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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.

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.

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.

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.

Mountainfilm 2009 and 2011 guest Bill McKibben has become one of the leading environmental writers and activists, organizing the recent Keystone XL protest at the White House. He recently published an op-ed in The Washington Post about the connection between climate change and extreme weather events. Now filmmaker Stephen Thomson has combined McKibben's words with striking footage of the events he writes about. The result is powerful.

Tornadoes, fires, floods, crop failures—they’re all isolated events, right? This powerful video from Bill McKibben and Stephen Thomson helps connect the dots of the climate catastrophe.

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.

Official new trailer for Solitaire, the latest for Mountainfilm regulars, Sweetgrass Productions.

SOLITAIRE: A Backcountry Skiing, Snowboarding, and Telemark Film from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

From Sweetgrass Productions: