The Poverty Jet Set

My favorite film of the 2008 MountainFilm Festival was one that I had the honor of projecting its World Premiere: Red Gold. It also happened to be directed and edited by my good buddy in Telluride, Ben Knight. He’s an amazingly talented photographer and this is his first feature film. It took home the well-deserved Audience Award as well as the Festival Director’s Prize.

Ben and his filmmaking partner Travis Rummel created a beautiful portrait of Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most precious natural areas in the world, as it’s residents battle the encroaching interests of a massive copper mine that will heavily impact the region.

Here’s the trailer. I will definitely update this when I learn of their distribution plans (good luck, guys!).

A family band piles in a van and spends their life surfing and traveling, documents it all on sexy 8- and 16mm film. Can’t get much better than that, folks. The film comes out in a limited release over the course of the summer. It’ll be here in Philly starting June 20th at the Ritz at the Bourse. I’m so there.

Also, here’s the website, but beware: nasty browser resizing, ugh! Surfwise