film

On February 11, 2012, thousands are people around the globe will watch the award-winning film Happy, which won the Audience award at Mountainfilm in Telluride in 2011. From filmmaker Roko Belic, a longtime Mountainfilm regular — who, along with his brother Adrian, is one of the filmmakers behind Genghis Blues — Happy is infused with wisdom and warmth and abounds with life lessons with footage from more than fourteen countries. Because the filmmakers discovered that community is an important ingredient to happiness, we encourage you to find out where you can see Happy with your neighbors on February 11.

Our programming team — David Holbrooke and Emily Long — spent several days at the recent Sundance Film Festival, seeing documentaries to consider for Mountainfilm in Telluride.

There is nothing quite like Sundance Film Festival, which darkened its theaters Sunday after 10 days of movie madness. Two representatives from Mountainfilm in Telluride — programmers David Holbrooke and Emily Long — went to Park City in search of films for the festival Telluride in May.

“The Dust Bowl” Explores One of the Most Profound Man-Made Disasters in History

Telluride, Colorado (January 17, 2012) – Producer and director Ken Burns will premiere his upcoming PBS documentary series, “The Dust Bowl,” at Mountainfilm in Telluride. The production is due for television release in the fall of 2012, but Mountainfilm will offer an early showing of the series during its 34^th annual festival, May 25-28. 

“The Dust Bowl” examines the decade-long, man-made ecological disaster that began in 1930 and nearly ruined the breadbasket of the nation. Intensive agricultural cultivation had displaced the natural grasses and rich topsoil of the southern plains and, coupled with severe drought, produced enormous dust storms that blackened the air and eventually forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee from the region.

Thirty years ago, the rad/extreme/adrenaline film genre was just getting going, and of course Mountainfilm was all over it. We premiered the film Gravity Never Sleeps by Telluride local (and former Mountainfilm board member) Ken Bailey in 1982. It's pretty impressive both what they pulled off way back then, and what filmmakers are doing now.

Filmmaker Matt Morris has brought a few of his short docs to Mountainfilm: History Making Farmer Author on the Move in 2009 and Mr. Happy Man in 2011. Now his first one - Pickin' and Trimmin' from 2008 - can be seen online here.

Pickin' & Trimmin' from Matt Morris on Vimeo.

At Mountainfilm, we look for films that have impact and now, there is a new study by the Center for Social Media about just that. This is a five year evaluation, funded in part by the Ford Foundation, of the best ways to make sure social issues documentaries reach and impact an audience.

"People come in as participants in a media project and leave recognizing themselves as members of a public—a group of people commonly affected by an issue. They have found each other and exchanged information on an issue in which they all see themselves as having a stake. In some cases, they take action based on this transformative act of communication.

This is the core function of public media 2.0 for a very simple reason: Publics are the element that keeps democracies democratic."

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Mountainfilm is coming back to Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater Friday-Sunday October 21-23 and tickets go on sale October 7.

We had a great run there in 2010 and look forward to eclipsing our stellar attendance of last year. Check out the complete schedule for the weekend as it really represents the full range of what Mountainfilm offers: outstanding adventure programming, cutting-edge environmental films and incisive explorations of cultures far and near. As usual with Mountainfilm, almost every screening will have filmmakers and documentary subjects in attendance.

In October of 2010, as part of the inaugural Commitment Grant program, Mountainfilm awarded five individuals with a $5,000 grant and a MacBook Pro computer for film and photography projects. Two of the projects were featured in the 2010 festival (Mbambu and the Mountains of the Moon and the gallery show from Paul Colangelo entitled Sacred Headwaters) and the other three (Terra Blight, Soul of the Sea and Paradox Valley) are still deep in production and post-production stages. As we prepare to announce the recipients of the second annual Commitment Grant next month, we'll be posting a series of updates on last years' winners.

Our second update comes from Natasa Muntean, who with her husband Lucian directed the film Mbambu and the Mountains of the Moon. Natasa and Lucian recently moved from their native Serbia to Norway to continue pursuing their career in film.

In October of 2010, as part of the inaugural Commitment Grant program, Mountainfilm awarded five individuals with a $5,000 grant and a MacBook Pro computer for film and photography projects. Two of the projects were featured in the 2010 festival (Mbambu and the Mountains of the Moon and the gallery show from Paul Colangelo entitled Sacred Headwaters) and the other three (Terra Blight, Soul of the Sea and Paradox Valley) are still deep in production and post-production stages. As we prepare to announce the recipients of the second annual Commitment Grant next month, we'll be posting a series of updates on last years' winners.

Our first update comes from Isaac Brown whose film Terra Blight—about electronic waste in the global economy—will be rolling out at festivals early in 2012.