Show goes on for Boulder's Adventure Film Festival, despite Jonny Copp's death

There was never any doubt among the loyal crew of the Adventure Film Festival: The show must go on.

Those outside the Boulder-based festival might have wondered whether it would be orphaned after May's death of festival director Jonny Copp, who was killed in an avalanche -- along with Micah Dash and Wade Johnson, both of Boulder -- on an expedition to climb a remote mountain in western China.

But it never occurred to anyone working on the film fest to quit. Not only is the Adventure Film Festival returning Thursday for its fifth year, but it will feature the film Copp and his colleagues were making when they died.

"It's not like Jonny left and we all threw our hands up in the air," said Sara Close, membership and development manager for Leave No Trace, the festival's nonprofit partner and beneficiary. "If anything, we put them down in the dirt.

"A physical presence is missing, an energy is missing, but that's not to discredit any of the great ways that everybody else has stepped up to fill that void. And that has been beautiful to watch."

The Adventure Film Festival was born amid adventure. Perched in a tent high on a mountain in India, Copp, a pro climber and photographer, woke in the middle of the night -- in a

storm -- with an idea: Create a film festival back home to spotlight the work of independent filmmakers and their stories of adventure, environmentalism, social issues and more.

Back at basecamp, he shared his idea with Mark Reiner, a photographer and childhood friend, and they refined the concept with friends back in Boulder.

Nurtured by Copp, Reiner, and an ever-growing team of enthusiastic friends, the Boulder Adventure Film Festival debuted in 2004 and has morphed into an international event. The festival (which dropped "Boulder" from its name as it grew and spread to other continents) drew crowds in Santiago, Chile, and Chamonix, France, and universities around the U.S. last year; more than 5,000 people attended shows in Boulder.

This year, in addition to showings in the U.S., Chile and France, Reiner said the festival is planning shows in South Africa and perhaps Australia.

"It changed from this one-town film festival to this desire to create a global platform for these filmmakers," said Reiner, who now serves as festival director.

Reiner said a tight-knit community has formed around the film festival in the past five years, and it has only increased with the loss of their friend.

"It's really a global community," said Nick Rosen, co-creator of Boulder's Sender Films, which often submits films to the festival. "People all over the world knew these people and respected them and were inspired by them."

Friday night, Sender will premiere "Point of No Return," a film about Copp, Dash and Johnson's fateful expedition on China's Mount Edgar. J

Johnson was filming the climb for Sender's new First Ascent series for the National Geographic Adventure Channel. Rosen said that, at first, he didn't want to do the film, but the friends and families of all three men were supportive of the idea.

"Both Jonny and Micah were really committed to bringing their stories home," Rosen said. "It's all of their work, but Wade, this is his work -- he shot all of that footage in China, so we wanted to highlight that he did a brilliant job over there, and we and his parents were really proud of it."

Of course it is emotional, Close said, but that's part of people's passion for the festival.

"People go in thinking one thing, and they come out completely affected by what they saw -- they come out crying, or inspired, or in a heated discussion," Close said. "I know it's going to be an emotional thing. And I'm excited about that."