2011 Kick Off

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2011 Tour Kicks Off

Thanks to The Complete Paddler.

The 6th annual Reel Paddling Film Festival premiered last night at Bloor Cinema downtown Toronto, hosted by The Complete Paddler. The largest premiere audience in festival history was treated to the first screenings of this year’s award winning films. The winners are:

  1. Best Sea Kayaking Film: In Islands of Fire, Justine Curgenven joins local Italian paddlers on a tour of the warm turquoise waters of Sicily’s Aeolian Islands.
  2. Best Canoeing Film: In Mammalian, filmmaker Frank Wolf paddles 2,000 kilometers from Yellowknife to Rankin Inlet. From the barrenlands, Wolf emerges with a shocking discovery.
  3. Best Whitewater Film: In Halo Effect, three of the world’s best kayakers take a journey to Iceland and Norway in search of the best whitewater north of the Arctic Circle.
  4. Best Kayak Fishing Film: Kayak Fishing the Chesapeake Bay follows Kayak Kevin and his crew for a year angling from their kayaks at the world-class fishery, Chesapeake Bay.
  5. Best Adventure Travel Film: The Book of Legends follows an international team of whitewater kayakers down Siberia’s Bashkaus River. In 1975 the Russian explorer Igor Bazilesvski led a first descent attempt. Ten of his men died on the river.
  6. Best Environmental Paddling Film: Awakening the Skeena follows local Ali Howard as she swims 26 days, 610 kilometers from headwaters to ocean, bringing opposition to coal bed methane projects in the Skeena River Valley.
  7. Best Paddling Documentary: Solo is the heartbreaking story of Andrew McAuley’s attempt to be the first person to paddle from Australia to New Zealand.
  8. Best Amateur/Short Paddling Film: Seasons: Fall is all the reasons White Salmon, Washington-local Kate Wagner loves paddling there—deep canyons with steep, spring-fed creeks.
  9. Best Instructional Paddling Film: Fine Woodstrip Canoe Building is actor and woodworker Nick Offerman’s visual guide to building your own canoe in New York City.

    10.  Best Stand-up Paddling Film: In Living the Stoke, eight mates travel to war-torn Papua New Guinea, bringing with them school books, clothes and their SUP boards

    “Never before has the Festival seen so many amazing films,” said Scott MacGregor, RPFF producer and last night’s red carpet emcee. “With 10 category winners there is a favorite film for everyone, no matter the river, lake, ocean, boat or board you paddle.”

    The premiere kicks off the Reel Paddling Film Festival World Tour, an international paddling film tour with 34 short-listed films screening in 100 cities hosted by paddling shops, clubs and events. Follow these links for all the World Tour films, the World Tour schedule and hosting information.