Member-only story
About Me — Jillian Amatt (Long Version)
A short life but a long story.
I was born in Banff, Alberta, Canada in October of 1976. It is a small town, and many don’t realize that people are actually born there. In fact, the few of us that were, I have recently learned, are sometimes dubbed “unicorns” by those that don’t believe that it is possible.
But despite being a small town, it is a world-class tourist destination and one of the tops in Canada. Banff is nestled perfectly in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It is quite simply quintessential Canada, and its picture-perfect mountains, and teal blue glacier lakes and rivers bring revelers from around the world.
It’s the home of the Banff Mountain Film Festival, of which my father was one of the founders, and it has rightly earned its place on the world stage with its annual ‘World Tour’ of award-winning films that travel around the globe every year. Yes, Banff is an incredible and mighty little town, and I couldn’t be more proud to have been born there.
I lived there until I was three years old when in 1979 my parents decided to move down the road to nearby Canmore. It is only 18 km away and, at the time, it had a bit of a doom and gloom outlook because the coal mines had just shut down. They had no idea where Canmore was headed, but it was quieter and cheaper than Banff…
