For some students at Syracuse University, sub-freezing winter temperatures and high speed winds are best avoided by staying indoors. But for SU and SUNY-ESF students in the Syracuse University Outing Club, those howling winds signify the call of the wild.

This Friday, SUOC will partner with No Man’s Land Film Festival for its second year, featuring film screenings and panel discussions with local recreationists, along with a bake sale and prize giveaways. The event will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics Grant Auditorium.

No Man’s Land Film Festival is an all-woman adventure film festival based out of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Beyond a shared love of nature and outdoor activities, the festival aims to foster interest and change “through a uniquely female lens.” Given the outdoor industry’s often-hypermasculine views of athleticism and outdoor recreation, the goal of the project, launched in January 2013, is to leave definitions of femininity and womanhood undefined and open to personal interpretation.

Megan Gorss, a junior natural resources management major at ESF, has served as the vice president of SUOC for the past two years. One of her main roles as vice president of the organization includes planning club events. It was by chance that she stumbled across No Man’s Land Film Festival last year while listening to one of her favorite podcasts, “She Explores.”

“(‘She Explores’) did an interview with the person that started No Man’s Land, and I just thought it sounded so cool,” Gorss said.

The growth of the festival within the last year alone, Gorss said, is apparent through the options of films offered at this year’s event. “They have so many more submissions of films, and so much more variety in them. It’s pretty neat,” she said.

Evan Genay, the president of SUOC, said the club’s collaboration with No Man’s Land is an opportunity to diversify the kinds of films club members are exposed to, both in terms of the activities as well as the athletes featured.

“As a man, I have had a lot of opportunities to recreate outside. This is in part because I have had male mentors, who they themselves have had male mentors,” Genay said in an email. “No Man’s Land helps break the cycle, inspiring women to get outside and participate in these truly awesome, life-changing experiences.”

Genay said that in the two years he’s been part of SUOC, the organization has helped to cultivate his passion for the outdoors, along with giving him the “confidence, strength and character” to exceed in other areas of his life. It’s his hope, he added, that festival goers leave Friday’s event feeling not only inspired to pursue these outdoor activities themselves, but also remain conscious and aware of the ever-increasing need for diversity and inclusion within the outdoor industry.

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For some attendees, Gorss said that No Man’s Land is more than just an exposure to people doing interesting and revolutionary things in adventure sports. It’s a moment of acceptance into a culture, and a conversation, that often goes without invitation.

“I know talking with some of the panelists who spoke last year, multiple people went up to them afterwards basically to thank them for saying things that other people had been thinking, or that they had talked to their friends about,” Gorss said. “People feel this way, but to see it in such a public arena — it’s really validating.”

This sense of validation, she added, extends beyond just No Man’s Land. The beauty of SUOC, Gorss said, is the camaraderie established within its members and the outdoor community.

“I can say pretty unequivocally that SUOC has changed my life,” she said. “The path I was on before joining versus now is very different.”

One of her most distinct memories within the organization was when she went caving underground with two of her clubmates. During their trip, she got stuck in a squeeze slot — a cave opening with narrow horizontal space.

One of her friends, an experienced caver, helped keep her calm and talked her through her heightened anxiety. The other, without hesitation, extended their leg so Gorss could climb over the spot and free herself.

“Knowing how willingly they were to help — if I ask for help, someone will be able and willing to help,” Gorss said. “And that’s been really wonderful.”

Published on February 26, 2019 at 9:38 pm

Contact Kelsey: katho101@syr.edu | @writtenbykelsey