Celebrate SOLE’s 10th Anniversary with the 18th Annual Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival
Sandpoint, Idaho --- The snow is flying and piling up at Schweitzer. It’s time to grab your ski buddies, and celebrate the fun and beauty of winter and Selkirk Outdoor Leadership & Education (SOLE)’s 10 Year Anniversary at the 18th Annual Backcountry Film Festival at the historic Panida Theater on January 7th, 2021.
The unique, juried films included in this year’s Backcountry Film Festival will inspire you to get out and explore! The Backcountry Film Festival made its world premiere early November in Boise Idaho and will then tour to more than 100 showings around the world, including a stop in good ‘ole Sandpoint, Idaho!
The films come from renowned filmmakers who search backcountry corners across the globe to submit their best work, and from grassroots filmmakers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursions and submit their best films.
The festival was originally created in 2004 to highlight Winter Wildlands Alliance’s efforts to preserve and promote winter landscapes for human-powered users. From a single showing in Boise that first year, the festival has grown to include showings in locations throughout the United States, Canada and overseas to Antarctica, Europe, Australia and Asia. Funds raised stay in local communities to support like-minded, human-powered recreation efforts and to raise awareness of winter management issues, avalanche training/safety and winter education programs like SOLE’s award-winning and nationally-recognized SnowSchool Experience program.
As part of SOLE’s Annual Reach & Teach Kids Campaign, this annual event aims at raising awareness and essential funds for SOLE’s SnowSchool Experience program at Schweitzer. Since its inception in 2012, this place-based experiential education program has put over 3,000 local area youth on-the-snow each winter to explore and learn in (and about) their winter wildlands from the mountains to the lakes. Educators and their students experience fun and engaging outdoor education lessons on outdoor living travel skills, snow science, winter ecology, avalanche awareness, and conservation literacy. Over the last decade, every 5th grade student in Lake Pend Oreille School District has been afforded this amazing outdoor education opportunity through funds raised during this event and other partnership opportunities, including Lake Pend Oreille School District, Panhandle Alliance for Education, the Innovia Foundation, the William Wishnick Foundation, the Blue Skies Foundation, TC Energy Foundation, Bonner General Health, City of Sandpoint, Kochava, P1FCU, Mountain West Bank, and Idaho Blue Cross Foundation.
We encourage you to buy your ticket in advance here and take the ride! Come embrace ‘Ole Man Winter with the 18th Annual Backcountry Film Festival at the historic Panida Theater on January 6th, 2023.
For more information on this annual event and Selkirk Outdoor Leadership & Education (SOLE) please visit www.soleexperiences.org, like us on Facebook, Instagram or drop us a line.