| FESTIVAL { May 22-25, 2009 } | THANK YOU | WORLD TOUR { Year-Round } |
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"Fast forward to - ROZ SAVAGE |
Travel & Lodging | Symposium | Films | Guests | Events | Schedule | Jury | Awards Mountainfilm 2008 Special GUESTS
David Breashears is an accomplished mountaineer and filmmaker. Widely kown as the first American to summit Everest twice, he has climbed extensively around the world. On Everest to film an IMAX movie in 1996, Breashears was integral to the rescue efforts of the disastrous events on the mountain that season. he directed the documentary, Remnants of Everest: The 1996 Tragedy, which played at Mountainfilm's 2007 festival. The film has been called the definitive expose on the subject. It has been lauded for its clear portrayal of the decisions that lead to deaths and injuries on that fateful trip. Conrad Anker's specialty, simply put, is climbing the most technically challenging terrain in the world. This quest has taken him from the mountains of Alaska and Antarctica to the big walls of Patagonia and Baffin Island and the massive peaks of the Himalaya. Conrad's Antarctic experience spans a decade, with first ascents in three regions.
Alexandra Cousteau is dedicated to advocating the importance of conservation and sustainable management of water resources for a healthy planet and productive societies. Her work as an environmental advocate extends across continents and finds her equally at home on oceanic expeditions, developing environmental initiatives for local communities, and speaking to heads of state and media on issues of social environmental importance. Alexandra is part of the third generation of Cousteau to devote their lives to exploring and explaining the natural world. She first went on expedition with her father Philippe Cousteau when she was four months old, learned to scuba dive with her grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau when she was seven, and grew up traveling the globe, inheriting her passion for adventure and learning firsthand the value of conserving the natural world. Devoted to inspiring concern and commitment for the environment in today's youth, Alexandra co-founded EarthEcho International with her brother Philippe to further her family's legacy in science, advocacy, and education. Alexandra is a PADI-certified Divemaster. When she's not traveling, she enjoys sculling, freediving, scuba and cave diving, biking, hiking, horseback riding, practicing martial arts and playing the guitar. Her next activity? Learning to fly a plane.
Martin Litton is a legendary Grand Canyon river runner and a longtime environmental activist, best known as a staunch opponent of the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and other dams on the Colorado River. He first floated the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1955, at the time becoming only the 185th person known to have made the trip down the river first pioneered by John Wesley Powell. He ran the river again in 1962 and continued to run the Colorado for decades afterward. Litton was a close friend of David Brower, Edward Abbey, and other major figures in the conservation movement. Brower first recruited him in 1952 for a campaign to oppose the construction of two dams in Dinosaur National Monument. Congress voted down approval for the dams in 1956. This began a longtime association with the Sierra Club and a lifelong opposition to dam-building on the Colorado. He was active in the fight to stop dams from being constructed within Grand Canyon National Park. He has remained active in environmental causes. His most recent environmental activities have revolved around opposing logging in the Sequoia National Forest and the recently created Giant Sequoia National Monument, and campaigning to remove Glen Canyon Dam and drain Lake Powell. Litton still continues to make occasional river trips. In 1999 at the age of 82, he broke his own record as the oldest person to run the Grand Canyon, rowing the entire trip in a wooden boat.
