WSU University Recreation (UREC) will take on the challenge of bringing students back to the environment by bringing the Banff Mountain Film Festival to campus every year.

“The festival is all about the outdoors, and so we hope students get inspired to engage in nature,” said Chantell Cosner, marketing and communications coordinator with Administrative Services.

The film festival offers 29 films for viewing, and UREC will select eight to 15 of those films to show students. The total length of all the films will be around 150 minutes.

“There is a huge variety of films, so we hope everyone finds inspiration,” Cosner said.

The film festival features all different types of films, from two-minute-long videos to 40-minute, feature-length pieces, said Matt Wagner, program coordinator for Outdoor Recreation.

“We had a Banff preview party, where people could watch previews of all the films and give input on if they wanted the film to be shown,” he said.

UREC will also use information from the Banff film festival in other locations around the world, showing films that had a lot of positive feedback, Wagner said.

“The goal of the film festival is that it’s a community event to get people together to promote environmental stewardship,” he said.

All of the films feature the outdoors, including adventure-based and mountain activities, Wagner said.

“It’s just a great opportunity for the community to see the outdoors,” Wagner said. “It provides a lot of inspiration and motivation for us to go outside.”

The Banff Mountain Film Festival has come to WSU for about 20 years, and every time UREC receives a great response from students, Wagner said. The film festival started in Canada, and has since become a world-traveling affair.

“It is a festival that tours the world. It has been going on for a long time, it draws highly regarded films, to have it come to WSU is great.” Wagner said. “It sells out every year for a reason.”

Tickets for the festival are sold on a first come, first serve basis. Tickets are free for WSU students and UREC members with student ID. General admission is $12. Tickets are sold at the door.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival will be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the CUB Auditorium.

“(UREC) hopes students will leave feeling inspired, getting stoked to go out and have adventures in the environment we all love and recreate in,” said Jonathan Stahl, assistant director of Adventure Programs and Experiential Learning.