This weekend you can see Colorado cowboys herd 2,000 buffalo, get a look at what it’s like to ski indoors in Dubai when it’s a toasty 100 degrees outside, and glean wisdom from the first American to scale Mount Everest. And you don’t need to travel to see these people and places — just take a cushy seat inside the Tower Theatre and hold on for the ride.

“Duke and the Buffalo,” “Dubai — a Skier’s Journey” and “A Life Well Lived — Jim Whittaker & 50 Years of Everest” are just three of the nine films screening tonight during Telluride MountainFilm Tour’s two-evening stint in Bend.

Throw in Saturday’s offerings for a total of 20 films screening for the benefit for The Environmental Center (see “If you go” for details) and its mission of embedding sustainability into daily life in Central Oregon.

According to MountainFilm.org, the festival tour roams worldwide all year long with choice cuts from the festival, held annually in May in Telluride, Colorado. This is its 12th year in Bend.

“Every film is connected to some kind of activity, whether it be skiing or surfing or climbing, skateboarding, mountain climbing, fly-fishing, high-lining,” said Denise Rowcroft, sustainability educator at The Environmental Center. She’s watched every trailer or film short that will screen, “so I’ve seen at least some snippet of all the films.”

Is Telluride MountainFilm down with the sustainability cause? You bet it is. In fact, it’s reduced waste by more than 80 percent in recent years, according to its site, by asking visitors who attend to bring their own dishes, tableware and cups when they make the trek to the town, situated at a whopping 9,000 feet of lung-kicking altitude.

Fortunately, you won’t need to pack up the Tupperware and haul half your well-equipped kitchen 1,000 miles, nor endure possible altitude sickness in order to see these short indie films. The highest you’ll need to climb is the stairs to the Tower’s balcony, should you desire to sit up there.

Each evening of the tour is emceed by an official MountainFilm presenter — in Bend’s case, it will be Emily Long, the festival’s program director. Her first job in high school was working the concession stand of a six-screen theater in her hometown in Kansas. In Bend, she’ll guide the audience throughout the program, sharing stories from her interactions with the filmmakers or insights about the film’s subject matter.

“What’s great about a fundraiser like this is it helps to support all of our programs,” Rowcroft said. “It’s not specified for one specific program; we have more freedom.”

One program that might benefit is the center’s Learning Garden, where area kids get hands-on experience planting seeds and tending plants. “We get grants every year that help us buy supplies, but in terms of staff power, it’s just subsidized by the organization … so fundraisers like MountainFilm indirectly help support that aspect of the garden.”

You can attend the festival for just one night or attend both evenings. Tonight’s other offerings include “Mending the Line,” a 48-minute film about Frank Moore, a World War II vet who landed at Normandy and came home to build a life around fly-fishing. Then there’s “Kelly McGarry Rampage,” about flying of a different sort; it’s a 3-minute GoPro-shot film of the professional mountain biker’s run at the 2013 Red Bull Rampage event in which he gets some serious air time. You’ll be white-knuckling your armrest, or possibly your neighbor’s hand, should his or her elbow have claimed it first.

On Saturday, catch free solo climber Alex Honnold’s attempt to scale one challenging ropeless climb in the 7-minute “El Sendero Luminoso.” Meet “The Record Breaker” star Ashrita Furman (in the see-him-on-screen sense). Furman’s broken nearly 400 world records in categories such as underwater bicycling, upside-down juggling and splitting apples with a samurai sword.

“I think it’s a really good variety of adventure, adrenaline, humor, contemplation,” Rowcroft said. “A lot of these films give insight into what drives people.”

“It’s also just a conversation … about why we do what we do,” she said. “The reason why MountainFilm on tour is a good fit for The Environmental Center is because it’s about people who are passionate about what they do in the place where they do it. That’s probably a common theme for most of these movies. And that’s what connects. We live in Bend, Central Oregon, because most people here are passionate about what they do and where they live and where they play.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com