The 11th edition of Winona’s Frozen river Film Festival ripped through town last week, once again bringing a blizzard of interesting and inspiring films to town. The festival kicked off, as it usually does, on Wednesday night with the “adrenaline set”.

Adults and children alike crowded into a full screening room at Lourdes Hall  on the west campus of Winona State University.  This set featured seven films each showcasing a different source of “adrenaline”.

After Glow-Light Suit Segment, 12 mn,  directed by Michael Brown and Nick Waggoner, is a film in which two skiers, adorned in LED light-studded suits, are filmed in the dark of night, skiing through Alaska’s back country. This film is an almost magical blur of lights, taking viewers along for the adventure.

Force, 19 mn,  directed by Aidan Haley and Fitz Cahall, is a documentary about climber and photographer, Mikey  Schaefer’s climbing adventures in Patagonia. Schaefer has a deep love for Patagonia and the climbs it has to offer and shows viewers an important piece of his life throughout.

Surferfest 2, 27 mn, directed by Cedar Wright, shows an 800 mile bike journey with the goal of climbing 45 of the southwest’s most iconic desert towers. Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright share their adventure to create “suferfest” in which they do something that is painful and exhausting, but they end up having fun. The film follows the two as they bike and climb, and bike and climb again.

Fuse, 3 mn, directed by David Wortley, is a three minute film showing a man in a kayak, covered in lights, braving the waves in the dark. 

Jump, 7 mn, directed by Joel Ruscinski, is a seven minute documentary of Dan Iaboni’s story on opening the first parkour gym.

James Kelly-Burn it Down, 4 mn, directed by Jack Boston, stars skateboarder James Kelly, shredding the steep roads around Sierras, CA. This film gives a frightening and exhilarating look at skateboarding.

Strange Rumblings-Iceland Segment, 12 mn, directed by Joe G, shows surfers Nate Tyler, Dion Agius, and Brendon, Gibbens, surfing beautifully among the the frozen waters of Iceland.

A wonderful kickoff to the festival, the adrenaline set films encourage viewers young and old, which both were well represented at this showing, to go out and find their own adventures, a theme that recurred throughout this year’s FRFF films.