Mountainfilm Blog

My first experience with Mountainfilm in Telluride was as a featured artist on the Gallery Walk in 2009. For a decade, I‘d been photographing the good work of small farmers across the United States, and the exhibition had shown a few times around the country. My Telluride venue wasn’t a gallery but La Cocina de Luz, the local Mexican restaurant. I had no idea what to expect. Since I had scheduled a photo shoot in New York that same weekend, I was only able to come for the Gallery Walk event. Afterward, I had to drive to the Montrose airport for an early flight the next morning.

I went to my first Mountainfilm in 2009. It was during a time where I was uncertain where to go with filmmaking. I had just sold most of my belongings and was preparing to set out on the road to film my first documentary – 23 Feet. It was at a time where I was overwhelmed and discouraged, wondering if I could even make a film. I needed support, a community, and Mountainfilm gave me that — and so much more.   

I hitched a ride from Santa Fe, New Mexico, slept on a friend’s floor and out of sheer luck by being in the right place at the right time, I was given a pass by a kind Mountainfilm staff member. I was elated, and I spent the entire festival not missing a beat. I listened and absorbed every moment I could. 

I was so inspired by the films I saw and even more so by the discussions afterward. Being able to meet filmmakers who are still my mentors today was a life-changing experience. They helped me believe in myself and encouraged me to push forward with filmmaking.

Mountainfilm Celebrates 50 Years of Americans Atop Everest

Conrad Anker to moderate discussion with Tom Hornbein and Jim Whittaker following world premiere of “High and Hallowed”

Telluride, Colorado (March 18, 2013) – In the spring of 1963, an expedition of American climbers attempted a bold ascent of Mount Everest. Fifty years later, two of the men who reached the summit of the world’s highest peak—Jim Whittaker and Tom Hornbein—will speak at Mountainfilm in Telluride, the leading festival for alpinists in America.

When I submitted my first documentary short, Pickin’ & Trimmin’, to Mountainfilm in 2008, my motivation was simple: I just wanted to go to Telluride. I’d just started submitting to film festivals and, as far as I was concerned, Mountainfilm was no different than the myriad of other festivals around the country, except that it was in a beautiful town that I had always wanted to visit. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Leading up to my first Mountainfilm, I’d get one of two reactions when I mentioned the festival. Either people would ask, “What is Mountainfilm?” or their eyes would widen moments before they launched into a breathless, enthusiastic soliloquy about the festival. It was the later response that had me wondering what made Mountainfilm so different.

Once I arrived in Telluride, it didn’t take me long to realize something special was going on. The houses are always packed, and the audiences are the most enthusiastic I’ve ever come across. Find me another film festival where people cheer during the promotional trailer before the film!

Lately, in celebration of our 35 years, we’ve been running a series written by some of the creative types who’ve taken the stage over the years at Mountainfilmin Telluride. (Read the blogs posted so far by filmmakers Travis Rummel, “Mountainfilm was Different. It was in my Face”; Anne Makepeace, “The Distinctive Un-Business Like Feel of Mountainfilm”; and Hal Clifford, “Mountainfilm: More Than the Sum of its Parts.”)

I stumbled across Mountainfilm in the spring of 1998, a few weeks after I moved to Telluride.

A door opened. For a few magical days, I felt like an initiate to whom secrets and magic were being revealed. It became my favorite event of the year. Fifteen years later, it still is.

I have often tried to explain Mountainfilm to Those Who Do Not Know. I tell them about the mechanics: the ice cream social, the growing number of screens, the fact that you’ll have a conversation with Aaron Huey or Chris Jordan and it may change your life. But I am unable to convey the ineffable aspects, those things that are both the most evanescent and the most essential to Mountainfilm. They are the qualities that make the festival more than the sum of its parts. Trying to describe them is like trying to explain sex.

Mountainfilm Gives Sneak Peek of 35^th Annual Film Line Up

Films Distinguished by Scope, Depth and Quality

Telluride, Colorado (April 19, 2013) – As with all things, there are ups and downs in the documentary film festival world. According to Mountainfilm in Telluride festival Director David Holbrooke, this year marks something of a zenith. “This is one of the strongest years for documentaries that we've ever seen,” he said. “From films we scouted at the earlier festivals in the year — Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca — to our own submissions, there just seemed to be an unusual number of really fine films for consideration.”