Samantha Power is an Irish American journalist, writer, and academic. She is currently affiliated with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Power was born and raised in Ireland before emigrating to the United States in 1979. From 1993 to 1996, she worked as a journalist, covering the Yugoslav wars. When she returned to the United States, she attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1999. Her first book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, grew out of a paper she wrote in law school. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2003. A scholar of foreign policy especially as it relates to human rights, genocide, and AIDS, she is currently the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Power spent 2005-06 working in the office of U.S. Senator Barack Obama as a foreign policy fellow, where she was credited with sparking and directing Obama's interest in the Darfur conflict. She served as a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign until she was forced to resign after referring to Hillary Clinton as "a monster" in an interview with The Scotsman in London. Power apologized for the remarks and resigned from the campaign shortly thereafter. Rick Ridgeway has been a leading climber and adventurer for over 35 years. For the last 25 years, he has made his passion his vocation, producing over 15 documentary films for, among others, ABC, NBC and ESPN; and has taken home several awards, including an Emmy for an Everest show in 1983. He has written five books, including the highly acclaimed Seven Summits, The Shadow of Kilimanjaro and, most recently, Below Another Sky. Rick's mountaineering career gained momentum in 1976 when he was invited to join the American Bicentennial Everest Expedition. In 1978, he and three companions became the first Americans to reach the summit of K2, and the first ever to complete the ascent without the aid of bottled oxygen. Today Rick selects expeditions carefully as he continues to explore some of the most remote corners of the world. He made the first traverse of Borneo at its widest point, and sea-kayaked in the remote fiords of the Magellanic Archipelago in Patagonia. He was on the first American mountaineering expedition to Bhutan. In 1996 he walked 300 miles from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean (the basis of his book The Shadow of Kilimanjaro), and in 1998 celebrated Christmas on the first big wall climb ever completed in Antarctica. In 1999 he made the most poignant trip of his career crossing Tibet one side to the other, ending at the remote mountain where friend Jonathan had died 20 years before. Accompanying Rick was Jonathan's daughter, Asia, who was only 16 months old when her father died. At 19,000 feet, they found Jonathan's grave and reburied him. The journey is the subject of Rick's most recent book, Below Another Sky. (more at www.rickridgeway.com) Lito Tejada-Flores, along with another Telluride local Bill Kees, was largely responsible for cutting the ribbon on Mountainfilm in Telluride thirty years ago, and we are honored to welcome him back as a guest this year. Lito is author of one of the most widely referenced essays in the climbing world, "Games Climbers Play", which became the ideological basis for the British magazine Mountain. Lito is also a veteran ski instructor and author of the best-selling ski-instruction manual of all time "Breakthrough on Skis". (more at www.breakthroughonskis.com) Norbu Tenzing is the son of Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who made history in 1953 when he helped guide New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary to the first summitting of Mount Everest. Josh Tickell is one of the nation's leading experts on alternative fuels. He grew up in Louisiana where members of his family suffered from diseases linked to pollution from oil refineries. He began to look for alternatives to petroleum in college, when he discovered biodiesel while working on a farm in the former East Germany. Fascinated, Tickell started to conduct his own research. He translated documents written by the inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolf Diesel, and found that the first diesel engine had been designed to run on vegetable oil, not petroleum. After the publication of his first book, Tickell enrolled in Florida State University 's School of Motion Picture Television and Recording Arts where he earned his MFA in film. His goal: to direct and produce a major theatrical documentary motion picture that both chronicles and is a catalyst in the biodiesel and green energy movement. Tickell is widely recognized as the most engaging and inspirational public speaker in his field. Tickell founded the Biodiesel America Organization. Tickell uses his expert knowledge and powerful communication skills to offer solutions to rising gas prices, global climate change, pollution-related health issues and national energy security. (more at joshtickell.com)
Shaun Roger White (born September 3, 1986 in Carlsbad, California) is an American athlete. He has been a notable competitor in professional snowboarding since he was fourteen years old, but is also known for his skateboarding. Shaun spent his formative years riding Snow Summit and Bear Mountain, at Big Bear a small ski resort found in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. Shaun honed his skills on the now defunct Westridge snowboard park. White has been a participant in the Winter X Games, where he has medaled every year since 2002. Including all winter X Games competitions through 2008, his medal count stands at 12 (7 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze), including the first four-peat winner by a male athlete in one discipline, the snowboard slopestyle.
