Climbing film explores human ambition via Mount Everest

Arts April 4, 2012

Climbing Mount Everest is an unattainable dream for many people, unless you have $100,000.

It used to be that a climber would spend many gruelling years in training before approaching Mount Everest; now all you need is money.

Documentary filmmaker Dianne Whelan spent 40 days at the base of Mount Everest documenting the climbing season of those who were motivated, for one reason or another, to conquer the world’s largest (and most commercialized) mountain.

“For me, the mountain has always been a metaphor for human ambition,” says Whelan. “Today there are over 250 dead bodies on Everest, frozen failed ambitions. Climbers literally have to step over the dead to get to the top. So I think the mountain is still a metaphor for human ambition, but that metaphor has changed and I think that says something about who we have become.”

The view from the Mount Everest base camp (photo provided).

40 Days at Base Camp had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) this past October; all three screenings sold out.

“I’ve seen a lot of Mount Everest and climbing documentaries; what’s really outstanding about this one is that you got to see the climbers’ personalities,” says VIFF’s Canadian images programmer Terry McEvoy. “Usually a documentary is about the glory of getting to the top of the mountain, but this one’s about an outlaw community; you’re dying a little bit every day that you’re there.”

40 Days at Base Camp was also the opening film for the Banff Mountain Film Festival. In April it will screen at the Trento Film Festival in Italy, the world’s oldest mountain film festival.

“This is an independent film, so I want to get it out to the world,” says Whelan. “Getting out in Canada is the first step in that long process.”

During her cross-Canada tour, Whelan hopes to create awareness that Canadian-content films are both rare and unregulated.

“We want to bring attention to these two points,” she says. “One, [Canadian] English films have represented only one percent of the domestic box office in Canada for decades; two, unlike in radio and television, which both have strict Canadian content regulations, there is no protection for Canadian content in movie theatres. With all the mergers in media, essentially a handful of people decide what we see on TV and in the theatres.”

40 Days at Base Camp
Thursday, April 5, 7 pm
Vic Theatre, $13.50
thevic.ca