Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Outdoors-themed film festival slated
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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Give Pete Eshelman this: He doesn't just talk a good game.
Not long after he became the director of outdoor branding for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, Eshelman started talking about the idea of bringing an outdoors-themed film festival to Roanoke.
Less than a year later, the idea is a reality.
The Radical Reels Film Festival and Get Outside Expo will be held Sept. 30 at Mill Mountain Theatre.
The expo starts at 5:30 p.m, and will feature about 18 outdoors groups and organizations -- Pathfinders for Greenways, the Roanoke Ski Club and the Roanoke Cycling Organization, for example.
There will be free food and a cash beer and wine bar. So, basically, it's a mixer for people who love the outdoors.
"The whole idea is to have the community get an idea of the outdoors opportunities available" in the area, Eshelman said.
The film portion of the event, for which tickets are $12, gets going at 6:45 p.m. All proceeds will benefit the Mill Mountain Theatre.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival's Radical Reels is an offshoot of the popular Banff Mountain Film Festival.
"The high-adventure films were always the most popular, so they decided to start a spin-off," Eshelman said.
The festival features nine short films that run for a total of 110 minutes.
This isn't the crazy neighborhood kid taping an Epic cam to his bike helmet before streaking down Mill Mountain, either.
"For outdoor filmmakers to win this, it's like the top prize they can get," Eshelman said.
The trailer, which is available online at www.roanokeoutside.com, is impressive. This is high-quality footage of amazing action shot in gorgeous venues.
The roanokeoutside.com Web site, which is under development, also features a survey that Eshelman hopes will help in the site's construction.
Survey participants will be eligible for raffle prizes to be given away at next Tuesday's event.
Mill Mountain Theatre's capacity is 300, and Eshelman said nearly 200 tickets have already been sold. Tickets will be available online (www.roanokeoutside.com) through 12:30 p.m. on the day of the event.
"If there are any left, and hopefully there won't be, they can pay cash at the door," Eshelman said.
Freeman moving toward another Classic
Amateur tournament bass anglers who want to qualify for the Bassmasters Classic have it tough, being forced to advance through a long string of qualifying tournaments.
For many who make it, the chance to fish with the big boys is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.
Jeff Freeman hopes that's not the case for him.
Freeman earned a spot in the 2008 Bassmaster Classic after winning the BASS Federation Nation national championship in the fall of 2007.
Now Freeman, who finished 28th in that first Classic, is headed back to that final qualifying tournament.
He doesn't have to win to make the Classic, but he has to be the top finisher among seven qualifying anglers from the Federation Nation's Mid-Atlantic division.
Because he won in 2007, Freeman automatically qualified for last year's championship in Kansas. But he did not win his region.
"It's a hard road because you have to beat so many people," said Freeman, a former Wythe County Sheriff's Office deputy who recently left law enforcement to become a co-owner of the Old Fort Western Store in Fort Chiswell.
Freeman beat a bunch of people last weekend on the Ohio River in Wheeling, W.Va.
He won the tournament with a three-day catch totaling 18 pounds, 3 ounces.
Fishing primarily with his favored finesse techniques, including a drop-shot rigged Roboworm, Freeman was the only angler in the event to boat a limit all three days.
Runner-up Rodney Price of Narrows had eight bass totaling 9 pounds, 11 ounces.
The top finishers from each state that sent anglers to the division will also fish at the national championship, which will be held in late October on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Florida.
Then the top finisher from each division will punch their ticket to the Classic, which will be held in February at Alabama's Lay Lake.
"The odds get better every step," said Freeman, who had to be the best of 13 anglers at the divisional, and must be the best of seven at the next event. "But the competition keeps getting better, too."
