BY KAREN BOSSICK
While Andrew Dunning takes armchair viewers on a trip down the Middle Fork Kings River, his brother Michael Dunning will take viewers into the skies above the Alps during Friday’s Homegrown Film Festival.
The two brothers paired to create a short parasailing film, “Home Away from Home: Flying in the European Alps” for the festival.
The film festival, which shows short films made by local filmmakers displaying the antics and daring-do of local athletes, will take place at 5:15 and 8:15 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at The Argyros. Tickets are $15 for the early show and $20 for the late show, available at https://theargyros.org and www.homegrownfilms.org
Proceeds benefit the Friends of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center.
The Dunnings’ parasailing film focuses on Europe’s flying culture that combines paragliding and skiing in rugged alpine peaks that are inaccessible to regular skiers.
“A lot of people go to the Alps for this. We learned how to fly in Sun Valley but such flying is banned just about everywhere in the United States because of lawyers and bureaucrats and liability,” said Andrew Dunning. “Michael’s been spending a lot of winter seasons in France and Switzerland doing this.”
“You’re skiing down the top of this huge mountain face and, when the face drops away into a vertical cliff, you fly off and keep going,” Dunning added. “Having wings gives you the ability to explore different mountain lines that wouldn’t normally be possible. And in Europe you can take a gondola to get to many of these areas.”
This year’s films also include a film focusing on Big Mountain skier McKenna Peterson, who takes a family ski and sail trip to Iceland. There’s a film about the Sister Summit for professional skiers and snowboarders hosted and started by Lexi Dupont.
And Karl Fostvedt will take viewers slope side as he contemplates what it takes to ski Alaskan big lines and make it back home. When you go to Eruope it’s like a totally different culture. Every resort has paragliding launching and landings and pilots are constantly in the air.
“Homegrown’s favorite film makers have outdone themselves this year with mountain, river and surprise edits,” said Tina Cole, one of the organizers.