Revelstoke film follows transgender mountain guide’s search for solace

Published 10:59 am Wednesday, November 12, 2025

A new film touring screens around the world spotlights the trials and tribulations of a Revelstoke mountain guide finding her place in Canada’s mountain community after a life-changing injury and gender transition.

Beauty in a Fall, which premiered Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, was produced by Revelstoke filmmaker, skier and hiking guide Nat Segal, 37, and documents the story of backcountry enthusiast Julianna Howatt.

Originally from Alberta, 65-year-old Howatt began mountain guiding and mountaineering at age 19. Stunning but treacherous landscapes such as Mount Robson and Mount Assiniboine provincial parks, Mount Sir Donald and the Bugaboos became her stomping ground.

Yet “those days, I was Bruce,” she explained. “I was closed to the world.”

Looking back on that life, Howatt said she “wouldn’t have been able to survive” living authentically.

Living 60 years as Bruce, a life-altering climbing incident in 2014 changed the trajectory of Howatt’s identity.

“One of those things where I was rappelling off something that I’d done since I was a kid — rappelling off clothesline,” she said, recounting the 73 feet she plummeted to the ground. “Broke everything, long recovery and changed the rest of my life.”

Following multiple years of recovery, Howatt reapproached mountain guiding with a different stride: as CMH’s mountain safety manager.

However, still battling chronic pain, internal duress and PTSD on top of witnessing the perils of avalanche country and struggling to be accepted as transgender, she found herself thinking hard about her place in mountain guiding.

“There’s this layer of psychological safety that hasn’t been addressed in the industry,” Howatt explained. And though she described Revelstoke as particularly inclusive and accepting, “it’s like the art of kindness has been lost in our culture.”

Segal added that when she, cinematographer Colleen Gentemann and filmmaker Ryan Paul-Collins first met Howatt, they “couldn’t pass on the opportunity to work with her.”

Filming started in 2023, wrapping up by April 2024. The cinematography took Segal and Howatt everywhere from Banff National Park and Lake Louise, to CMH Bobbie Burns Lodge and Revelstoke’s Coast Hillcrest Hotel.

For Howatt, considering whether to share her story, “it felt like especially in these times, I had to say yes,” she reflected. “The biggest reason I said yes was Nat and her kindness. I mean, (the film) was vulnerable.”

Revelstoke’s Open Mountains Project, a non-profit society both Howatt and Segal have been involved in to organize inclusive backcountry programming and also Mountain Pride, is one initiative striving to make it easier for community members to have these conversations.

It’s no secret, Segal noted, that climbing, snow sports, guiding and mountain culture in general have historically not been very inclusive. As a female professional skier, she said she’s experienced this on multiple occasions firsthand, as well as through the experiences of peers and friends.

“Things are changing but there is still much public as well as passive discrimination that many don’t recognize,” Segal wrote by email. “As a community, we still have a lot of work to do. For me, this was why this film was so important to make, to reveal the real and sometimes invisible struggle that many people face in these industries and mountain culture.”

She added that through Howatt’s willingness to share such a vulnerable story, they both hope to break down the often-defensive reaction to these issues.

Now, the two friends are continuing the dialogue with the screening of Beauty in a Fall.

“I had no belonging in the human world as a kid, but I found belonging in the mountains,” Howatt reflected. “I could be me in an energetic way — feminine, unmasked, just me.”

As the film rolls out, “I guess I’m secretly hoping for allyship,” she added. “Because it’s on such a personal level, I hope it helps people connect.”

While Segal and Howatt put together the film, Revelstoke community members didn’t hesitate to pitch in where they could. Jessa Burke at Birch & Lace Salon, for example, provided hair-styling services.

“Whenever we told people we were working on this film, they were always willing to help,” Segal said.

Following its premiere in Banff, the film next screens at the Rossland Film Festival this Thursday, Nov. 13, then in Revelstoke at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre. Tickets are $22.

“I just hope that Revelstoke comes out with an open mind and soaks up the story,” Howatt concluded. “The mountains are for everyone, because we can find solace in them.”

This week, Beauty in a Fall also premieres in Europe, and will subsequently tour around Australia and New Zealand.

Segal and Howatt first brought the film to the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in September, which Howatt said received a “really supportive and kind” response from audience members.

“I went into my experience with the intention of working through the avalanche, climbing events and trauma,” Howatt said in a release, “but what happened was finally embracing myself as a trans woman and coming home to myself for the first time.”

Amid the stigma marginalized groups face in Western Canada’s mountain community, Segal added in the release, “it is Julianna’s hope that her healing story will foster a deeper understanding and openness for diversity in the alpine world.”