If you can’t make it to the mountains, the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will bring the mountains to you.

Monday and Tuesday marked the two-day stop of the world-renowned film festival in Eau Claire. This is the second consecutive year UW-Eau Claire has hosted the Canadian film festival, which celebrates mountains and the culture surrounding them worldwide.

Last year drew a sold-out crowd, while this year, tickets were reaching the sold-out target as the doors to Woodland Theater closed.

“We sold out last year, and we’re just right near sell-out tonight,” geography professor Harry Jol said.

Students, faculty and community members attended the first night of the event to watch one feature length film from the festival followed by a series of shorter films that filled a nearly two hour time slot. Jol said he believes people are excited about watching these films because the film festival is the premier mountain-based film festival in the world.

“When I did my PhD at University of Calgary, this was the event to go,” Jol said. “This is the best of the best of any mountain

films. It’s not just about the mountains; there’s a lot of good stories in here.”

Jimmy Haggerty, a senior political science major, went to the film festival last year and said he knew he had to go again. He said last year’s showing introduced him to one of the best documentaries he has ever seen, a story of two twenty-somethings who spent nine months surfing the Arctic Circle.

“I love documentaries,” Haggerty said. “I’m curious to see what happens this year.”

Haggerty said he thinks the festival poses a unique opportunity for Eau Claire, as it makes very select stops on its world tour.

He said the nine-day film festival, which ran from Nov. 1 to Nov. 9 in Alberta, Canada this year, draws thousands of people.

“So it’s a pretty unique opportunity we have here,” he said.

While festival-goers made their way into the theater, they could stop by two tables set up along

the entrance. Both the Student Office of Sustainability and the Ruffed Grouse Society are sponsors of the event and shared information about their presence on campus with attendees.

Olivia McCarthy, SOS events intern, said the festival was an important opportunity for SOS to get its name out into the community by handing out freebies and informative flyers on what the organization does for campus.

She said because Eau Claire is focusing so much attention on becoming a more sustainable

campus, events like Banff provide an important link to getting students involved.

“We want students to go to things, we want students to learn about things,” she said. “Movies are a good way to do that.”