All Films, Schedules, Events, and Presenter Participation are subject to change. |
Christiane Amanpour is CNN’s chief international correspondent based in New York. Amanpour has reported on most crises from the world’s many news hotspots, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans. Her assignments have ranged from exclusive interviews with world leaders to reporting on the human consequences of natural disasters or covering events from the heart of war zones. She has received wide acclaim and numerous awards for her work, particularly for her extensive coverage of conflicts in the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East. Amanpour’s recent work has focused on the production of a series of highly acclaimed long-form programs that have aired across the CNN networks. In 2007 she presented a six-hour series on the world’s three leading monotheistic religions and their defenders, God’s Warriors, and an in-depth examination of the growing Islamic unrest in the UK in The War Within. In 2006 Amanpour presented two outstanding award-winning documentaries, Where Have All The Parents Gone? a powerful film examining the plight of the more than one million children orphaned to AIDS in Kenya and a two-hour exploration of the life of the world’s most wanted terrorist, In the Footsteps of Bin Laden. 
Roger Cohen, who became the The International Herald Tribune's first editor-at-large in 2006, began writing an Op-Ed column for the The New York Times in May 2007. At the same time, he became The New York Times's International Writer-at-Large. Mr. Cohen had been foreign editor for The New York Times since March 2002. Prior to joining The Times in 1990, Mr. Cohen was a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Cohen has written Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo, an account of the wars of Yugoslavia's destruction, and co-written a biography of General Norman Schwarzkopf, In the Eye of the Storm. His third book, Soldiers and Slaves: American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble was published in April, 2005. Mr. Cohen has won numerous awards, including the Peter Weitz Prize from the German Marshall Fund for dispatches from Europe, the Arthur F. Burns Prize, and the Joe Alex Morris lectureship for distinguished foreign correspondence by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He holds degrees in anthropology and biology and a PhD in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. He has authored a dozen books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, One River, The Clouded Leopard, Light at the Edge of the World, and The Lost Amazon. In 2002 he received the Lowell Thomas Medal and the Lannan Foundation prize for literary nonfiction and in 2004 was made an Honorary Member of the Explorers Club, one of twenty so named in the hundred-year history of the club. His many film credits include the award-winning series, Light at the Edge of the World. A native of Canada, Davis has worked as a park ranger and forestry engineer and is a licensed whitewater guide. He divides his time between Washington, DC and a remote fishing lodge in the Stikine Valley of northern British Columbia.
Dennis Dimick serves as executive editor at National Geographic Magazine in Washington DC. He previously served as the magazine’s environment editor. His slide show “Where Energy and Climate Meet” focuses on the nexus between climate change, our energy choices, and a sustainable economy. Using photography and graphics from National Geographic stories, the show is
based on three Sept. 2004 articles called “Signs from Earth” that document
observed effects of climate change worldwide, and from other recent
articles on fossil fuels and alternative energy. The show keys on the relationship between the burning of fossil fuels –
coal, oil, and natural gas – and recent warming of earth’s climate. It
presents a range of low-carbon energy choices we have available if we hope
to stem the rising tides and other impacts of a warming planet. The Sept. 2004 “Signs from Earth” articles were cited in 2005 by the
Overseas Press Club for best environmental coverage, and received second
place from the Society of Environmental Journalists for explanatory
journalism. An August 2005 article on alternative energy called ‘Future
Power” was rated by the magazine’s readers as the most popular of the year. An Oregon native, Dimick holds degrees in agriculture and agricultural
journalism from Oregon State University and the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining the National Geographic staff in 1980,
Dimick was a photographer and reporter at newspapers in Oregon and
Washington, and served as an editor at The Courier-Journal of Louisville,
KY. He and his family live in Arlington, VA.
