Godspeed Los Polacos!
- Library Hall
Masks are required to attend this live event in Library Hall.
The film
Winner! Best Mountain Feature at Banff International Film Festival, and Best Adventure Film & People's Choice Award at Boulder International Film Festival.
After claiming the first descent of the world’s deepest canyon, five kayakers risk it all to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc. During the Cold War, Poland’s youth looked for any way to break away from the monotony of life under Communist rule. In the City of Krakow, a group of university students formed a kayaking club as a tool to explore their local rivers and avoid participation in Communist parades and rallies. After experiencing the thrill of Poland’s one and only class III rapid, club members Andrzej Pietowski, Jurek Majcherczyk, and Piotr Chmielinski (who would go on to be the first person to paddle the Amazon river source to sea) set their sights on the impossible -- leaving the Eastern Bloc to paddle whitewater.
Godspeed, Los Polacos! tells the story of five kayakers on the edge of adulthood who skillfully pull the strings of the Soviet system, and find themselves on a kayaking expedition in the Americas with a six-wheeled military truck, homemade equipment, and little to no whitewater skills. The story follows their epic two-year journey that culminates in the record-breaking first descent of the world’s deepest canyon, and finds the kayakers in Soviet cross-hairs after they leverage their newfound fame to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc.
The book
As an bonus to the film, hear from local author Eugene Buchanan tells tales from his latest book, Comrades on the Colca. He traveled to South America with a team of Polish explorers on a first descent down the Cruz del Condor section of Peru’s Colca Canyon, the deepest gorge in the world. Negotiating everything from unrunnable cascades to Incan mummy-filled caves and skin-bubbling plants, en route they discover not only the camara- derie needed to survive but a rival Polish team bent on beating them to the expedition plum. Interspersed with tales of Incan history, legends of treasure hunting, and other South American exploits, Comrades on the Colca plunges the reader into a gripping adventure travel narrative that will have the reader reaching for a paddle and plane ticket to the wilds of Peru.
A former reporter for the Denver Business Journal and 14-year editor-in-chief of Paddler Magazine, Eugene Buchanan has written about the outdoors for more than 25 years, from covering the X Games for ESPN.com to working for NBC at the Beijing Olympics. A Business/Economics graduate of Colorado College, where he captained his NCAA lacrosse team, the former ski patrol, kayak instructor and sea kayak and raft guide also enjoys a successful freelance career, with articles published in the New York Times, Men’s Journal, Sports Afield, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Adventure Journal, Skiing, Ski, Powder, Backcountry, 5280, Bike, Mountain Bike and other publications. A member of New York’s prestigious Explorer’s Club, he is also the founder of Paddling Life and a Contributing Editor for Powder and Canoe & Kayak magazines. An avid adventurer with several first descents to his credit, Buchanan’s passion for traveling, writing and paddling has taken him to more than 30 countries on six of the seven continents, from Australia and Africa to South America and Siberia. He is the author of five books, including Brothers on the Bashkaus, Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids, a winner of the Living Now Book Awards, and Tales from a Mountain Town.
Run Time:
Bud Werner Libary presents a free screening of "Godspeed Los Polacos!," a documentary about five Polish kayakers who risk it all to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc after claiming the first descent of the world’s deepest canyon, plus additional Polish whitewater adventures in Colca Canyon presented by local author Eugene Buchanan. The film and talk start at 6 p.m.Thursday, Sept. 23 in Library Hall.
"Godspeed Los Polacos!" won Best Mountain Feature at Banff International Film Festival, and Best Adventure Film and People's Choice awards at Boulder International Film Festival. During the Cold War, Poland’s youth looked for any way to break away from the monotony of life under Communist rule. In the City of Krakow, a group of university students formed a kayaking club as a tool to explore their local rivers and avoid participation in Communist parades and rallies. After experiencing the thrill of Poland’s one and only class III rapid, club members Andrzej Pietowski, Jurek Majcherczyk, and Piotr Chmielinski (who would go on to be the first person to paddle the Amazon river source to sea) set their sights on the impossible -- leaving the Eastern Bloc to paddle whitewater.
The film tells the story of five kayakers on the edge of adulthood who skillfully pull the strings of the Soviet system, and find themselves on a kayaking expedition in the Americas with a six-wheeled military truck, homemade equipment, and little to no whitewater skills. The story follows their epic two-year journey that culminates in the record-breaking first descent of the world’s deepest canyon, and finds the kayakers in Soviet cross-hairs after they leverage their newfound fame to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc.
As an bonus to the film, hear from local author Eugene Buchanan tell tales from his latest book, "Comrades on the Colca." Buchanan traveled to South America with a team of Polish explorers on a first descent down the Cruz del Condor section of Peru’s Colca Canyon, the deepest gorge in the world. Negotiating everything from unrunnable cascades to Incan mummy-filled caves and skin-bubbling plants, en route they discover not only the camara- derie needed to survive but a rival Polish team bent on beating them to the expedition plum. Interspersed with tales of Incan history, legends of treasure hunting, and other South American exploits, "Comrades on the Colca" plunges the reader into a gripping adventure travel narrative that will have the reader reaching for a paddle and plane ticket to the wilds of Peru.
Visit www.steamboatlibrary.org/events/godspeed for more information.