Mountainfilm 2012

Six Organizations Cited for Outstanding Work Receive Funding

Telluride, Colorado (June 8, 2012) –Mountainfilm in Telluride held its 34^th annual festival over Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-28. The event aims to educate and inspire audiences on subjects that range from outdoor adventure and exploration to critical environmental, cultural and social issues, and the program was packed with guest speakers and roughly 90 films, many of which featured the work of diverse nonprofit organizations.

The question I ask after every festival is: What sort of impact did this year's edition of Mountainfilm in Telluride make? Of course the answer is never simple to quantify because intangibles, such as inspiration, are tough to measure.

We do know that many people in our audience have experiences at the festival that they describe as "life altering" or "attitude adjusting," but I’d like to know what that means in more concrete terms. 

For example, one of my favorite Mountainfilm presentations was around 2004 when Rick Ridgeway, Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin spoke about their journey to western Tibet, an expedition they concocted at the previous year’s festival.

I know that Mountainfilm played a key role in catalyzing that wild adventure, but I also know that the festival impacts people in a variety of other ways, as well. One woman wrote me that Mountainfilm inspired her to run for city council because "I've decided that instead of fighting the government, we need to be the government. Hopefully, I can have an impact locally, at least."

Mountainfilm in Telluride opened Base Camp Outdoor Theatre — sponsored by Horny Toad — last year. It was a rousing success with large audiences showing up in Telluride Town Park for the free films.

This year, Base Camp will have extended hours and more films. We’ll kick off the first of six nights on Wednesday, May 23, with Dogtown and Z-Boys, a film from the festival's vault by Stacey Peralta that documents the birth of skateboarding.

After that showing from Mountainfilm’s 2002 archives, we’ll continue with nightly screenings from the current 2012 program through Monday evening, May 28. Chasing Ice will show on Thursday. This documentary about photographer James Balog chronicles the collapse of glaciers around the world and won an Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance in February.

It’s May, summit month on Everest. This season several expeditions are particularly connected to the Mountainfilm in Telluride community.

Eddie Bauer/First Ascent’s team consists of Jake Norton, David Morton, Brent Bishop and Charley Mace and they are tackling the West Ridge route pioneered by Americans Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein. Norton is featured in the film Wild Love: Jake Norton and Wende Valentine, which will screen at this year’s festival and is about life, love and risk in the mountains.

The environment, social issues and adventure are three of the big themes at Mountainfilm in Telluride, and like many of this year’s guests at the festival, best-selling author Dan Buettner encompasses all three seamlessly into his work.

Buettner wanted to understand why certain people in particular areas of the world lived longer, healthier and happier lives, so he traveled across the planet to get answers. The result is The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, which examines how people live and how lifestyle affects lifespan. The book focuses on four areas — Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; and Loma Linda, California — and demonstrates that everyday factors were involved, such as food, friends and perspective.

2012 Special Guest List Available On-Line

Telluride, Colorado (May 1, 2012) – Mountainfilm in Telluride will hold its 34th annual festival over Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-28, with a program full of inspiring films and special guests. Among the 75 films slated to screen, at least 10 will be world premieres. Special guests are drawn from the leading edges of adventure, art, science, sports and media.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), March 2012 set temperature records that dominated the eastern two-thirds of the nation and contributed to the warmest March on record for the contiguous United States since 1895. Last month, more than 15,000 temperature records were broken.

It’s easy to glaze over when hearing these alarm bells, but here are a few direct statements from NOAA’s “State of the Climate National Overview March 2012” that might hit home.

By photographing people in indigenous and Tribal cultures, Phil Borges aims to heighten awareness of the issues faced by those in the developing world. He has a particularly close and long-standing relationship with Tibet, and his latest book, Tibet: Culture on the Edge, reflects his respect for the country and its people.

We’re excited that Borges will exhibit his latest work and speak about Tibet at Mountainfilm in Telluride 2012. This montage offers a glimpse into his collections and a deep look into the eyes of our fellow global citizens.

It requires some serious planning to deliver four days of artists, art, activists, documentaries, shorts, filmmakers, panel discussions, scientists, books, authors, slide presentations, environmentalists, extreme athletes and other socially important elements.

With the festival less than two months away, it’s crunch time. At this moment, the festival’s programming department — festival director David Holbrooke and program director Emily Long — are scrambling to finalize the 2012 schedule.

We caught up with the two of them and they shared a few tips for filmmakers and what it’s like to be in the Mountainfilm trenches right now.