Spend an evening at the Nature Center (or Big Grove Brewery’s Iowa City Taproom) as we host the Winter Wildland Alliance Backcountry Film Festival, a compilation of films that celebrate the human-powered experience through winter adventures.
Expect to be inspired to get outdoors! Win raffle prizes, grab a beer and popcorn and settle in to watch short films featuring outdoor sports in beautiful places around the world.
Doors open at 6 PM, Program starts at 7 PM
January 30: Big Grove Brewery Taproom in Iowa City
January 31: Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids
Film Lineup
Reel One
A BAFFIN VACATION, LOVE ON ICE
26:15 min
By Skip Armstrong, Rush Sturgis, Erik Boomer, Sarah McNair-Landry
Description: Join one couple’s adventure love story and witness what dating might look like if you’re both a little crazy and love hardcore winter adventures.
RIDGE TO RIVER
12:23 mins
By Steven Gnam
Description: A story from one of Winter Wildlands Alliance grassroots groups in the North Cascades, Friends of Mission Ridge, about how a community’s love of a place has inspired a growing collaboration to protect the ridge from too much development.
LET MY PEOPLE GO SKIING
Snowlands Network Environmental Storytelling Award Winner (2025)
17:28 minutes
By Kakéin Shee Ellen Bradley
Description: Kakéin Shee Ellen Bradley leaves the city and travels home to ski on her ancestral lands in Alaska.
POLAR
Backcountry Film Festival Jury Award Winner (2025)
10:50 minutes
By Robert Pallin Aaring and Rasmus Bjerken
Description: One crazy Norwegian skier’s unique approach to balancing fatherhood and finding epic lines.
Reel Two
DESCENTS TO DUNES
3:58 minutes
By Anthony Cupaiuolo, Claire Hewitt Demeyer
Description: A fun film about two friends finding turns wherever they can when the snow is low and the stoke is high.
40 YEARS ON THE TRAIL
5:26 minutes
By Evan Kay
Description: In the green mountains, a passionate group of snowscape conservationists spent 40 years partnering with different landowners across Vermont to establish the longest cross country ski trail in the United States.
SHAPED BY ICE
5:57 minutes
By Dan McComb
Description: Brings to life the power that art and community can play in communicating the data and science of how our wild snowscapes are changing at alarming rates.
ADAPTIVE AVALANCHE
7:22 minutes
By Vasu Sojitra and Dani Aravich
Description: Winter Wildlands Alliance Ambassador, Vasu Sojitra and friends head to Cooke City, Montana, to redefine travel access in backcountry avalanche terrain.
UNCHARTED: THE WHITE CONTINENT
5:41 minutes
By Tamara Susa
Description: This film comes from one of Winter Wildlands Alliance proud Snowschool supporters, Ice Axe Expeditions, about the rare experience of skiing in Antarctica alongside penguins and seals.
GOING HOME
12:16 minutes
By Anna Tedesco, Kylie Zarmati
Description: A vagabond story of 4 rad ladies exploring the marvels of Alaska and deepening their love for the friendship-fueled, human-powered adventures that sustain us all.
Watch the Trailer!
Raffles
Purchase raffle tickets at the event for your chance to win prizes:
Friday at Big Grove Brewery
List coming soon …
Saturday at Indian Creek Nature Center
List coming soon …
Sponsored by
