Now Playing

If you're a casual reader of Bermuda Shorts you probably know that in addition to writing for the New York Times, Caribbean Travel+Life and Jetsetter among others, that I'm also a correspondent for Outside Television. It's a fantastic gig, especially in May when I head to Telluride, Colorado, to host Outside Film Festival: Mountainfilm, a 16-episode show, which airs the finest independent documentary films shown at that year's festival (that's me and my co-host Lynsey Dyer on location near Wilson Peak this year). I've blogged about it again and again, even though it had no real connection to Bermuda but that just changed in a major way. This year's festival screened Matt Morris' fantastic short film Mr. Happy Man, a fourteen-minute documentary featuring Bermuda's own Johnny Barnes. In case you've never heard about Johnny, he's an 80-something bearded Bermudian man who greets Hamilton commuters every morning with a wave, a smile and boisterous shouts of "I love ya!" He's so beloved that Bermuda erected a bronze statue in his honor, which stands just yards down the road from where he greets people each morning. If you're interested in watching the entire film in addition to an interesting chat I had with filmmaker Matt Morris in Telluride, head on over to OutsideTelevision.com where you can view the complete episode. And if you feel like sticking around for more you can also watch The Fall Line, about an injured Iraq war veteran who overcomes great odds on the ski slopes of Aspen and Wild Water, a beautiful short film about big water kayaking. Go ahead, check it out! It's the best fourteen minutes you'll watch all day.

Now Playing: Mountainfilm

It's officially Day Two of the Stephen Colbert Watch and still no word from the Bermuda-bound funnyman on whether he'd like yours truly to guide him across the island when he arrives in May. Fingers firmly crossed on that one, but in case you're hankering for some interesting television that doesn't necessarily include Colbert but definitely includes me, then check out Now Playing: Mountainfilm, my guide to Outside Television's latest lineup of inspired programming. Spoiler alert: I, along with pro-skier Lynsey Dyer co-host the show so perhaps I'm a little bit biased, but the independent documentary films airing this week are indeed worth tuning into (that's me and the crew on location in Telluride). Interested? Then read all about it here. In the meantime, I'll be back tomorrow with your regularly scheduled Bermuda Shorts programming.

Now Playing: Mountainfilm in Telluride

Bermuda is well known for its powdery pink sand beaches and its world-class golf courses, but did you also know that the island mid-Atlantic island also hosts a world class film festival every March? Next year the Bermuda International Film Festival begins on March 19 and plans to feature independent documentary films of all kinds. So why the sudden interest in movies? Mainly because I'm particularly jazzed that my show, Outside Film Festival: Mountainfilm is now airing every week on Outside Television. If you're interested in watching some truly groundbreaking films, then check out my short recap of this week's picks on my Outside Television blog This Way Out and read Now Playing: Mountainfilm in Telluride. One of my favorites? Throw Down Your Heart, a film that follows American banjo virtuoso Bela Flek on his journey to Africa to explore the roots of the banjo (watch the film's trailer). And for those that don't yet have Outside Television go here to watch a few of my interviews that appear on the show. In the meantime I'll be back tomorrow with your regularly scheduled programming.

And...We're Back!

Talk about a hiatus. Traveling to and from Telluride is usually a fairly easy endeavour—if you don’t live in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, that is. More than one week and five airports later Bermuda Shorts is back with the latest and greatest from Bermuda’s sunny shores. But first a bit about MountainFilm, because really, how can I not tell you about this amazing confluence of artists, activists and athletes. What started out as a few mountaineers who wanted to climb during the day and watch films at night has, over thirty years later, turned into an inspired gathering of aware people doing aware things. Like Nico Calabria, a one-legged boy who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money and wheelchairs for mobility-impaired people in Tanzania (watch his triumphant ascent in the short film, Nico’s Challenge). Or filmmaker Josh Fox, whose documentary Gasland exposes the toxic side of natural gas drilling (in case you hadn’t heard, it causes some Americans to have flammable tap water—now just imagine if you drank it). And perhaps most moving of all, director Louie Psihoyos whose film The Cove won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, a movie which uncovered the horrific practice of dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan (Long story short: over 23,000 dolphins are brutally murdered in Japan every year and their mercury-poisoned carcasses were being fed to local schoolchildren, until this film exposed it all. Chilling). If I’ve at all piqued your interest—and I sure hope I have—then the good news you can watch these films and more on Outside Television, the brand new network that will air Outside Film Festival: MountainFilm, starring pro-skier Lynsey Dyer and yours truly this November. And in case you don’t get Outside Television, have no fear. The network should be coming to a TV near you very, very soon. And so my friends, thanks for your patience. Your island news and tropical updates will officially return tomorrow.

This Post Is Not About Bermuda

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you breaking news in the world of film and television—mountains and film and television, actually. Instead of enjoying Bermuda’s recent spate of sun-kissed weather, I’ll be hosting Outside Television’s coverage of MountainFilm in Telluride, Colorado, alongside pro-skier Lynsey Dyer this Memorial Day weekend.

What? You’ve never heard of MountainFilm? Get ready to be inspired because there’s a reason why the festival’s tagline is “Celebrating Indomitable Spirit.” For a sense of what this amazing collaboration of artists, athletes and activists is all about I strongly encourage you to watch the above video titled “What Is MountainFilm?” (trust me, it’s 4:40 well spent). As artist Chris Jordan eloquently states, "It's a group of awake people doing what they know how to do, to change the world." Now in it's 31st year, MountainFilm is the epitome of globally-conscious filmmaking. So to get you in the spirit, here are three films screening this weekend.

In 1968, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, surfer Doug Tompkins and skier Dick Dorworth drove a beat up van from Ventura, California to the tip of southern Argentina to climb a new route up Mt. Fitzroy—an epic adventure caught on film called Mountain of Storms. Forty years later director Chris Malloy, mountaineer Jeff Johnson and alpinist Timmy O’Neil retrace their journey in 180°South, a high-adrenaline documentary from Woodshed Films (known for surfer flicks like Thicker Than Water) that captures the original film's vast spirit of adventure. Watch the trailer.

Given the love of the great outdoors by festival participants, much of MountainFilm’s documentaries focus on conservation and environmental activism. After all, how can you enjoy nature if it’s being destroyed? Enter films like Flathead Wild, which follows the International League of Conservation Photographers as it documents the Flathead—a pristine river that's home to one of the most diverse ecosystems in North America—currently threatened by a coal bed methane drilling project in Canada. Says one of the iLCP team, “If people see these images, they’re going to want to do the right thing.” Watch the trailer.

Finally, try not to be moved by a fifteen-minute film called Nico’s Challenge. The short documentary from Steve Audette follows Nicolai Calabria, a thirteen-year-old boy born with one leg as he attempts to summit Mount Kilimanjaro—a.k.a. Africa’s highest peak—to raise money and wheelchairs for Tanzania’s mobility-impaired population. In short, it’s an amazing film and just one of the reasons why I’m so proud to be a part of this uplifting and inspirational festival (to watch the film in its entirety, go here).

So…that’s what I’ll be up to this week. Outside Television officially launches nationwide on June 1, so stay tuned for updates regarding the rollout of the network plus news about Outside Film Festival: MountainFilm, a sixteen-episode show hosted by Lynsey Dyer and yours truly, which will air this fall.

In the meantime, Bermuda Shorts bids you adieu—at least for a little while.