Cool New T-shirt designed in Lindsey's honor

It's kind of cool how the universe connects people. When Ready To Fly screened at X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival October, Lindsey Van met Ron Henry, of Black Rapid, who created the awesome and first original camera sling.  They hit it off and now Black Rapid is a "Matching Funds" contributor on Lindsey's RallyMe fundraising campaign. They also designed this super cool T-shirt in Lindsey's honor and provided their great product as swag for Lindsey's Rally. The T-shirt design shows a giraffe with skis... Why? Well, Lindsey's always wanted to be taller than the 5 feet 2 inches in which she currently reaches.

If you want the T-shirt or camera sling, just go to LINDSEY'S RALLY , contribute, and join her team and help her get to the Olympic Winter Games. Every contribution for the next month up to a certain amount will be doubled thanks to Black Rapid's matching funds.

Thank you Black Rapid for believing in Lindsey and helping make dreams come true!

Ready To Fly wins prestigious Banff Film Festival award

Film to screen Nov. 8 at X-Dance and Dec. 2 at Whistler FF

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 5, 2012 – The documentary film Ready To Fly has been awarded “Best Feature-Length Mountain Film” at the prestigious Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.

Ready To Fly, written and directed by William A. Kerig of Salt Lake City, Utah, follows 2009 World Ski Jumping Champion Lindsey Van and her ski jumping peers as they fight for inclusion in the Olympic Winter Games.

“This is the greatest honor of my filmmaking career and I’m in debt to the entire Ready To Fly team for helping make it happen,” said Kerig, who was in Banff, Alberta on Nov. 4 to receive the award. “We’re thrilled to be recognized among this excellent line-up of mountain films. We hope Lindsey’s story continues to resonate and inspire people around the world to never give up on their dreams.”

Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival started 37 years ago and showcases the world’s best films, books, and photographs on mountain subjects – climbing, culture, environment, wildlife, exploration and adventure, and sport. The 79 films chosen as finalists this year were selected from 370 films entered in competition from 34 countries.

“This was probably the hardest category to judge, but in the end, one film overwhelmed us with its superb storytelling, inspiring characters and — most importantly — had the judges cheering at the finish,” said Banff jury member, Kathryn Bonnici. “The filmmakers spent years following this story, the pacing was spot on, and the images simply beautiful.”

On Oct. 12, Ready To Fly also won “Best Documentary” at the popular Carmel Art & Film Festival. Ready To Fly was released in Salt Lake City in February and test-marketed as part of the 10^th anniversary of 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games. It had its World Premiere at the MountainFilm Festival in Telluride, CO in May and has appeared in film festivals this fall throughout the U.S. including the Adventure Film Festival & Tour in Boulder, New Hampshire Film Festival, Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival, and Twin Cities Film Festival.

Ready To Fly will screen in two more film festivals this year:

• X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival
1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8

Salt Lake City, UT
The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Tickets: http://x-dance.org/xd13-schedule/

• Whistler Film Festival
12 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 2
Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
More info: http://whistlerfilmfestival.com/

READY TO FLY

Written/Directed: William A. Kerig, of Salt Lake City — director of the acclaimed 2009 big-mountain ski film, The Edge of Never.
Produced: Scott Zeller and William A. Kerig
Editor: Steve Haugen
Director of Photography: Peter Pilafian
Executive Producers: Kimberly Brown, Susan Morrison, Geralyn Dreyfous, Jacki Zehner, Kathy Schlein
Senior Producers: Gina Ghent, Armins Rusis, David Cumming
Associate Producers: Whitney Childers, Brian Beck

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New Ready To Fly hats

Ready To Fly now has cool new hats available as part of perks for your donations to help us finish the film and get it out into the wide world. Check it out at http://www.indiegogo.com/readytoflyfilm

Share the love, share our link

Check out our cool new video and donate a few bucks to get great perks. We're raising the final finishing funds for Ready To Fly as we prepare to make our World Film Festival Premiere at MountainFilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado over Memorial Day weekend.

Help us out and share this link!

Help us to the finish line & onto the wide world!

After we test-screened Ready To Fly this spring in Salt Lake City, Park City and several other towns in Utah to rave reviews, we're now moving onward and we have some exciting news...

We've been invited to present Ready To Fly at the excellent MountainFilm Festival in Telluride, Colo. over Memorial Day weekend - with one catch. The film needs to be shorter to fit into MountainFilm's lineup. We need to be there because it's the perfect place to prepare and share Ready To Fly with the wider world - the next step in a journey that will lead to world-wide distribution of the film through a national tour and broadcast deal. With our last film, The Edge of Never, we were able to entertain and inspire millions of people through our one-year run on Showtime Networks. With Ready To Fly, we know our message will reach further.

HELP US FUND OUR FINAL CHAPTER
But getting there means it's time to incur all the final finishing costs of bringing the film to market (including online and offline editing, color correction, audio engineering, titles and graphics, as well as paying for full, global rights to the music, stock footage, and photography used in the film).  

We need to raise $50,000 by May 26.
WATCH OUR NEW SHORT VIDEO & SEE HOW TO HELP & GET PERKS: www.indiegogo.com/readytoflyfilm
 

POWER OF THE PEOPLE
Two years ago when we started this film project, more than 200 people stepped up to donate to Ready To Fly and we raised $22,000 to get it going. You helped us show others that there was interest and passion for a story about young women who refused to accept second-class status as they pushed to make their Olympic dreams come true and fight to change a man's world. Now we're asking you, dear supporters, to help us get this film to the finish line and out into the world.

AWESOME PERKS
We've got some really cool perks lined up for your generous donations. We have everything from special thank you's for under $5; screening packages and T-shirts for non-profits; customized thank-you videos; signed memorabilia from the film; Skype calls with Bill Kerig and Lindsey Van, and a ski package/ski day with Lindsey Van and Bill Kerig (who also happens to be a former pro-mogul skier!).  

JOIN OUR TEAM
You can help finish this film and be part of an amazing group of people, organizations and businesses who helped us get this far already.    

DONATE & GET PERKS: www.indiegogo.com/readytoflyfilm