Subury's newest film festival bringing outdoor adventure

Sudbury -

Laurentian University students and staff at Sudbury’s Indie Cinema are working together in a unique partnership to bring some of the world's best outdoor adventure films to the city. The film festival is called Sudbury Outdoor Adventure Reels, also known as SOAR.

"We normally have the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Sudbury but because of COVID-19, it wasn’t happening. So, we wanted something for the community, somewhere to go and watch adventure films on the big screen," said Kavan Doboas, a Laurentian University student.

Sudbury Indie Cinema's Beth Mairs said organizers are taking a different approach than the Banff Mountain World Tour.

"We’re showing numerous features and best films that have been shown around the world. So, we have a TIFF winner, Whistler Mountain Film Festival winner, we have many top films from Banff," Mairs said.

Seven feature-length films will play at the festival including the movie Home. It’s about a woman from the UK travelling the world.

"This film won so many awards. As adventurous, and risk-taking as she is, and courageous.. what she encounters is more of an internal struggle. It’s a very interesting take on an adventure film," Mairs said.

In addition to the features, there will also be 10 local short films.

"A lot of the shorts are influenced from northern Ontario and you can sort of connect with the land, you can tell where it is and it’s familiar to us," said Owen Duncan, another Laurentian University student.

One of the short films is called Sud Bikery. It was shot in five different locations in the city over the course of two days.

"We went to an underground mining facility and rode bikes at an underground facility, and then we also toured a number of the big destinations in Sudbury such as Laurentian conversation, Kivi Park, Walden and a few others,” said Cameron Perdue, the Sud Bikery filmmaker.

The festival begins Friday with the final showing, The Rescue, on Sunday at 3:45 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online.