AIFF 2009 - Mount St. Elias (Audience Reactions) and Tapped

 Mount St. Elias tells the story of climbing up, then skiing down  Mount St. Elias, the second highest peak in the United States (and Canada - it's on the border) at 18,008 feet (5,488 meters).  However, because it is so close to the sea, it is the highest vertical mountain in the world from bottom to top with snow most of the way.  This led the mountaineers to the goal of climbing to the top and skiing down.  Actually, part of the ski trip was done earlier from the base camp.  The rest done from the peak to that base camp six or seven weeks later.  Here's what some of the audience thought:



This was my second documentary of the day.  It was testosterone heavy.  We kept hearing phrases like "testing myself,"  "proving to myself and to the world," and  "any misstep would be fatal."  This was about seriously goal-oriented men who took enormous risks to achieve their goal.  I think that people should do what they do well.  But I've also learned that people who become obsessive - workaholics, for example - are often using their obsession to avoid dealing with other parts of their lives.  These men were driven.  And obviously skilled skiers.  But was something missing in their personal lives that risking those lives in such a punishing environment was so attractive? 

And I couldn't help think about the people in "Tapped" the movie I'd seen in the earlier in the afternoon, who were fighting what politically seems equal odds - against Nestle's, Coca Cola, Pepsi - who bottle water -  and the petroleum industry that makes the plastic bottles.  It was hard to go to a documentary that I knew would be telling me about the problems of bottled water.  It's not that I disagree, but did I really want to sit through that?  Fortunately, none of the other venues had a must-see film.


[photo - cleaning the Bear Tooth theater between films]

It turns out I did want to see this movie, though the big screen is really close in the Alaska Experience Theater.  The film was well done.

I think Alaska would be significantly better off if the people who went to Mount St. Elias had also gone to Tapped.  In the same amount of time, they would have learned a lot about the negative impacts of buying bottled water.  I covered the details in an earlier post - also with audience comments. (And two of the Tapped commenters certainly aren't wimps - they met working in Antarctica.)


In Tapped, people were working hard for the public benefit.  In Mount St. Elias, people were working equally hard, but focused on very personal goals.  I think we all have to deal with figuring out who we are as individuals before we can reach out to help others.  And some of the people in Tapped also articulated personal events - a sister's cancer death in one case - that made them so tenacious in their fight for clean air, the right to water (and preventing privatization of water supplies), and the end to plastic bottles.

Both films showed people giving their all to meet their goals, it's just that the goals were so different. 

Homeboyski has several posts on the mountain and the film.