KOTRI to host climbing film tour

An expat rock climbing group will be hosting an international film tour from Saturday, but with the added bonus of locally made films.

Korea on the Rocks Initiatives is hosting the Reel Rock Film Tour in Seoul on Saturday and in Daegu on Dec. 14 to raise money for initiatives to improve climber safety and support.

It will be the first time any of the films will be shown in Korea, and the premiere of the two local films ― “Ulleungdo” by Lee Sung-jae and “Unclimbed” by The Dedicated Everyman, a group of KOTRI members who became the first people to climb two peaks in Northern India this year.

“This is the first time we’ve had locally produced films, and so we are hoping that that will bring in more people than we would have otherwise, especially because one of them is produced by a Korean man who is just a local talent here, and the other one is produced by a bunch of expats that have been living here for a number of years and did an expedition to India this past summer,” said KOTRI media relations representative Les Timmermans.

The expedition managed two of the three previously unclimbed summits that they aimed to conquer. Timmermans said that one of the attractions of the film was the idea of ordinary people doing the extraordinary.

“These were just kind of regular climbers. They are not famous mountaineers,” he said. “They call themselves the Everyman expedition because they are basically just regular dudes that live and work among us in Korea.”

Other films include a documentary on problems on Everest, films on climbing taller mountains and on bouldering, and a film about U.S. climbers in the 1970s. All films will have subtitles to allow viewing in both English and Korean.

Last year’s screenings attracted about 700 people in total and raised 10 million won. The money raised goes to help pay for repairs to climbing facilities at climbing areas, such as bolts and fixings on the rock faces, and the Community Assistance Fund, which helps those injured in climbing accidents or donates to the families of climbers who are killed.

Tickets for the showings, which will both run from 5-10 p.m., cost 10,000 won in advance and 15,000 won at the door. The Seoul event is at the EunPyeong-gun Cultural Center and the Daegu screening will be at Kyungpook University’s Global Plaza Theatre. Visit kotri.org for booking.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)