“In walking the length of the Amazon river I hoped to create an adventure so exciting it drew people into my unfolding story online, and into the Amazon itself.”
— Ed Stafford
What are the key ingredients for an epic afternoon in London?
A magical atmosphere…
I knew little of what to expect at the Adventurists’ film festival two Saturdays ago at London’s Royal Geographical Society. After winning the trip of a lifetime from them in Manchester (don’t worry, a post about that next time!), I was invited along to the festival to get to know a bit more about the crazily cool company and meet some of the other people I’ll be working with over the next few months.
From the moment I walked up to the RGS building and saw a statue of Ernest Shackelton–one of the earliest Antarctic explorers–positioned in an alcove in the wall, I could tell the event was off to a good start. From a built-to-scale model of Mount Everest to names like Cook, Murchison, and Stanley that lined the walls of the Ondaatje Theatre, I had that feeling of being in the presence of greatness throughout the afternoon.
And yet there something distinctly Alice-in-Wonderland-ish about it as well. The festival was partly sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin–voted the “best gin in the world” by the New York Times in 2003–who, as a company, has defined itself by such terms as “delightfully curious,” “peculiar flavour,” and “scrumptious tipple.”
Whether it was the safari-esque man in a pith helmet presiding over a game of Siamese croquet in the sun-drenched garden or a moustached man pretending to cast spells on a levitating cake, you couldn’t escape the whimsical air…all while sipping on a superb gin and tonic, of course.
…with stories to inspire you…
While the event was clearly organized around the films, another highlight of the day was hearing “professional adventurer” Ed Stafford speak–and yes, it was that kind of event where people were actually introduced with that title.
If you’re not familiar with who Ed is (i.e. me before the festival, I’m ashamed to say) he was the first man to walk the entire length of the Amazon, from source to sea. He began the trek in April of 2008 and didn’t reach the Atlantic until August of 2010…some 860 days after he set out from a cliff in the Andes Mountains of Peru.
It was fascinating to not only hear Ed recount some of the tales from his journey–including how he carried his laptop and solar power packs with him in order to blog and Tweet his way across the Amazon–but also to see that his Peruvian guide, Cho, who accompanied Ed for 23 out of the 28 months of the expedition, was there as well.
“Yes,” Cho said–in Spanish–when someone in the audience asked him how he was adapting to life in London, “it is very different here.”
…and films to transport you.
At the end of the day, though, we were all there for the films. The festival was organized around two categories: the Adventurist films–those made on Adventurist trips such as the Rickshaw Run and the Mototaxi Junket–and the Public category–films made about any expedition that seemed to embody the “Adventurist spirit”–i.e. something slightly dangerous and most definitely ridiculous.
Given the nature of the ones that had been shortlisted–most tended to be filmed like documentaries, with Blair Witch-style interviews with the camera turned around on the director–I was expecting something similar for the piece de resistance of the afternoon: the winner of the Adventurist category. And so I was hugely surprised when the film began to play and I realized it was nothing short of a spectacular art film: no dialogue, no interviews, no crazy stunts, no maps or explanations. Nothing but beautiful streams of images flowing seamlessly into each other.
“I wanted it to be photographic, very visual,” the director Charlie said in an interview after the viewing. But what I loved even more about “10,000 Miles from a Car Window” was finding out that Charlie himself composed all of the music used in the film–using sounds he captured with the camera and then turning them into beats and tracks.
Just last week in an application for a travel scholarship, I wrote that the best kind of travel isn’t about the traveller at all–and Charlie’s film, with its stunning images and organic soundtrack, fit in perfectly with that idea.
For a moment or so on Saturday, I was no longer in London, but was watching the landscapes of Mongolia sweep by…
Thanks for such a great afternoon, Adventurists!