Sylvia Earle, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker and the New York Times, "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress, and the first "Hero for the Planet," is an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist. She also is executive director for corporate and nonprofit organizations, including the Aspen Institute, the Conservation Fund, American Rivers, Mote Marine Laboratory, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Rutgers Institute for Marine Science, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and Ocean Conservancy. Former chief scientist of NOAA, Earle is president of Deep Search International and chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. She has a B.S. from Florida State University, an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Duke University, and 15 honorary degrees. She has authored more than 150 scientific, technical, and popular publications, lectured in more than 60 countries, and appeared in hundreds of television productions. Earle has led more than 60 expeditions and logged more than 6,000 hours underwater, including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970 and setting a record for solo diving to a depth of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet). Her research concerns marine ecosystems with special reference to exploration and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments.
John Francis, Ph.D., is known the world over as the Planetwalker. In 1971, John witnessed an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. The effects of the spill compelled John to stop using motorized vehicles. Several months later, to stop the arguments about the power of one person's actions, he took a vow of silence. His non-motorized lifestyle lasted twenty-two years, and the silence seventeen. During that time John walked across the United States earning a B.A at Southern Oregon State College, an M.S. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana and a Ph.D. in land resources at the University of Wisconsin. He later sailed and walked through the Caribbean and then walked the length of South America. John now travels the world speaking about his journey, sharing his unique perspective on the environment, and showing how we each can make a difference in our world. Dr. Francis is the author of Planetwalker: How to Change Your World One Step at A Time.
Dr. Peter H. Gleick is co-founder and President of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California. His research and writing address the critical connections between water and human health, the hydrologic impacts of climate change, sustainable water use, privatization and globalization, and international conflicts over water resources. Dr. Gleick is an internationally recognized water expert and was named a MacArthur Fellow in October 2003 for his work. In 2001, Gleick was dubbed a "visionary on the environment" by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1999, Gleick was elected an Academician of the International Water Academy, in Oslo, Norway and in 2006, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. Gleick received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He serves on the boards of numerous journals and organizations, and is the author of many scientific papers and five books, including the biennial water report, The World's Water, published by Island Press (Washington, D.C.).
Wade Graham is an environmental writer and historian who has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, Outside and other publications. He is a trustee of Glen Canyon Institute, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, dedicated to restoring the canyons of the Colorado River, and editor of Hidden Passage, The Journal of Glen Canyon Institute. He holds a Ph.D in American history from UCLA (2006). His book on the environmental history of Hawaii: “Braided Waters: Environment, Economy and Community in Molokai, Hawaii” is forthcoming from the University of Hawaii Press. He is currently working on a book for HarperCollins publishers entitled American Eden: From the thirteen colonies to the present, what our gardens tell us about who we are (Pub date 2009).
Richard C. Holbrooke is Vice Chairman of Perseus, a leading private equity firm. He most recently served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, where he was also a member of President Clinton’s cabinet (1999-2001). As Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (1994-1996), he was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia. He later served as President Clinton’s Special Envoy to Bosnia and Kosovo and Special Envoy to Cyprus on a pro-bono basis while a private citizen. From 1993-1994, he was the US. Ambassador to Germany. During the Carter Administration (1977-1981), he served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and was in charge of U.S. relations with China at the time Sino-American relations were normalized in December, 1978. He has received over twenty honorary degrees and numerous awards, including several Nobel Peace Prize nominations. 
Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indain descent. Iyer joined Time in 1982 as a writer on world affairs and since then has traveled widely, from North Korea to Easter Island, and from Paraguay to Ethiopia, while writing seven works of non-fiction and two novels, and basing himself in rural Japan. Most of his books have been about trying to see some society or way of life - revolutionary Cuba, Sufism, Buddhist Kyoto, even global disorientation - from within, but with the larger perspective an outsider can sometimes bring. In between his books, Iyer writes up to a hundred articles a year for magazines on several continents. A regular essayist for Time since 1986, he writes on literature for The New York Review of Books, on globalism for Harper's, on travel for the Financial Times, and on many other themes for the New York Times, National Geographic, TLS and many others. 
