LIVSN film accepted at Banff, Mountainfilm festivals

The recent documentary by Bentonville-based outdoor apparel company LIVSN Designs and Fayetteville-based production company Blk Elk Media has earned national and international attention after being screened at two of the most prestigious outdoor film festivals. The film has been accepted to 10 festivals worldwide.

The world premiere of “Well Worn Life with Dani Reyes-Acosta” was May 27 at Mountainfilm in Telluride, Colo. The Canadian premiere was at the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, hosted in Banff from late October to early November. The Alberta resort town is in Banff National Park and the Canadian Rockies.

“Banff is like the Cannes [Film Festival] of adventure film,” said Andrew Gibbs-Dabney, founder and CEO of LIVSN Designs. “To have a film get accepted there means you’re creating something special.”

The film was also selected for the Banff and Mountainfilm world tours.

“It tells a really good story of someone living a life that is meaningful,” Gibbs-Dabney said. “It touches on some impactful topics without bringing the audience down, and I think in a film festival environment, it’s filled a nice niche of not too long, not too short, and not too heavy and not too light — just a good, heartwarming story of someone living their life to the fullest.”

The 6-minute film features athlete Dani Reyes-Acosta of southwestern Colorado and her life there outside of sports, including cooking, planting trees and raising ducks.

“Our society tells you that just because it’s … faster or more efficient or maybe even cheaper … that’s what you should do. I very broadly reject that idea,” Reyes-Acosta said. “I think that anything worth a s*** is going to be hard.”

Gibbs-Dabney said the film wasn’t designed to be an ad as much as it was to tell stories of people “embodying this idea of a well-worn life, which is creating something, living intentionally and purposefully, and valuing the things you own. It’s intentional that we don’t say, ‘Hey, look, I’m here wearing LIVSN Designs.’ It’s more about the person’s story of what they’re doing. Our job is to make sure that our clothes are featured in a story that feels authentic.

“For Dani, she’s doing things that need a good, tough, versatile pair of pants, so we sent them to her well ahead of time to wear, get used to, and break in. Then, we went out there and started filming her.”

FILM MAKING
Producer Kelsey Ferguson said six people, including Reyes-Acosta, worked on the film. It was shot in four days. While Reyes-Acosta was the film’s subject, she also was a creative and location consultant for the film, Ferguson said. It’s her first to produce. It was directed by Daniel Mitchell and co-directed by Trent Sugg. The director of photography was Logan Dial, and the drone pilot was Ian Caple. The latter four comprise the Blk Elk staff.

Work on the film started in April 2022, and after it was completed in November 2022, Ferguson started submitting it to film festivals.

“Finding out we were accepted to the iconic Banff Film Festival was surreal,” Ferguson said. “‘Well Worn Life’ is everything LIVSN is about — pushing boundaries and living without expectations. Blk Elk captured Dani’s story beautifully, and we are excited for future projects with them.”

Mitchell co-founded Blk Elk Media with Sugg in 2016. Mitchell said this documentary was his third to direct but his first submitted and accepted into a film festival. So far, the film has been accepted to 10, including festivals in New York and Rio de Janeiro. He’s also excited about the film being on world tours for the Mountainfilm and Banff festivals and the impact this will have on the company.

GLOBAL EXPOSURE
Gibbs-Dabney said the film will be translated into 18 languages and be screened in 40 countries. It will make hundreds of stops worldwide and be seen by thousands of people.

“That’s huge for us because we specialize in outdoor content,” Mitchell said. “We focus on outdoor commercials and ad spots. Branded documentaries are something that we’re leaning into in the future.”

Asked what makes the film unique, Mitchell highlighted the feedback he received from festivalgoers: “It resonated with them because it’s not about these extremes in the outdoor industry. With outdoor athletes right now, it’s all about getting to the tallest peak or breaking a record. The focus of our doc is how can you get outside in your day-to-day and still experience the outdoors in a way that’s not so extreme.”

The Mountainfilm tour included a Little Rock stop earlier this year. Before that, the film was screened at the Bentonville Film Festival. The Banff tour is expected to kick off in December, and Gibbs-Dabney noted that only some films shown at the festival make the tour. Ferguson said another Northwest Arkansas screening is in the works.

FILMMAKER BACKGROUND
Born in Little Rock, Mitchell grew up in Denver and Hot Springs, often exploring the Rocky and Ouachita mountains. The University of Arkansas alumnus was led to pick up a camera after watching an impactful film on the Banff traveling tour when it stopped in Fayetteville in 2010. Mitchell and Sugg met Gibbs-Dabney when they all worked for apparel company Fayettechill in 2013. After launching LIVSN in 2018, Gibbs-Dabney called on Blk Elk Media to create content for LIVSN, including videos for its successful Kickstarter campaigns.

Ferguson is an Arkansas native raised in Forrest City (St. Francis County) and Fayetteville. She’s director of marketing for LIVSN Designs, joining as its first full-time employee three years ago. She had no prior film experience but was an event producer and used to install art, including a 2016 installation at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She’s worked with artists and facilitated the production of art shows, galleries and public art spaces.

“It’s not so different to jump to film,” she said. “It’s more about … to have a vision, know what you want out of the final product, and understand all the work that it would take and all the pieces that have to be put in place to make that thing happen.”

In 2021, LIVSN released the first in the “Well Worn Life series,” featuring California surfer Kenny Arimoto. The nearly 2-minute film highlighted his life making surfboards and how he developed a more comfortable bicycle pedal using artificial grass and upcycling old wetsuit materials.

Asked whether he ever saw himself making films as founder and CEO of an outdoor apparel company, Gibbs-Dabney said, “Honestly, yes. I’ve always been interested in using filmmaking to tell brand stories and specifically in telling human stories that reflect what the brand stands for. I think it’s a powerful way to get across a message when it could otherwise get lost.”

LIVSN plans to continue the “Well Worn Life” series. Gibbs-Dabney said the third film is expected to come next year, but the subject has yet to be determined. LIVSN staff are vetting several subjects before deciding who to feature.