Programme - Friday (15 October 2021 - Day)

The gentle Nock Mountains are shaped by the interplay of unique natural features and centuries of human cultivation. It is not for nothing they were officially named a “Biosphere Park”. Farming traditions and the wisdom of mindful interaction with nature are passed on from generation to generation. This includes skills such as driving farm animals up to mountain pastures, the work of a mountain pasture farmer, the art of mowing mountain pastures by hand, building fences without nails and running a traditional bath house.

Among other things, Simon Staffler is chairman of the “Ultental Pasture Animals”, he works at the forestry office and runs a small farm with 20 goats and three horses. In the steep Ulten Valley, farmers are forced to keep the animals in tight stables during winter. This makes alpine pastures even more important. Simon’s animals spend the summer in the impassable Kirchberg Valley and he pledges to do everything to maintain this tradition. He pursues his goals with great passion and often attends committee meetings until late in the evening. When his wife and child move to the farm, a tightrope walk begins between family, honorary positions, work and country life.

83-year-old Viyadutt has been managing his five-hectare farm in a small mountain village in the Himalayas for over five decades. It is surrounded by 7,000 abandoned “ghost villages”. They are a terrifying testimony to the mass migration of native Nepalis in their search for work – and for a supposedly better life. Together with his farmhand, he plows the fields and watches how the landscape around him changes.

In large parts of Europe, bears have been hunted and rendered extinct for centuries. By now they are being resettled in the Pyrenees and northern Italy. But their return is problematic. Local resistance grows. Conversely, in countries like Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, people have learned to share their land with the bears. What are the consequences of their reintroduction for ecosystems and can they be effectively protected from their greatest enemy, humans?

The mountains are sacred places and glaciers have always been their archives. Archives whose gates are now wide open due to climate change. Numerous stories are to be discovered here: from those passing through and those who stayed. Michele Cucchi is a mountain guide and mountain rescuer. He considers it his moral duty to look for traces. Because in a world that is changing so quickly, the big challenge is no longer to conquer new peaks, but to develop projects to preserve the sensitive ecosystem of the mountain world.

Two friends traverse the entire Alpine region from Munich to Nice. Their route takes them across the highest and most remote passes in search for the wild beauty of the Alps. Will they make it to the Mediterranean?

In 2019 Robert Eixenberger kayaks from Lake Schliersee to the Black Sea. Ahead of the trip, he acquires equipment for video recording and a drone. He mounts action cameras on the front and back of the boat and on his chest. For five weeks the cameras are his only “eyewitnesses” on the adventurous route from the River Schlierach via the rivers Mangfall, Inn and finally along the Danube almost all the way to the Black Sea – covering more than 1,300 miles

They are barely six years old when they are separated from their families to go to school in a remote town. Before they fully grow up, the children have to hike home once unassisted, up to their villages, high up in the Himalayas. They meet their families there, often for the first time in ten years. They get to know their traditional way of life and make peace with those who had to give them up in order to grant them a better life later on.
The documentary has already received numerous awards.

22-year-old Loic has developed into a passionate climber since he received his first pair of climbing shoes at the age of six. Together with the “Flolopapys” and thanks to their gentle, humorous guidance, he conquers the climbing world. But can he overcome his fear of heights accompanied by this incomparable band of brothers?

From the peaks of Georgia through the streets of Sweden to the promised land of Japan and the spots of La Clusaz: A crew of skiers, artists and flim makers keeps breaking new adventurous ground, implements unbelievable ideas and focuses entirely on one objective: to innovative skiing.

A small suspension bridge has become Austria’s most popular photo motif, because the view onto the Schlegeis reservoir deep down in the valley is spectacular. On peak days, almost 2,000 people flock to the mountain side, all with the same goal: to score their own Instagrammable bridge shot. But the way up covers high alpine terrain and not everyone is prepared for it. Anyone watching the bridge hunters is in for an experience: from Insta tourists in evening gowns to rescue missions by helicopter.

During the Cold War, young Poles do just abouts anything to escape the monotonous life under a communist regime. A couple of students set up a kayak club in Krakow. First, they explore the rivers of the region, then they plan the impossible: to leave the Eastern Bloc! In search of whitewater, they embark on a two-year expedition that takes them to Mexico and the USA – and into the world’s deepest canyon, where they are the first to kayak. They use their popularity to fight for democracy in their homeland.

The Aletsch is the largest and longest glacier in the Alps. According to glaciologists, most glaciers will have disappeared by the end of the century and only fragments will be left of the Aletsch. A journey into the interior of the glacier is an exciting and unsettling visual experience that challenges our perception of spatial and temporal scales as well our understanding of what these images reveal.

Der Aletsch ist der größte und längste Gletscher der Alpen. Bis Ende des Jahrhunderts sollen gemäß Glaziologen die meisten Gletscher verschwunden und vom Aletsch nur noch Bruchstücke übrig sein. Eine Reise ins Innere des Gletschers ist ein spannendes und beunruhigendes visuelles Erlebnis, das unsere Wahrnehmung von räumlichen und zeitlichen Maßstäben in Frage stellt. Ebenso wie das, was diese Bilder offenbaren.

The world stands still. Cities seem petrified, life has dried up. After three weeks of lockdown, a woman travels to the mountains – on the search for signs of life. But she merely ends up at a mountain lake made of dust and stone. Nevertheless, she sets up camp at the bottom of the lake. In a world that suddenly is no longer what it was before. The outside world presents a reflection of her inner world, which tells a tale of lostness.

Fabiano is haunted by nightmares. They probably reflect his life on the small farm he inherited from his “hippie parents” in a lonely valley in southern Switzerland with 50 goats and eight cows. He does his best to produce the cheese his parents made before him. But nothing turns out as hoped. He is in debt and the cheese is not profitable. The death of an illegal worker from Macedonia still haunts him because he feels at least partly responsible for it. Moreover, Fabiano will soon be a father …