2010 Mountainfilm Festival: Special Guests

Here's a taste of what is in store for 2010, stay tuned as the rest of our special guests are announced!

Greg Carr	Paul Nicklen
Dave Foreman	Rick Ridgeway
Maya Lin	Joel Sartore
Thomas Lovejoy	SquidShow Theatre
Cristina Mittermeier	John Vaillant
Greg Mortenson	Ed Viesturs

Greg Carr For a man who made his fortune in the high-tech industry, Greg Carr spends an awful lot of time living in a tent. Carr, an Internews Network board member, spends about every other month living and working in a remote region of the war-torn East African country of Mozambique. In one of the largest privately funded environmental projects in Africa, Carr has committed to spend up to $40 million in a comprehensive, 20-year effort to restore a remarkable national park in the center of Mozambique. And he is taking a very hands-on approach, meeting regularly with villagers and tribal elders in the region. Encompassing over 125,000 square miles of savannas and wetlands, Gorongosa National Park once had the densest wildlife in all of Africa, and hosted more lions than any place in the world. After 16 years of civil war, this former international tourist destination is a shadow of its former self. "Gorongosa Park is a world treasure of biodiversity," says Carr. "Many of the thousands of species present have not yet been studied or named. Moreover, at one time Gorongosa had the largest density of lions in the world and we hope to restore those numbers."

Dave Foreman The founder of the environmental activist group, Earth First! and a leading proponent of protecting and restoring the earth’s wildness, Foreman is the author of Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservaton in the 21st Century. The book examines the extinction crisis and the best strategy for addressing it. He also wrote Confessions of an Eco-Warrior.

Maya Lin Renowned sculptor and landscape artist, Lin is best known as creator of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., a public work she designed at age 21. Her recent work has focused on how we relate and respond to the environment and her most current project, What is Missing (to be featured at Mountainfilm), specifically addresses the alarming pace of biodiversity loss.

Thomas Lovejoy Dr. Lovejoy is chief biodiversity adviser to the president of the World Bank, senior adviser to the president of the United Nations Foundation and president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. Credited with first coining the term “biological diversity,” Lovejoy developed the debt-for-nature swaps that allow environmentalist investors to convert the foreign debt of developing countries into preservation of biologically sensitive tracts of land.

Cristina Mittermeier A Mexican marine biologist, photographer and biochemical engineer, Mittermeier focuses her work on the important relationship between indigenous people and biodiversity. She serves as executive director for the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), whose mission is to translate conservation science into compelling visual messages about the beauty and wonder of the natural world and the challenges facing it.

Greg Mortenson Author, adventurer and activist Greg Mortenson will return to Mountainfilm in 2010. We’re looking forward to getting an update on his adventures since he last passed through Telluride. Greg’s latest book, Stones into Schools, was just published and has been getting great reviews.

Paul Nicklen On his way to becoming a biologist, Nicklen was sidetracked by a career as a nature photographer and photojournalist. His goal is to bridge the gap between scientific research and the public. His work has been published in hundreds of magazines around the world, including seven stories in National Geographic Magazine. His book, Polar Obsession, sold out its first printing.

Rick Ridgeway A member of the first American team to summit K2, Ridgeway is one of the world’s foremost mountaineers and adventurers in addition to being an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, photographer and author. As vice president of the outdoor clothing, apparel and gear company, Patagonia, he is also active in many environmental issues and sustainability initiatives. He created the Freedom to Roam initiative, which seeks to create and maintain wildlife corridors in the midst of human development.

Joel Sartore Much of Sartore’s 20-year career as a photographer has been with the National Geographic Society. His new book, Rare, is focused on America’s endangered species. A particularly entertaining speaker, he is a founding member of the ILCP.

SquidShow Theatre Telluride's own SquidShow Theatre was founded by Sasha Cuciniello in 2007. The company comprises of a talented group of creative, thoughtful and funny individuals who make it their goal to create exciting, challenging and original events. Company members collaborate to build new work with elements of music, dance, art and comedy. SquidShow will be creating an original work for Mountainfilm in Telluride, loosely based on the theme of extinction.

John Vaillant John Vaillant's first book was The Golden Spruce. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, and Men's Journal, among others. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and children.

Ed Viesturs Ed Viesturs is America's leading high altitude mountaineer, having climbed many of the world's most challenging summits, including ascending Mount Everest six times. He recently completed a 16-year quest to climb all 14 of the world's highest mountains (above 8,000 meters) without the use of supplemental oxygen. In doing so, he became the first American and the 5th person in the world to accomplish this. Viesturs was born in 1959 and grew up in the flatlands of Rockford, Illinois, where the highest objects on the horizon were water towers. After some beginner's rock climbing at Devil's Lake, Wisconsin, Viesturs left the Midwest for the University of Washington in 1977 and inaugurated a long-running obsession with the mountains.