Films for funds

2006,Vernon Daily Courier By Scott Neufeld Friday, October 27, 2006,
The Vernon Search and Rescue’s film festival is still nearly three weeks away, but film enthusiasts are encouraged to book their tickets now before they sell out.This is the 15th year that search and rescue has hosted the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour and every year the event gets bigger, said Vernon Search and Rescue president Leigh Pearson. The event was first held at Okanagan College but has become so popular that last year the festival was held at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre and nearly filled it to capacity.“It’s been growing and growing and growing,” he said. “It’s become one of those things that people look forward to every year.”The festival is scheduled for Nov. 13 at the Performing Arts Centre and will offer some of the best films from this year’s Banff festival. Ranging in length from three minutes to 50 minutes, festival publicity co-ordinator John Neilson said there is a film to suit everyone’s interests.“It’s not all about extreme sports there’s some of that but there’s always some human interest stories,” he said. “You can hear people talking about it afterwards, talking about some unbelievable film.”Since the Banff festival doesn’t start until the end of October, Neilson said he won’t know what films will be shown in Vernon until five days before the local festival. But he said the festival has a reputation for airing great cinema.“We have a fairly loyal audience that comes back every year,” Neilson said.The annual event is the largest fundraiser of the year for the local search and rescue, Pearson said. In general, it raises between $8,500 to $10,000 and pays for equipment maintenance and liability insurance, he said. “This fundraiser, it’s literally our survival,” he said. “We do get a little bit of funding from the regional district but without this extra funding we couldn’t do it.”In the past it has also helped pay for a van and other large expenditures, but Pearson said they won’t be making any large capital purchases this year.Over the past few years search and rescue have been kept on their toes responding to about 40 calls per year. This year, however, they have only been called to 25 incidents, he said.“So far this year things have been slow,” Pearson said. “But the last few years we’ve been very busy.”With a membership that fluctuates at about 60 people, Pearson said the local search and rescue crew of volunteers is one of the largest in the province. He said the group does everything from search for missing people to rescue hikers to respond to car crashes.Tickets for the film festival are $20 and are available at the Ticket Seller box office by calling 549-7469 or dropping by the office at 3800 33rd St.