Memorial Day Weekend in Telluride

If you are facing a long weekend and don't know what to do, consider coming to Telluride. There is no more snow and our spring colors are out (Spring in the Mountains starts in May, not March). If you are worried about the weather ruining a hiking trip, then just plan to duck into a movie. The Telluride Mountain Film Festival is this weekend. Movies start Friday night and continue through Monday morning. This festival has always had a focus on independent films about Mountain Life around the world and Telluride is the perfect setting for this Festival. After spending significant time browsing through the festival guide, I have a long list of movies that I would like to see and I'm sure I won't have enough time to see them all. There is a series of six films on the National Parks of the US by Ken Burns entitled, "National Parks: America's Best Idea". The series follows the story of the National Parks from conception through 1980 and promises to offer a story with amazing footage and a new perspective on our National Park system. I also hope to get a chance "Burma VJ"; it looks absolutely fascinating. It is a film that follows the uprising of Buddhist monks and students as they joined together against the oppression of their own government. The country of Burma has been closed since 1962, but footage of the uprising in 2007 was smuggled out of Burma and shared with the world. On the lighter side, "Rock Prophecies" is a film following the photographer Robert Knight; he has a knack for finding rock legends pre-stardom. Mountain Film tickets are still available from their website at http://www.mountainfilm.org/