Programme - Friday 21. October 2022 - Evening

How can we inhabit our space differently at a time when climatic upheavals are no longer merely to be feared but in full swing? Can we reflect differently upon our relationship with what surrounds us? The makers of this film believe that art is instrumental in opening up new spaces of thought, experimentation and imagination and that it has a key role to play in this regard.

Two-time Olympic biathlon champion and seven-time biathlon world champion Laura Dahlmeier was already a passionate climber during her days of professional athletics. Nowadays, when choosing her climbing destinations, her intense sporting ambition is still discernible: At the Brouillard Pillar on Mont Blanc, she completes the rarely climbed Bonington Route together with the “Huber boys” Thomas and Alexander. Footage from her childhood climbs is on show as well as scenes in which she overcomes her nerves during the demanding tour and finally enjoys the great view from the summit of Mont Blanc as a reward.

The Schober Group in the High Tauern mountain range is a scenic gem, wild and pristine. The refuges of this area are managed by people who are able to listen to the silence. For part of the year, they live far removed from civilisation on the Wiener Höhenweg trail. This route is not often used, as the Schober Group lies in the shadow of Mount Grossglockner, which attracts visitors in droves. And yet, on the “forgotten path”, time takes on a different meaning.

During the shooting of their new film, two friends quickly realise that the reality on a mountain with temperatures plummeting to minus 18 degrees Celsius confronts them with problems they had not anticipated during the planning period at home. Technical as well as physical challenges force the friends to cancel their project. After a freezing cold night, the sun reappears above the horizon, and their motivation gradually returns. The two realise that nature had a different plan for them all along and decide to follow this new path.

With its clumsy shape and funny behaviours, the marmot is one of the most representative and likeable animals of our mountains. The film tells the life story of a young male across a period of four years. Vigilant, short-fused, solidary, cunning and greedy, he develops into the clan leader. Among the world’s most beautiful flower meadows, the journey begins.

The films of the Lapied family have already received numerous awards in Tegernsee.

Hay is the first grass harvest. Good hay was and is considered gold for animals. It is also gold in several senses for humans, as country lore insists. Good hay helps produce good milk, together with all its flowers, herbs and grasses. It is a blessing for body, mind and soul.

The “Odyssey” including the “Paciencia” line is considered the most difficult climbing route on the Eiger North Face. The first attempts on the 33-rope-length route began in 2009. Five years later, after an ordeal of almost two months, the first free ascent succeeded. In 2018, Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher repeated the route; it took them four days. Emulating the first ascenders’ climbing style, the so-called “big wall style”, they carried food, water, equipment and a portaledge across the wall.

Poor conditions, avalanche danger, high risk. Why do this to oneself? After a failed ski expedition to Tajikistan in 2019, freeriders Fabian Lentsch, Max Kroneck and Joi Hoffmann, together with psychologist and mountain guide Pauli Trenkwalder, try to get to the bottom of why people within extreme sports voluntarily expose themselves to great dangers and setbacks over and over again.

In 2017, Simon Platzer received the Otto Guggenbichler Prize for a Junior film Maker for “A mords Sauhaufen in an z’kloan Zelt” (A Bunch of Nutters in a Tiny Tent).

With a height of about 6,500 ft (almost 2,000 m), the north face of Mount Chamlang is one of the last large, unclimbed walls of the Himalayas. Benjamin Védrines, who discovered the north face on a previous ascent of the 24,012 ft (7,319 m) peak, decides to team up with Charles Dubouloz, who is a very strong mountaineer, but a newbie at high altitudes. Spindrifts, portaledges, mixed passages and vertical ice passages are among the challenges of this route. This film allows us to immerser ourselves in the best of 21st century Himalayan mountaineering.

Pete Whittaker, known for his world-class crack climbing and roped solo ascents, opens a new chapter on the Kjerag Big Wall (3,549 ft / 1,082 m) in Norway: He hopes to succeed with his first free solo ascent as well as his first big wall ascent without the protection of a rope. The camera zooms in close as he climbs the increasingly difficult and highly exposed line, grip by grip.

In 2010, Alastair Lee received the German Alpine Club Award in the category Mountain Adventure for “The Asgard Project”.

Alpinist Caro North always feels called – by the mountains, towards the wall, high up, no matter on which continent. At the age of 16, she already summits on Mount Aconcagua (22,837 ft / 6,961 m) in Argentina. Her expeditions to Patagonia, Alaska, Iran and the Himalayas shape the young alpinist, but also her experiences as a mountain guide in the local Swiss mountains. In this cinematic portrait, we follow her right there: up to the icy heights where Caro North feels most at home.

Jochen Schmoll’s films have already received numerous awards in Tegernsee.

A scientific, adventurous documentary about the history and development of alpine and high-altitude medicine around the Margherita Hut in the Italian Monte Rosa massif, the highest building in Europe. High-altitude mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner grants personal insights into her experiences with oxygen depletion at high altitudes, while medical professors Oswald Oelz and Peter Bärtsch report in many anecdotes on their research results in dealing with altitude sickness.

An Argentine teacher guides a film crew to the most remote school in the high valleys of the Jujuy Province, where they embark on a 20-hour journey, on foot and in difficult conditions. The film shows the isolation in these Andean worlds and the way the communities handle their planet. “The Andean Screen” is a poetic analogy between cinema and travel, a story about Silvina Velázquez who, with great tenacity, introduces a new paradigm for the women in the valleys.

Wildlife photographer Jérémie Villet traverses the white deserts of the northern hemisphere all alone with his pulka sledge and telephoto lens, in order to find animals that survive in extremely cold conditions. On his expedition to Northern Canada, he will explore the Yukon region with the aim of photographing its legendary mountain goat.

For “La quête d’inspiration” (Gathering Inspiration) Mathieu Le Lay received the 2015 Prize for the Best Film in the category Mountain Nature as well as the Otto Guggenbichler Prize for a Junior Film Maker.

With his illustrated book “Erlebnis Berg: Zeit zum Atmen” (Mountain Experience: Time to Breathe), Reinhard Karl gave a voice to the lifestyle of a generation of mountaineers and climbers. The uniqueness of his works persists. Artist Clara Happ creates wood and lino cuts based on his photographs. She sounds out the power and aesthetics inherent in his texts and images. Reinhard Karl died on Cho Oyu (26,748 ft / 8,153 m) at the age of only 35.

In 2004, the film’s director received the Prize in the Landscape category with “Die Alpen – Eine Reise durch Bayrisch-Afrika” (The Alps – A Journey across Bavarian Africa) and in 2011 an Honourable Jury Mention with “Das zweite Leben des Tal Niv” (The Second Life of Tal Niv).

The Alps are a place of longing: wild, untouched, sublime. Because we want to see them that way, we cannot stop constantly reinventing their myth. Today, we are at a point where we are doing more harm than good. More and more people are looking for the Alps as a resonance chamber for possible experiences. This exponential growth leads to conflicts of all kinds. In order to save the Alps, we must take responsibility.

The film describes the professional journey of a research team from the University of Milan and their pioneering study on plastic pollution of glaciers. Their journey comprises nights spent outdoors, fieldwork and laboratory analytics.