Everyday Activist - Doing it Scared (BMBFF 2016)

Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 06:00 AM

Doing it Scared (BMBFF 2016)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

When I go to the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival, I like to attend both the book and film portions. This year was special, because the book festival had a number of men who could comfortably talk about their vulnerability rather than their conquests. Paul Pritchard, a two time winner of the prestigious Boardman Tasker award for mountain literature as well as a grand prize winner at the Banff book festival over a decade ago, was back in Banff to promote his books and new film. A world renowned rock climber, Paul suffered a severe head injury in the late 1990s that left him paralyzed. Nearly two decades later, with the help of his community, he went back to the scene of his tragic accident to ascend the tower in the short film Doing it Scared.

The accident happened on a Tasmanian tower called the Totem Pole with his climbing partner, Celia. Because the Totem Pole juts out of the sea, to climb it you have to descend down to then climb back up it. While climbing up, Paul dislodged a boulder that struck his helmetless head. Celia managed to get him into a safe spot while she went to get help, hoping he wouldn’t bleed to death in the meantime. Even when Search and Rescue came, they had to lower him off the Totem Pole into a boat first, because there was no place for the helicopter to land. Luckily, the paramedic on duty was a climber familiar with the area, so he could work efficiently to get Paul to the hospital, where he underwent several hours of brain surgery.

The movie talks about what Paul went through back then, but focuses on his training to get up the Totem Pole using probably the worst ascending set up I’ve ever seen. Having watched the movie, I didn’t believe that he wore a chest ascender given his climbing posture until I talked to him about it in Banff. Looking at a photo indeed he is, except it’s not really on his chest and his waist harness has its attachment point way too high to be effective. I realize I completely missed the point about him not letting a disability stop him from enjoying life, but wow. Why would he use a foot loop when he could use a pantin to grip the rope with his good leg? It’s okay if you don’t understand; my caving friends grimaced with me.

Everyone else I talked to who watched the film was inspired, unless of course you had to watch it with my running commentary, which happened to a couple people at the festival. In my opinion, they were more inspired, because they knew the ascending system he used was particularly cruel! Quite frankly I was way more impressed that he chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator coming from the Vistas dining room. Those outdoor, iron steps are not friendly to the able bodied, especially first thing in the morning, before the sun has a chance to melt the frost.

“Doing It Scared” will be on Schedule A of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2016/17 #1 & #2, which stops off in January 2017 at the Rozsa Center at the University of Calgary. Buy your tickets early, because they will sell out.

Calgary Showtimes: Doing it Scared >