she
doesn’t know about
paddling ain’t worth
knowing.
One of this year’s
speakers, Anna’s
charming and bubbly
nature hides a gritty
resilience that has
seen her cycle solo
through every US
state and run, yes,
run, the length of
New Zealand.
All-action, climbing,
paragliding, cycling
adventure heroine,
Squash Falconer is
a record-breaking,
one-woman force of
nature who embodies
the very concept of
human power!
Ex-bomb disposal
officer turned
extreme diver,
climber, kayaker and
TV presenter of all of
the above, Andy is
the nicest tough guy
you will ever have the
pleasure to meet.
One of this year’s
speakers and the
author of The
Adventure Motor­
cycling Handbook, The
Overlanders Handbook
and Sahara Overland,
Chris strad­dles the
two/four­wheel divide
and has written the
bible on all of it. Come
and touch the hem of
his safari shirt!
Not just our photo­
graphy instructor,
Toby is also a regular
contributor of both
words and pictures
to various Land
Rover magazines, a
columnist for Land
Rover World and has
a number of desert
expeditions under
his belt in all kinds of
4WD vehicles.
David is a well-known
name on the overlanding scene and has
been building and
outfitting expedition
motorcycles and
trucks for decades.
When he’s not delivering onion seeds in the
backwoods of Bosnia
he runs a desert racing
assistance team for
rallies in North Africa.
Richard is the man
behind Beast of
Burden, a desert
expedition company
that specialises in
travel to the most
remote and extreme
corners of West Africa.
His idea of bliss is a
stripped down, doorsoff trundle into the
desert with just the
basics on board.
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 29 Speakers…
Sideshows…
Johnny Bealby
André Brugiroux
Chris Scott
Anna McNuff
Having strutted the boards as a rock singer in the
late ’80s, Jonny ditched the music biz for the open
road and set off on what turned out to be a decade
of travels, through Africa and South and Central Asia
which resulted in three highly acclaimed travel books,
one TV film and, his award-winning tour company Wild
Frontiers. He has visited more than 90 countries and,
in addition to his books, has written for The Telegraph,
The Times, Observer, The Guardian and Wanderlust.
In 2002 he expanded his solo start-up, Wild Frontiers,
spearheading the boom in ‘off the beaten track-meet
the locals-get beneath the surface’ tourism. He will
be speaking about his remarkable life in travel and
adventure and revealing the tough tales and truths of
how it all happened. It wasn’t always easy…
André graces our front cover this year, and rightly
so. In 1955 he set off from his native France to
hitchhike around the world, without any form of
sponsorship or ever sleeping in a hotel, resulting
in half a century of extraordinary adventures. In
2014 he clocked up his 250th country, realising
his dream to visit all territories of the globe.
He describes his travels as a ‘complete tour of
mankind’ leading him to the conclusion that ‘the
earth is but one country’. His stories are both
insightful and highly amusing, and even after all
these years he retains a boyish curiosity and a
contagious joie de vivre. At 77 years old, he is
an inspiration to us all and the living proof that
adventure is the greatest anti-aging medicine.
In the early 1980s Chris and his motorcycle staggered back from the Sahara, almost in one piece. It
seemed barely conceivable that 20 years later this
ragtag dispatch-rider turned adventurer would be
considered a leading expert on the world’s greatest
desert. Thankfully for us, more successful Saharan
adventures ensued, as did Chris’ well-regarded
books including Desert Travels, Sahara Overland,
The Adventure Motorcycling Handbook and The
Overlanders’ Handbook, which in turn led to a
sideline in running Saharan tours by motorcycle,
4x4 and camels. Adventures in Motorcycling is his
latest book, a London-based, barely legal motobiography recalling squatting and dispatch riding
during the Thatcher era.
In the summer of 2013 Anna packed in a desk
job and set out on her pink touring bike named
Boudica to cycle 11,000 miles through each
and every state of the USA. Starting in Alaska
and ending in Hawaii she rode solo – across
deserts, along coastlines, over mountains,
through floods and blizzards, from the open
plains of the Wild West to the delta of the Deep
South. Basking in the kindness of strangers
along the way, she discovered that there’s
a whole lot more to those 50 states than
meets the eye. By the time Anna makes it
to the festival she will have completed her
latest adventure – running the length of New
Zealand. Try to keep up, won’t you?
30 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
The Campfire
Cookout
Competition
Woodland Ways –
Bushcraft with
Kev Palmer
The Jolly Woodsman’s Yoga for Travellers
Knot Workshop
with Charlotte
with Adam Thompson Bolton
A bit like The Great British Bake-Off, but with lentils.
This now legendary contest attracts festivaleers of
all ages and experiences, eager to showcase their
field cooking skills. Entrants are given a bunch
of twigs, a match and the kind of ingredients you
would expect to find on the road – pulses, rice or
pasta, a tin of something, a sprinkling of seasoning,
a handful of vegetables and one random surprise
ingredient! Then it’s time to go head-to-head with
your fellow field chefs and sizzle up a tasty meal
before having your offering judged by our very own
galloping gourmet.
