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If we were to create a new nation, how might we begin? So asks Alex Hartley, a British artist who has started a public art project that is one of 12 pieces across the United Kingdom that will be part of the Cultural Olympiad in the Olympic summer of 2012. “Nowhereisland” is intended to tap into our values and beliefs as citizens, integrating the general public's thoughts; so far, there are over 5,000 "citizens" of the island who have started writing the island's constitution collectively. This isn't just a thought piece: Hartley found found an actual island in Norway and received permission to tow it to the coast of England.

Nowhereisland - Alex Hartley from SituationsDirector on Vimeo.

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.

For the adrenaline junkies, surfers or those who simply revel in beautiful ocean waves, filmmaker Chris Bryan recently released footage from The Biggest Teahupoo Ever (video below) from the namesake break in Tahiti, French Polynesia. Surfer Kelly Slater described the day as “a draining feeling being terrified for other people's lives all day long. It's life or death. Letting go of that rope one time can change your life and not many people will ever experience that in their life." Mountainfilm in Telluride may have roots firmly embedded in climbing, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the skill of these surfers.

Bill McKibben and his hardworking cohorts at 350.org have good reason to celebrate: President Obama rejected a permit for the Keystone pipeline (see McKibben’s reaction below). There are many arguments to be made about this particular pipeline in regard to the environment, but the overarching issue to appreciate is that the President demonstrated that it's time to quit supporting a dependence on oil — regardless of where it originates.

For those worried about jobs and other issues related to the pipeline, read Robert Redford’s blog in the Huffington Post that takes these quarrels to task.

Photographer Aaron Huey is a longtime guest at Mountainfilm in Telluride who was most recently at the festival with his powerful series on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Huey spoke emotionally at the festival in 2011 about his impressions of life there (see a similar talk he did at TED) and has continued to work on the subject, recently installing a striking billboard on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles with a collaborator, the acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey.

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.

Mountain Lodge Telluride is running a terrific photo competition based on the theme of Mountainfilm's 2012 Moving Mountains Symposium: "Population". Enter the photo contest for a chance to win great prizes, including lodging and passes for Mountainfilm 2012! World renowned photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum is one of the esteemed judges...

A murmuration is a large number of starlings, and this remarkable, short film tells you so much more about this phenomenon.

This lovely short piece is about a Living Bridge in Meghalaya, India. Don't know what a "living bridge" is? Then, check this out.

Sustainability is a concept with many meanings. To designers and architects it means one thing, to economists another, to businessmen something else, and to an ecologist completely something else. Even with diversity of definitions, sustainability comes down to practical elements and a time-line to sustain a process, a structure, an environment, or a business over a long period. To the people of Meghalaya State in northeast India, sustainability means something essential, generational in time, and amazing.

Mountainfilm screened Danny Macaskill's Way Back Home in 2011. Now, he has another amazing bike film worth watching called Industrial Revolutions.

Industrial Revolutions is the amazing new film from street trials riding star Danny Macaskill. Filmed and edited for Channel 4 's documentary Concrete Circus.