Photographer Chris Jordan vividly documents the combined effects of our culture of consumption in his art, providing a unique perspective and commentary on the role we all play in mass consumerism. He is an internationally acclaimed photographic artist and activist whose work explores the detritus of American mass culture. Chris's work is exhibited widely in the US and Europe, and has been featured in magazines, newspapers, weblogs, documentary films and television programs all over the globe. A sought-after speaker on the subject of mass culture, Chris also has appeared on several television programs and is currently the spokesperson for National Geographic's Earth Day 2008. (more at 
Anne Keller is a Colorado based freelance photographer who shoots predominantly for the cycling industry. During the fall and winter of 2007 Anne worked closely with professional cyclist Tara Llanes photo journaling her recovery from a devastating spinal inury that left
Katie Lee is the grande dame of Western singers and environmentalists. She is an author, musicologist, folk singer, storyteller, actress, songwriter, filmmaker, photographer, activist, poet, and river runner. She is one of a handful of men and women who knew the 170 miles of Glen Canyon very well. She made sixteen trips down the river, even named some of the side canyons. Glen Canyon and the river that ran through it has changed her life, so it is not surprising that she has never gotten over her horror and disbelief at the destruction of this exquisite Eden drowned under 500 feet of Colorado River water behind Glen Canyon Dam. 
Professional mountain bike racer Tara Llanes is a 3 time Norba National Champion, ESPN X-Games winner, and has had numerous World Cup podium finishes for downhill and dual slalom. After qualifying for BMX Olympic tryouts this past fall in Beijing, Tara returned home to race the season's final Jeep King of the Mountain race in Vail, Colorado. During that race, Tara suffered a debilitating crash that left the cycling phenom paralyzed from the waist down. Tara spent 4 months at Craig hospital in Denver enrolled in a rigorous rehabilitation program before returning home to Southern California where she is currently continuing her physical therapy with an aim to regain what movement she can. Strong, dedicated, and determined, Tara has been inspiring others with her ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds in her quest to walk again.
Jenni Lowe-Anker is a woman who lives life in the moment. She is a creative spirit and a risk-taker who prefers the road more passionate over the road more practical. It is an approach to life that informs all she does, from her work as an author, artist, and philanthropist, to her role as a wife and mother of three. An accomplished painter, Ms. Lowe-Anker renders whimsical, vividly colored contemporary Western paintings that draw on her imagination and childhood memories from working in the fields of her grandparents’ homesteaded property in Montana. The widow of renowned mountaineer Alex Lowe, she founded the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation and its Khumbu Climbing School to celebrate Lowe’s legacy as well as the Sherpas who risk their lives daily to make Himalayan climbing accessible to thousands. She lives in Bozeman, MT with her husband, Conrad Anker.
Fernando Seler "Nando" Parrado, born in Montevideo, Uruguay, is one of the sixteen Uruguayan survivors of the airplane crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. After spending two months trapped in the mountains with the other crash survivors, he, along with Roberto Canessa, climbed through the Andes mountains over a ten day period to find help. At the time of the Andes crash, he was a university student. In 2006 Parrado wrote a book about the crash, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home.
Bradley H. Udall is the Director of the University of Colorado Western Water Assessment, one of eight NOAA-funded Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments designed to connect climate science with decision making. Brad was formerly a consulting engineer and principal at Hydrosphere Resource Consultants. As a member of the research faculty at the University of Colorado, his expertise includes water and policy issues of the American West and especially the Colorado River. Brad is a lead author on the water chapter of the overarching climate change synthesis document being produced for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. He was a co-author of a chapter in the recent Bureau of Reclamation Colorado River Environmental Impact Statement on allocating shortages and operating Lakes Powell and Mead during low flows. Brad has provided testimony for a Senate committee on climate change impacts on water resources and has received the Climate Science Service Award from the California Department of Water Resources for his work in facilitating interactions between water managers and scientists. Brad serves on the American Water Works Association Research Foundation expert panel on climate change and serves as an advisor to the Water Utility Climate Alliance, a collection of eight large utilities including Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.|
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