I got up early this morning and climbed Mt. Everest. Correction: I got up early this morning and, from a comfortable seat at the Boeing IMAX Theater, watched other people climb Mt. Everest, a far better state of affairs for all of us who think mountain climbing is what you have to do when the up escalator at Pacific Place breaks. (Which it does, all too often. Why?) Anyway, I was watching, and being thrilled by, "The Wildest Dream," an IMAX movie from National Geographic Films that tells two parallel stories: that of George Mallory, who attempted to became the first to summit Everest in the 1920s, and Conrad Anker, who 75 years later found Mallory's remains. Director Anthony Geffen uses both archival footage from Mallory's attempt (amazingly, he brought a movie camera with him) and breathtaking contemporary footage of Anker attempting the summit, on the beautiful, deadly peak Mallory described as "a prodigious white fang." See this one in real IMAX: it's an astonishing 90 minutes that whisks by as quickly as the Everest wind.

"The Wildest Dream" will be showing as part of SIFF next weekend, at 7pm Friday, June 11, and 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Boeing IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center. With Anker himself attending both screenings, this should be a SIFF highlight. Note that because this is a special event, a regular Full Series pass will not get you in (though a Platinum Pass will), but I'm told passholders may buy tickets for $11 rather than the regular $13. Here's where you can buy tickets online, should you wish to do so. Or you can wait for the film's regular run, which isn't yet specified but will likely begin in August.

Here's the trailer, though a tiny screen doesn't begin to give this movie justice. And yes, that female voice you hear (narrating a letter from Mallory's wife, Ruth) is, hauntingly, the late Natasha Richardson, whose husband Liam Neeson narrates the film.