Submitted by the Friday Harbor Film Festival.

When Friday Harbor Film Festival heard that a group of eight students, led by Louis Prussack, Head of the school, were heading off May 13 on a three-week adventure in Nepal, they decided to provide a special screening of Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest, an award-winning film shown at Friday Harbor Film Festival in 2022. The students enjoyed the film as well as pizza and soda provided by Cousin Vinnies NY Pizza Cafe.

The film chronicles Pasang Lhamu Sherpa’s tragic and inspiring journey to become the first Nepali woman to summit Everest in 1993. Her courageous, historic, and tragic journey would inspire a nation and generations to come. As an uneducated, indigenous woman and a Buddhist in a Hindu kingdom, Pasang’s dream to scale the legendary mountain pits her against family, foreign climbers, her own government, and nature itself. Her determined pursuit of Everest plays out within the context of her nation’s quest for democracy and the emergence of the commercial climbing industry. As told by the Nepalis who knew her, by some of the world’s most notable alpinists, and by Pasang herself, this film documents the historic quest that would transfix her country and uplift a new generation’s belief in its possibilities.

Juniors and Seniors applied for the international trip after completing three or four smaller preparatory trips. These included activities like backpacking in the Cascades for a week and kayak trips. To pay for half of the cost of these trips, most students earned money working summer jobs. Half of the students at Spring Street International School are on a scholarship or tuition assistance.

The travelers returned in early June after three weeks in Nepal. Friday Harbor Film Festival hopes they will create a short video about their adventures and submit it to the student filmmakers section of the Friday Harbor Film Festival. Student films will be screened at the October festival, where all local students can attend all films for free.