Kev’s bushcraft lessons and forage walk are always
hugely popular so we are delighted to have him
return to the fold. Kev is a highly accomplished
woodsman, craftsman and naturalist and is
recognised as one of the UK’s leading bushcraft
instructors. He has travelled extensively throughout
the world and taught bushcraft to thousands of
people, as well as providing specialist survival
advice to numerous TV productions, including Born
Survivor. Take one of his bushcraft lessons or join
his forage walk, and you will never view a country
stroll in the same way again!
Working as a tree surgeon for a number of years,
using ropes for multiple purposes, Adam Thompson
has developed a deep and slightly worrying love of
knots. The Jolly Woodsman Knot Workshop aims
to pass on some knowledge of this highly practical
art, by teaching a carefully selected range of knots,
bends and hitches. Sign up and take your love life to
a whole new level…
Live Band on Saturday Night
Foghorn Leghorn are a London institution – a disparate bunch of oldish youngish blokes who share a
love and great fondness for each other, music, humour, women, beer and bluegrass, not necessarily in that
order. We are hugely honoured to have them at the festival and cannot wait to hear the twang of the banjo
and their sweet ’n’ sour Appalachian/North London harmonies chiming through the trees of NW7.
Stretch out your road-weary limbs and learn
how to get all Zen for those stressful border
crossings. Seasoned adventure traveller, Charlotte
of Zen Overland, became a yoga teacher after a
year-long motorcycle trip around the Americas.
Yoga has now become an indispensable part of
her travel tool kit. Suitable for beginners and more
experienced yogis.
New For This Year!
Austin Vince’s Adventure Travel Quiz
Curator Austin Vince has been torturing his friends and families for years with his fiendishly
difficult quizzes. Now it’s your turn! Test your world knowledge… pit yourself against your
friends… Try to imagine how Sergio Leone will be the answer to one of the questions…
Win something useless…
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 31 Workshops…
Stop! Don’t Shoot…
…until you’ve attended this workshop!
with Rob Warner
Freelance Editor for BBC, ITV and C4
Travel Photography
Produce documentaries not home movies,
it’s simple when you know ‘the code’.
Festival Curator, Austin’s Saturday morning presentation has
become a highpoint of the weekend with people coming to watch
again and again every year! Learn the basic principles of filming
your adventure and discover why if you can make Spaghetti
Bolognese, you can make a film.
Toby Savage is a renowned professional adventure photographer
who has been shooting since the 1960s when he began helping
his dad process black and white prints in the bathroom. He
holds an MA in Photography, has taught at university level, and
now runs a biannual Photo Safari in Morocco for adventurous
photographers, pushing them beyond pretty landscapes and
exotic sunsets to grasp the power of photography and the art
of capturing Cartier-Bresson’s famous ‘decisive moment’.
Camera Work
Take your audience on the road with you by telling
a story rather than simply just pressing REC.
Shooting an
Interview
with Ollie Schofield
Director of Photography,
BBC Documentaries
It’s more than just filming a cosy chat.
Learn how to perfectly capture that
local character to a broadcast standard.
£20
each
Workshops…
How to Film Your Adventure
with Austin Vince
Festival Curator and independent film director
with Jez Foster
of Hardy House Productions
Learn the basic rules of filming including use
of pans, zooms and focus and how when used
correctly, they will transform your final film.
Workshops…
and are designed to help take your filmmaking skills from amateur to pro!
Directing
There’s a crucial list of things to check before
you switch on your camera. Rob has spent a
lifetime working in film and TV and he’ll get you
thoroughly prepared. The most important
workshop of them all!
with Ollie Schofield
Director of Photography,
BBC Documentaries
These in-depth, 90-minute sessions
are taught by TV and film professionals
Narrative
Editing for
Total Beginners
with Raph Goldberg
of Tanglewood Productions
Even learning basic editing skills will help
inform your directing and shooting decisions.
Vital hands-on session!
Editing —
Intermediate Level
with Raph Goldberg
of Tanglewood Productions
Taking your editing skills to the next level. Become a
master of this black art!
32 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
with Austin Vince
E
FRE
with Toby Savage
– the UK’s leading adventure travel magazine –
Phoebe Smith is the editor of
and author of several books. She has written for various publications in the UK, USA, Canada
and Australia and has appeared on radio and TV talking wild camping, travel and women in
the outdoors.
Introduction to
Travel Writing
with Phoebe Smith
Includes FREE six month subscription to
*
So you’ve just had the ultimate adventure, a journey of a
lifetime, the trip to rival all others and now you want to share it
– but how do you begin writing it up? Phoebe shares her expert
advice on structuring your story. From nailing the all-important
intro to keeping people interested and then pulling off the big
finish, Phoebe will show you how to write a piece that people
will want to read.
