ADVENTURES IN YOUR CINEMA

Multiplexes now and then do things that suggest they could spearhead a golden age in cinema-going.

The latest innovation comes from Vue Cinemas – and you can’t get much more multiplex than that! Its novelty: The Adventure Film Festival playing in 50 of its 59 venues across the land from the 10th to 14th September.

Actually, Vue premiered the idea in 2006 and is this year building on that success, creating “the largest adventure film festival in the world”.

The format is admirably simple : five themed evenings showing short-form and feature-length adventure films and documentaries portraying leading adventurers challenging their limits on the big screen.<[p>

But the films themselves are far from simple, since most of the central characters are not so much adventurers as, by conventional standards, madmen (and women). Or perhaps superhumans. And the amazing quality of the footage does ample credit to their exploits.

* Monday 10th Sept highlights Endurance Adventures and, quite rightly, features Britain’s own Ellen Macarthur, with “The Time Of Her Life, a previously unseen documentary of her record-breaking round the world trip. Alongside is “Asiemut” following 2 friends cycling – yes, cycling - through the Himalayas from Mongolia to India. Not your average bike ride.

* Tuesday 11th Sept ups that ante with High Altitude Adventures. This starts with “Fatima’s Hand”, showing a team visiting Mali to climb and basejump one of the worlds most remote outcrops. The “Wallcrawler”, tracking Alain Robert, the French “Spiderman”, as he freeclimbs the world’s tallest buildings; “North to South”, a journey from the north pole to the south pole in a single engine heli; and “Anomaly”, showing the worlds best skiers and boarders enjoying, if that is the word, the world’s most extreme terrain.

* Wednesday 12th Sept is for Sports Adventure. Here you can see “Ocean Men”, the world’s top freedivers’ making world record attempts; “Quest”, riding insanely big waves on surfboards; “Snow Kayaker”, which is as it says on the tin, 60mph kayaking on snow; “Coast to Coast”, a trans-african microlighting journey; “2nd B.A.S.E”, displaying leaps from Buildings, Antennae, Spans and Earth (high earth, that is!!); and “91 words for snow”, with the latest and greatest snowboard action.

* Thursday 13th Sept settles in for Ocean Adventures. Leading the way is “Swimming with Giants” as BBC’s Monty Halls gets up close and personal with the worlds biggest fish; “Quest 2”; a variation on insane big wave surf action; and “Ocean Rescue”, the daredevil rescue of a striken yacht in the southern oceans.

* Friday 14th Sept takes off on a Global Adventure, including “Sharkwater”, which is as you would expect, and “Pururambo”, a startling journey through the rainforests of Papua New Guinea.

Films start at 8pm each evening (7pm on Tuesday, 11 September) and tickets can be purchased online at www.myvue.com , by calling 08712 240 240, or at participating Vue Cinema box offices from 3 August. Tickets are priced at standard cinema rates.

The Adventure Festival is sponsored by Nissan, which marking its involvement by giving away a Pathfinder 2.5 dCi Aventura Manual 4x4 worth over £28,000.

For full film details and a chance to win the Nissan Pathfinder 4x4, as well as other enticements, like an adventure holiday to Alberta, Canada (‘home of the Canadian Rockies’), and adventure gear from Norvegian outfitter Helly Hansen visit www.adventurefest.co.uk

Alternatively, visit Vue Cinemas www.myvue.com for a list of participating cinemas and booking info.

Filed August 20,2007