Bailey Hall was crowded to the brim with people of all ages. I felt the excitement of the others around me, but knowing next to nothing about the Banff Mountain Film Festival, felt strangely out of place. Initially, I thought they might just show us beautiful mountain scenery and incredible nature shots. However, when the movies started, I realized that although it certainly had breathtaking views, it was primarily about the human angle. Many of the films were deeply touching and yet the emotional depths were often offset by humorous moments. Of the many films I saw that day, a couple really stood out in my mind. One focused on the touching relationship between a man and his dog, Denali. The dog was old and near death, so the man was revisiting all their favorite places where they had gone adventuring together. Another was about a man going on an adventure to get a near impossible photo– a person skiing down a mountain, framed by an eclipse. Not only was the timeframe necessary to capture this photo challenging and the possibilities for a cloudy day high, but the chance of finding the ideal place for a shot and for positioning the cameras were also very slim. I honestly expected them to fail, but their persistence resulted in a beautiful, rare photograph– the kind of picture that photographers only get a chance to take a couple of times in their lives. Although their accomplishment was formidable, I have to admit my favorite part of the video was when one of the members of the group confessed to having forgotten a spoon, trying to eat cereal with a wrench, and then getting said wrench frozen to the inside of their mouth. When the film festival ended, I felt a strange mixture of inspiration and disappointment at the excitement-deprived state of my life. I left Bailey Hall with a previously unknown desire for adventure.