By Josh Hughes
“I grew up with people telling me what I couldn’t do. There’s a certain percentage of people who look like me who’ve also been told ‘you can’t because of your color’ or ‘you live in the city and this is not for you.’”
This statement is uttered by one of the nine African American climbers who summited Mount Denali in the trailer for award winning documentary “An American Ascent.” The Outdoor Center and the Ethnic Student Center are teaming up to show the film on campus on May 9 at 7 p.m. in Miller Hall 138.
The film, directed by George Potter and Andy Adkins, follows the journey of these nine climbers in their expedition to summit Alaska’s Mount Denali and become the first African American climbing team to achieve such a feat. The highest peak in North America, Mount Denali marks a decidedly American monument, and the film plays on this to empower individuals with marginalized identities in this country to claim the wilderness as theirs — that it is as American as they are. After all, in only a few decades the United States will become a minority-majority country, and this climbing team seeks to build a legacy of inclusion for others to follow in their footsteps in the great outdoors.
The expedition itself occurred in 2013, though the film was not released until 2016. The climbers partnered with the National Outdoor Leadership School as well as REI and The North Face for their summit and help in releasing and funding the film. NOLS partnered the film in hopes of further addressing the idea of race disparity in climbing and outdoor culture, an often overlooked issue. Think about it: how many Arcteryx sponsored videos have you seen that don’t have a bearded white guy in them? In addition to the issues of race that the documentary explores, it is equally an impressive feat both of the climbers and the filmmakers to have made this film at all; the spectacle of this team summiting the 20,310 ft. peak alone makes for an enthralling documentary.
“An American Ascent” marks this year’s installment of the Exploration Film Tour at Western, put on by NOLS. The Outdoor Center and the Ethnic Student Center on campus are co-hosting a screening of the film on May 9 from 7 – 9 p.m. in Miller Hall 138. Following the film will be a Q&A panel for inquiries about the film and opportunities provided by NOLS. The event is free to the public, and it also is the only Exploration Film Tour movie of the year. An early look into dissecting the “adventure gap” of climbing, expect “An American Ascent” to be an unique and fresh take on the adventure documentary.