Staff Report

The NatureTrack Film Festival (NTFF) is proud to present a must-attend Spotlight Dinner event, March 23^rd, featuring famed Canadian painter Cory Trépanier, director of Into the Arctic: Awakening. Trépanier will host a multi-media presentation about his numerous plein-air painting trips to capture the icy grandeur of some of the most wild and remote regions on the face of our planet. Guests at this very special NTFF dinner event will get to experience Canada’s northernmost arctic reaches and hear Cory’s compelling stories about the places, people and processes that have inspired his canvases and films for over a decade.

The 2019 NTFF Spotlight Dinner will be held from 5:30 – 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, in downtown Santa Ynez, 3569 Sagunto Street, adjacent to Dennee’s courtyard. The Spotlight Dinner is included with the purchase of an NTFF Epic Pass. The dinner may also be purchased separately for $75 at www.naturetrackfilmfestival.org. All names will be held on a guest list at the door.

Making this evening even more memorable will be fine cuisine courtesy of award-winning chef Budi Kazali of The Gathering Table at The Ballard Inn. Kazali spent 10 years refining his renowned skills, working in restaurants in San Francisco and Boston, including the famous Campton Place and the award-winning Blue Ginger. Kazali, and his wife Chris, then purchased The Ballard Inn in 2004 where he has garnered many accolades, including a recent Four Diamond by Automobile Club of Southern California and winning Central Coast magazine’s Ultimate Chef competition in 2009. Rounding out this one-of-a-kind dinner will be fine wines donated by the Santa Ynez Valley’s famous Hitching Post Wines and outstanding beer courtesy of M. Special Brewing Company.

Cory Trépanier

In 2001 Trépanier began filming his artistic expeditions, leading to four televised documentaries: A Painter’s Odyssey, Into the Arctic: An Artist’s Journey to the North, Into the Arctic II (nominated for a Canadian Screen Award) and True Wild: Kluane. His fifth film, Into the Arctic: Awakening, had its first pre-release screening in Monaco before Prince Albert II. Cory’s films are broadcast in Canada and internationally.

In January of 2017, Trépanier’s INTO THE ARCTIC Exhibition — an unprecedented collection of 60 canvases and his Into the Arctic films — began touring for four years, with 11 museums on the itinerary to date. Created from over a decade of painting and exploring the Canadian North, it premiered at the Embassy of Canada in Washington D.C. Highlighting the collection is the 15-foot-wide Great Glacier, quite possibly the largest Arctic landscape painting in Canada’s history.

Trépanier has been featured in media around the globe, and his documentaries broadcast internationally, sharing his passion for the wild places that he explores and paints. Through his unique vision, expressed through art, films, public speaking and online media, Cory inspires others with our planet’s natural wonders.

Canadian Geographic named Trépanier one of Canada’s Top 100 Living Explorers. He is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and a member of The Explorers Club, receiving the Canadian Chapter’s highest award, the Stefansson Medal. He has also been honored as a National Champion of the Great Trans Canada Trail. The NatureTrack Film Festival is honored to present this adventurer, artist and filmmaker to share the amazing process he undertakes each time he alights for the northern lights with canvas and paintbrush in hand.