(NB: This workshop does not cover pitching/getting published,
that is covered in the Get Your Travel Writing Published session) FREE
Crowdfunding
with Hannah Engelkamp
Hannah Engelkamp is a travel writer and ex-outdoor-magazine editor
who took leave of her senses, bought an opinionated donkey called
Chico, and set off to walk 1000 miles around the circumference of
Wales. The adventure was surprisingly tough, but nothing compared
to the subsequent excitement of running a hugely ambitious seat-ofpants crowd funding campaign to pay for the resulting film and book.
It was successful, coming in 25% over budget with 831 funders from
all over the world. Come and find out how crowd funding changes
everything, why it is perfectly suited to adventure filmmaking, and
get the lowdown on running your own campaign.
0
£e3
ach
£30
each
Publishing Your Adventure
with Phoebe Smith
Includes FREE six month subscription to
*
We all have incredible adventures when we travel, and many of us keep journals or blogs, but
how do we then get our tale published? Phoebe reveals how to pitch your work to editors and
get results. From magazines to websites, books to blogs – you’ll learn how to go about getting
your tales published the right way.
*Only one subscription per person. If signing up for both sessions you get one subscription
and a £5 voucher to spend in the www.wanderlust.co.uk shop instead of a subscription.
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 33 THANKS!
Thank
you Merci
DankeDank Gracias
Obrigado
Grazie
Arigato
Evharistó
je Shukuria
Juspaxar
Bolzïn
Shukria
Tashakkur Atu
SuksamaCheers
Ekhmet
DêkujiTänan
Tak Kinisow
Tángeyoo
Dankon
Vinaka
Kiitos Ngiyabonga Hasty bananas!
Thanks as ever to our marvellous media partner,
, the finest travel magazine on the
shelves. They have supported the festival from the
very beginning and we are honoured to have them
on board.
Relaxing Break
Your creative production partner
The Starlight Screening is always the highlight of
the festival – the shared experience of watching a
fabulous film under a (hopefully) clear night sky is
our favourite moment of the weekend and the memory
that keeps us going during the long grey winter.
This year’s starlight screenings are Gold Of Bengal
on the Friday night and South To South on the
Saturday. Please don’t forget to bring your camp
chairs, cushions and blankets.
We turn good ideas into great products
If the weather is bad we will decamp to the sports hall.
The Adventure Travel Film Festival could not happen
without the enthusiasm and hard work of our team of
volunteers who are buzzing away behind the scenes
making it all happen. Thank you guys and gals, you
know who you are. You rock our world.
And as always, a HUGE thank you for this year’s
advertisers. They are all great friends of the festival
and without them this beautiful brochure could
not exist. Please support them so they can keep
supporting us. It’s a love merry-go-round, baby!
www.jicarolodge.com
www.thinktankmedia.co.uk
www.keyproduction.co.uk
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 35 WHERE…WHEN…WHAT… HOW?
36 | www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
Friday 14 – Sunday 16
August 2015
Mill Hill School
The Ridgeway
London
NW7 1QS
ARRIVE:
2pm on Friday 14 August
When you arrive you will be directed to the camping fields to set up your camp.
Then make your way to the registration tent to check in and receive your wristband.
DEPART:
By 4pm on Sunday 16 August
Happy trails!
TICKETS…
Full Weekend
tickets …
£76.00
SLEEPING… EATING…
DRINKING… WATCHING…
Your ticket includes entry to all the films, talks, presentations, sideshows and two
nights camping. Free entry for children under 12.
Camping is within the grounds and is included in the ticket price. All facilities and venue
locations are within walking distance of the camping fields. You can camp next to your vehicle.
Camper vans, living vehicles and caravans are most welcome but there is no hook-up.
Full Weekend
+ Meals …
The school has a superb range of auditoria fitted out with bespoke audio systems, projectors,
screens and comfortable seating. On Friday and Saturday evenings, the main feature will be
projected outside, under the stars. In poor weather this screening will relocate to the mighty
sports hall – the whole gang under one roof! Please remember to bring your own chair for these
screenings.
£115.00
This includes all of the above plus evening meals on Friday and Saturday and breakfast
on Saturday and Sunday. (Meals can be bought separately for children.)
The venue has plenty of sparkling shower and toilet facilities. Festival goers will also have
access to the swimming pool.
WORKSHOPS
The venue provides cooked breakfasts and two-course evening meals. The quality of the food
is excellent and we thoroughly encourage you to join us for food, as the meal times are a great
social part of the weekend too. Vegetarians are catered for.
How to Make a Documentary, Travel Photography and Crowd Funding workshops are
free of charge and open to all. The specialist film-making and travel-writing/publishing
workshops are extra (see pages 32-33)
Meals MUST be booked in advance by purchasing the appropriate ticket. They cannot be
purchased on spec during the festival.
TICKETS AND WORKSHOPS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE THROUGH THE WEBSITE:
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com
There will be light lunches, snacks, tea and coffee available to buy during the day on a casual
basis. You do not need to book these in advance.
And most importantly, there is a bar open from lunchtime until late!
Sorry, day tickets are not available, and the venue does not allow dogs.
www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com | 37