Director: Matt Devino

Ellen Demsky walked her first marathon at age 60. Today, she's 74 and has completed over 91 races, both running and walking. Ellen says running at least 3 times a week keeps her young, and if she can do it so can you.

Director: Brandon Watts

Producer: Brandon Watts, David Thomas + Issac Presson

It has taken time for Alexandera Houchin to weave layers of her identity together. First and foremost, Alexandera is an Ojibwe woman. She’s also an artist, a farmer, a mechanic, a cyclist and a person who cares deeply about her community on the Fond Du Lac reservation near Cloquet, Minnesota. “Stronger Together” takes an intimate look into Alexandera’s life while examining concepts of identity, forgiveness and what it means to merge seemingly different aspects of your soul in order to continue moving forward, one pedal stroke at a time.

Director: Jen Randall

Producers: Heather Mosher + Sarah Steele

Female Director + Producers

Pass It On celebrates three locals who spread their love of Squamish climbing into the fabric of the broader community. In this series, we meet Sandy Ward of the Lil’wat Nation, who dedicates time to sharing her climbing knowledge with local indigenous youth; we get silly with Tami Knight, route developer of the late 70s and 80s; and go projecting with long-term carer Michelle LeBlanc who takes residents in their 80s on imaginary expeditions.

Director: Caroline Hedin

Producers: Rundle FIlms, Transmission Media House, Caroline Hedin, Jamie Wensley + Viktoria North

Female Director + Producers

Rockies Repeat is a documentary and digital storytelling project that unites scientists on the frontlines of climate change, artists in the field, and cultural knowledge keepers to bear witness to a changing Rocky Mountain landscape while inspiring action to preserve these places for future generations.

Director: Kyle Hilken

Producer: Sierra Schlag

Female Producer

Bloom follows the life of Sierra Schlag as she navigates the world after losing her father on 9/11. As Sierra matures, she explores her grief and identity as a Japanese-American and finds herself under the cloak of depression. While she navigates these complexities, Sierra finds a way to connect with her dad and heal through skiing.

“Grow forward towards the light to bloom.”

Director: Alexa Fay

Producer: Alexa Fay + L’Initiative B.I.G.

Female Director + Producer

Meet Bonnie de Bruijn. She’s a climber, an academic, a mother, and a total badass of a woman (sorry Bonnie, we know you hate boxed definitions and labels!).

Climbing has been a part of her life from a young age, both competitively and outdoors. She has been a big part of the Canadian climbing scene over the last 30 years, as a member of the Canadian climbing team for several years (including twice after her daughter was born!), a member of the board of directors of the Ontario Alliance of Climbers for 5 years and a writer at Gripped magazine.

Her passion and dedication to climbing has remained through motherhood and doctorate studies. She and her family recently moved to Squamish to have climbing become a bigger part of their daily life. Her experience and insight inspired us so much and we hope it will inspire you too.

Director: Leigh Anne Sides

Producer: Andrew Cahill

Female Director

Myrtle Simpson - trailblazer, pioneer, adventurer, mountain climber, polar explorer, writer, and mother. In 2017, over fifty years after she became the first woman to cross the polar ice cap covering Greenland, she was awarded the Polar Medal - a gift from Queen Elizabeth II as thanks for services in the Arctic. In 2018, National Geographic named her as one of four women who defied expectations and explored the world.

Myrtle's life has taken her around the globe, journeys on which she insisted on taking her four children while she and her husband Hugh pursued their work and passion. Myrtle faced harsh criticism for "putting her children in harm's way" but defiantly persisted, telling the newspapers, tv, and radio that these experiences enriched her children's lives far beyond their typical everyday experiences in Glasgow. From Spitzbergen to Greenland, from the North Pole to the Highlands of Scotland, from New Zealand to Peru, Myrtle has blazed her own, unique trail. She has experienced places most people only dream about, all while writing 13 books, collecting specimens for museum botanical collections, and raising four children.

Today, at the age of 89 she still competes in downhill ski races, hikes, bikes, and swims and believes that more adventures await.

Directors + Producers: Kate Rutherford + Eric Bissell

Female Director + Producer

Healthy Soil helps draw carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the soil, making nutrient-dense plants for us to eat, increasing biodiversity, and helping soils retain more water, all making for a more resilient ecosystem. Listen to our farmer speak about why regenerative organic farming is a joyful way to reverse climate change.

Director: Emily Hopcian

Producers: Emily Hopcian, Brian Emerson + Marcia Cooney

Still Photographer: Cody Lewis

Female Director + Producers

In the male-dominated sport of adventure racing, co-ed teams of four race unsupported through rugged, wild terrain. To compete, each team must have at least one woman. Due to this rule, in the adventure racing world, women are often referred to as “mandatory gear” for competition.

In Expedition Oregon, North America’s toughest race, three women and one man flip that script and compete as a reverse co-ed team. Over the course of five days, Team Journey/Bend Racing challenges stereotypes—and themselves—as they navigate, trek, packraft, mountain bike, rappel and more through Central Oregon’s wilderness. Throughout, they must work as a team to overcome physical, mental and emotional obstacles to complete the race and discover what’s possible with a mostly-female team.

“Mandatory Gear” pushes back on gender stereotypes; explores what makes competing on a reverse co-ed team different, and celebrates and inspires female empowerment and gender equity in sports and the outdoors.

Director + Producer: Alicia Cenci

Female Director + Producer

Elisabeth combines her career as a top sportswoman with her life as a political science student. Politics is not something she practices only on the school benches, Elisabeth is an activist and her fights are as important to her as her sport. In the mountains, she is Elisabeth the skier, in the streets, she is Elisabeth the activist. She lives her two lives very separately and makes sure those two sides do not interfere with each other.

Until the day she becomes world freeride champion. The activist then meets the sportswoman when Elisabeth decides to use her title and the attention around it to come out publicly.

Director + Producer: Arlie Summer

Female Director + Producer

Idaho Babe is a short, poetic, documentary about the Idaho Buckaroo legend, Babe Hanson. Using collage animation, archival photos, and contemporary video of oral history interviews with and about Harriet “Babe” Drake Hanson, a queer woman who ran the Sawtooth Lodge in Grandjean, ID, at the beginning of the 20th century.

Director: Cassie De Colling

Female Director

Momento is a short surf film inspired by reflection, womanhood, and Mother Nature.

Director: Carly Vester

Producer: Peter Bortel

Female Director

Follow two women who champion against female marginalization and cultivate community through water sports. Both moms and athletes, they stand up paddleboard a 70-mile race in 48 hours to empower, encourage, and raise awareness.