The 2021 Beta Film Festival – Trailer and Lineup

The Beta Film Festival is an annual showcase of mountain bike films, celebrating the beauty of riding through the filmers, athletes and storytellers who live and breathe the sport year-round. We are premiering our first program next Saturday evening at the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival, and it’ll also be available exclusively to Beta and Outside+ members after the Sedona showing. In total, the line-up consists of 11 films, covering the gamut from short shred edits to short documentary-style films, and is curated with a mix of never-seen pieces and the films that inspired us the most this year. 

If you’re participating in the Sedona demo event (or even if you’re not), come join us at 6 p.m. at the big outdoor screen at the Pavilion amphitheatre at Posse Grounds Park in Sedona. There will be beer, food trucks and heaters (just in case), athlete film introductions and a Q & A with the riders and filmer from “Fastest For Now.”

The Lineup:

World Premiere: Outliers—Sage Kotsenburg

An Olympic gold medalist on the snow, and a soulful rider in the dirt. Mountain biking may not be Sage Kotsenburg’s first love, but bikes, and the joy they bring, shape a large part of his off-season life.

Directed by Justin Olsen.

World Premiere: Dillon Butcher on Vancouver Island

Dillon Butcher gets sideways at the new Jordie Lunn Bike Park and flies through the Nanaimo forests on Vancouver Island. Big jumps, perfect dirt, and a veritable pile of style.

Directed by Max McCulloch.

Ghost Machine

Downhill is dead. Long live downhill.

Directed by Wiley Kaupas.

Million

Margaux Elliott climbed a million feet on her mountain bike in one year while also working full-time as a product manager at Giro Cycling. In a year filled with an exceedingly high rate of plot twists and unexpected circumstances, this is the equivalent of “Everesting” more than 34 times or riding the complete Tour de France route (on dirt) every other month. She’s the first woman to achieve this literal milestone.

Directed by Satchel Cronk.

Long Way Gone

It is to the unbordered isolation of the desert that Tanner Stephens and Drew Boxold threw themselves late last summer, to create Long Way Gone. In a year where confinement and loneliness were the norm and daily priorities shifted from those that perhaps really matter to each of us, this escape to California’s Eastern Sierra was an embrace of solitude on their own terms.

Directed by Drew Boxold.

Fuel For Life: Blake Hansen

Some people spend their entire life discovering who they really are, and what they’re meant to do. Blake Hansen knew early on. The hardest part? Acceptance.

Directed by Katie Bennett.

A Trail For Everyone

A deeper look at the proposed Lost Sierra Route, which traverses over breathtaking topography, jagged peaks and high alpine meadows similar to the Pacific Crest Trail and the John Muir Trail. But unlike the PCT and JMT, this new trans-Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range route allows for all dirt trail travelers, including hikers, mountain bikers, moto riders, equestrians, trail runners, hunters, fishermen, wildlife, grandmothers and babies in backpacks. The Lost Sierra Route will be a trail for all to use that will link mountain communities together for recreational adventure and economic sustainability.

Directed by Ken Etzel and Carl Zoch.

For The Culture

Shredder is an independently published MTB zine which is artfully and devotedly produced by Stuart Leel, someone who has become a true custodian for the tender innards of what makes mountain biking special.

Directed by Steel City Media.

Little Trail Hunter: Part 2

Bikes, family, nature—what else could you ask for? We asked this to Matt Hunter and the gang anyways, but they just smiled and nodded. Guess that’s our answer.

Directed by Matt Hunter, Matty Miles, and Dylan Sherrard.

It Has Become Beauty Again

Jon Yazzie struggled to connect to his cultural identity for some time, leading him to make the wrong life choices and lack a sense of belonging. It wasn’t until he made his way back to the Navajo reservation that he could regain that connection and feel at peace with himself. He started bikepacking nearly a decade ago as a way to experience his native land, and last year, launched a bikepacking program for Navajo youth so they could gain a better appreciation for their culture.

Directed by Austin Smock.

Fastest For Now—Temporary Records in a Timeless Place

On a cold November morning in 2020, ultra-endurance mountain bike athletes Kait Boyle and Kurt Refsnider both crossed the figurative Kokopelli starting line but set out upon journeys all of their own. Having established an FKT on the Kokopelli once before (and witnessed that record broken just months earlier), Kurt knew that this effort would require a faster ride than he once thought possible. For Kait, the attempt marked her first competitive goal, following a difficult recovery from a car crash two years before.

Directed by Cort Muller.