The 13TH annual X-Dance Film Festival takes place this week November 8th-11th at The Depot in downtown Salt Lake City. The X-Dance Film Festival is “the Academy Awards” of action sports and features a wide variety of full-length films and shorts across multiple genres. This year sees submissions coming from Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Wake Skating, Sky Diving, Skiing, Base Jumping, Mountain Biking, and numerous more. With over 100 submissions each year you can be assured that the 30 finalists are the upper echelon of action sports cinema.
This year there is a new event in partnership with GoPro called the GoPro clip of the year. GoPro selected a “clip of the day” through out the past year and then narrowed it down to seven clips for this special competition. The X-Dance Judges will choose a winner this weekend to be the first GoPro Clip of the year recipient. See the finalists here.
In addition to the 8-12 hours of movies each day there will be a variety of lifestyle-oriented events that celebrate this special culture. The X-Dance festival’s question and answer panels that follow many films include film-makers and athletes and have become one of the highlights each year. This is where attendees get to directly interact with some of their favorite athletes and film-makers as they discuss their craft. In addition the X-Dance film festival always holds it down with great entertainment each evening following the days showings. This year will feature a performance from Expansion Sound System featuring Dj Babu and Raka of Dialated Peoples Thursday Night to kick off the festival right. X-Dance also likes to celebrate the roots of these sports as well, and has lifetime achievement ceremonies each year. Past winners have included Warren Miller, Gary Fischer, Bruce Brown, and Jack McCoy. The event culminates Sunday with an award ceremony covering well over a dozen categories, and then the always fun closing night party.
The X-Dance festival is truly as diverse and unique as the people and lifestyles it honors. For a full list of event times and festivities visit X-Dance.org. Also check them out on FaceBook and Twitter to keep up with all the happenings over the weekend. Ticket information can be found at The Depot website.
Itinerary of showings (subject to change)
Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012
1:00 pm Ready to Fly (Ski Jump)
2:30 pm TGR (TBD)
4:00 pm Magic Moments (Windsurf Short)
4:20 pm Resonance (Snowboard)
5:10 pm WE: A Collection of Individuals (Ski)
6:10 pm Strength in Numbers (Mountain Bike)
7:10 pm Rewarded (Windsurf Short)
7:45 pm Science of Airborning (Ski/Board Short)
8:00 pm Jeremy Jones’ Further (Snowboard)
Friday, Nov. 9, 2012
1:00 pm Moonwalk (High Line Short)
1:15 pm La Dura Dura (Climb Short)
2:00 pm The Kyrgyzstan Project (Climb Short))
2:30 pm Honnold 3.0 (Climb)
3:15 pm Gauchos del mar: Surfing the American Pacific (Surf)
4:30 pm The Africa Project (Surf)
6:15 pm The Disappearance (Surf Short)
6:30 pm Why We Jump (Skydive Short)
6:50 pm BIRDMEN: The Original Dream of Flight (Base Jump)
7:45 pm Children of the Wind (Windsurf)
Saturday, Nov 10, 2012
11:30 am Camplibs (Skate)
12:10 pm Discrete – Eye Of The Condor 2 (Ski Short)
12:25 pm Sunny (Ski)
1:30 pm 13 (Snowboard)
2:30 pm White Silk Road: Snowboarding in Afghanistan (Snowboard)
3:30 pm Tempting Fear (Ski Short)
4:05 pm Where the Trail Ends (Mountain Bike)
5:45 pm Reed Hansen’s Battle Falls – The Whole Story (Wake Skate Short)
6:00 pm Slipping: Skate’s Impact on Egypt (Skate)
7:00 pm First Descents PSA
7:15 pm Congo – The Grand Inga Project (Kayak)
8:45 pm Wright Side Of Wrong (Surf Short)
9:15 pm Immersion the Movie (Surf)
Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012
4:30 pm doors open
5:00 pm XD Institute (All Ages. Free Admission.)
8:o0 pm Awards Ceremony (All Ages. Free Admission.)
9:30 pm Closing Party (All Ages. Free Admission.)
