Nayla Tawa: The Road Back

While most of her peer’s flocked south in search of warm lazy beach days and dripping umbrella drinks, UCLA student Nayla Tawa’s spring break found her duct taped to her snowboard for 2 days with a broken back in three places, broken sternum and a severe knee injury in the remote backcountry region of Kyrgyzstan.…
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McKenzie Barney: Beyond the Comfort Zone

Sometimes an opportunity comes up that might seem difficult or uncomfortable at the time, but just beyond that discomfort or hard work lies a dream come true—at least that’s what McKenzie Barney has found. It took relentless prodding by her good friend and fellow filmmaker Filipe DeAndrade to get her to apply for the Colorado Backcountry Adventure Film School, but it was that step outside her comfort zone that started her down the road to filming her lifelong personal hero: Mia Hamm.…
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Moments That Make a Story

Of all the things I learned from noted adventure filmmaker Michael Brown, the thing that has stuck with me the most is to make sure you watch all your footage. It might not sound like a revelation in storytelling, but as I set out to make four films over the course of the GoPro Mountain Games with the Adventure Film School last week it became an essential lesson.…
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