The University of Wyoming Outdoor Program is hosting an event for the amazing community of women and men at Laramie. The No Man’s Land Film Festival is scheduled for 6.00 p.m. on 8th March at the University of Wyoming Education Building Auditorium. Being a free event, the doors will open by 5.00pm.

The No Man’s Land Film Festival is now in its fourth year. Featuring a slate of all-woman adventure films, the festival also aims to celebrate the full scope of female athletes in outdoor sports, cultivate exploration from a woman’s point of view and inspire change in the outdoor and film industries. Kathy Karlo, the tour co-ordinator said that outdoor industry and the outdoor films that portray have a masculine undertone, which the film festival wants to “undefine.” “We aren’t trying to redefine it. We want to take the whole thing and restructure it from the ground up,” she said. “It’s different for everybody.”

A Woman Knows Her Place - No Man's Land Film Festival (laramie boomerang)

Karlo also said that the Founder of the film festival Aisha Weinhold was inspired to start the festival after watching years of other outdoor-type film festivals not featuring women. “She took that idea and ran with it,” she said.

Karlo hopes that the audiences will take the ideas from the screen into their own worlds. “The film festival is a starting point for these conversations,” she said. “We want to spark some new conversations and hopefully some new inspiration for people - that’s where the change happens.”

Garrett Genereux, coordinator of the UW Outdoor Program, which is sponsoring the screening, said Laramie is an active outdoor town all around. “We do have a really amazing community of outdoor recreationalists here in Laramie, and a part of that is an amazing group of women,” he said. He also told that it is a festival that features women in a way to empower more participants in outdoor sports. “Especially on college campuses, with folks of all genders who are just getting into certain sports and activities, representation matters,” he added.

Nicole Lumadue, a graduate assistant for the outdoor program, will lead a discussion with panellists Rebecca Walsh, Willow Belden and Jenn Hess. On speaking out who are the three panellists, you can see that Walsh owns Laramie’s Base camp and has started the online community Hike Like A Woman, the website Just Trails and the hiking group Little Laramie Hikers. Belden is a member of the public lands advocacy group Common Outdoor Ground and creator of the outdoor-themed podcast Out There. Hess is a wildlife biologist who started the Rowdy Gowdy Women’s Mountain Bike Camp.

Genereux further advised the people to arrive early as there has been a lot of excitement and eagerness about the film festival already. “I have a feeling this is going to be packed,” he said.