The Art of Adventure adds another set of laurels to its shelf as the winner of the Festival Fave Award at Blue Mountain Film + Media Festival. The documentary directed by Alison Reid was named the overall audience favourite at in the festival’s fifth edition, which wrapped over the weekend. The festival announced the news via social media.
The film tells the story of long-time friends, artist Robert Bateman and biologist/filmmaker Bristol Foster, as they revisit their 1950s’ world tour in their beloved Land Rover, the Grizzly Torque. Drawing upon extensive footage that Foster shot during the expedition alongside contemporary interviews and footage of the friends’ seeking to recover and restore the Grizzly Torque, the film weaves Bateman and Foster’s adventure with their artistic and scientific pursuits that continue today. The film spotlights the friends’ long contribution to their arts and environmental advocacy.
The Art of Adventure has been an audience favourite on the festival circuit, winning audience awards at the Available Light Film Festival and the Victoria Film Festival earlier this year. The Art of Adventure won jury prizes at Whistler and Forest City.
The runner-up for the Festival Fave at Blue Mountain is Tuner, Daniel Roher’s feature dramatic debut following his Oscar winner Navalny and non-fiction works including The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. Both The Art of Adventure and Tuner are now playing in select theatres.
Other docs that screened at this year’s festival included Godspell retro You Had to Be There as Blue Mountain’s Saturday night gala with Jayne Eastwood in attendance, along with the Canadian premieres of King Hamlet, Cookie Queens, Sweet Störy, Newport & the Great Folk Dream, and Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.
