Under the glowing marquee of Boise’s iconic Egyptian Theatre, the 20th annual Backcountry Film Festival draws in a crowd of adventurers and film lovers alike.
The film festival showcases a blend of environmental advocacy, tales from the wilderness and an overall love for nature. For nearly two decades, the festival has celebrated the spirit of exploration and conservation, becoming a beloved tradition with Boise’s community.
Emily Scott, operations manager for the Winter Wildlands Alliance has been one of the key coordinators within this film festival. Boise proudly hosts the first screening of this year’s film collection, kicking off the festival’s nationwide tour in the historic Egyptian Theatre with a collection of snowscape films.
“[Winter Wildlands Alliance] is working to inspire and empower people to protect America’s wild snowscapes … we have a group of members and local grassroots groups and school education sites around the country that all do the same work,” Scott said. “And so one of the ways we do that is by putting on the backcountry Film Festival.”
The Backcountry Film Festival accepts open calls from any and all filmmakers, the only requirement is that all film submissions must take place in backcountry snowscapes.
“We put together a collection of films that we think inspire people to enjoy winter and all they have to have a winter focus and they have to be back country oriented,” said Scott.“So that means not supporting a ski resort or a big corporation of that kind, just human powered backcountry”
Connor Ryan, an Indigenous skier and filmmaker whose work captures the deep connection between outdoor adventure and his cultural heritage contributed to a film titled “Surviving our Story”.
Ryan and his film partner Ryan Mclure went viral in 2023 for surviving a snow avalanche while skiing, a traumatic experience that was overtaken by news headlines. The duo decided to share their story with their own recorded footage.
“We definitely took the lens of showing it a little more than telling it when it comes to this story. But my hope is that it makes everybody think critically about the purpose of sharing your story,” Ryan said. “And I think for us, we realized our purpose was to find healing and to share something that was informative and unifying for the culture of the sport.”
Ryan shared that the virality of their clip stripped viewers of their ability to grasp the trauma and heroism that took place. Mclure received significant injuries in his pursuit to locate Ryan who experienced the first avalanche.
“It’s really easy to take sound bites or clips and run with them, and they generate views and comments and all these things. But do you really get to see the heart of the people who find themselves in a situation as traumatic?” said Ryan. “That was really my hope in telling this story, is for people to see Ryan’s heart and his courage, and for them to just observe, as opposed to being told [about] this person sprayed on the news.”
The 20th annual Backcountry Film Festival offers more than just stunning visuals, it is a celebration of nature, resilience and the stories that unite outdoor communities. The festival takes place at the Egyptian Theatre on Oct. 24, launching an experience that will inspire nature lovers across the country to embrace the wild.
