Film program

25 September, Sunday

Big Hall

 11:00 / 12:10 – Anwar, 2022, Spain, Rosa Garcia Loire, 70`

Alex Txikon’s winter ascension on Manaslu, Nepal, is the seed of a story that will bring sustainable light to two very different places: Newton, Sierra Leone, and a special school in Diamer, Pakistan. Alpinism, solidarity and renewable energy are key to this story.

 12:10 / 12:26 – Santiago, 2021, Bulgaria, Andrey Koulev, 16` – animation

A film about the friendship between a child and an old fisherman. Inspired by Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’. Andrey Koulev is a producer/film director/writer/illustrator; studied Film Directing at NATFA; illustrator and designer of books and magazines; a member of the Union of Bulgarian Fine Artists and the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers. Since 2011, Art Director of the World Festival of Animated Film, Varna. Filmography: The Fool Moon, Poet and Pegasus, Line, The Piano Player, Love With Occasional Showers (Golden Rhyton for Best Animated Film, 2015), Fishes Swimmers Boats (2017), The Nights of a Lonely Messenger (2017).

 12:30 – 13:00 – break

 13:00 / 13:30 – 600 Miles under the sails of Raffica, 2022, Bulgaria, Aleko Zheliazkov, 30`

600 miles under the sails of Raffica with the “Wind and Water” sports club crew. All on board are sailors who started sailing late in life, much later than the unwritten rules of sailing require. Will they fulfill their dream of competing and finishing in one of the toughest regattas in Europe – the Aegean 600 in the Meltemi season. They sail without many of the extras that other racers have, sometimes in 48 knot winds. Eight strong characters that prove it’s never too late to become a racing sailor.

Q&A – The film will be presented by the producer Dobrin Enchev.

 13:30 /14:30 – See presentations program

 14:30 / 15:43 – La liste: Everything or Nothing, Austria, Eric Crossland, 73`

In 2016, Jérémie Heitz made a list of The Alps’ most iconic descents and skied them faster than they’d ever been skied before for the film La Liste. This feat represented a complete reimagining of classic ski descents and a progression into a whole new level of freeriding. But in the words of legendary ski mountaineer, Sylvain Saudan, “you’ve done it in Switzerland, now you must do it in the world”. This new film answers this challenge. This documentary follows Jérémie and his trusted mountain partner Sam Anthamatten as they seek out ski descents on the highest mountain ranges. From the Andes to the Karakoram and their home range in between, Sam and Jérémie have spent the last couple of years trying to expand their definition of “steep skiing”. This journey has been a life-changer, one that poses as many questions as it answers. The title of the film says it all: you either succeed, or you come back with nothing to show for the time you spent away from home and the risks that you took.

15:43 / 17:08 –  INTO THE ICE, 2022, Denmark/Germany, Lars Ostenfeld, 85`

INTO THE ICE is a journey of discovery to the vast masses of ice and the secret of our future that it is harboring. Director Lars Ostenfeld accompanies three of the world’s leading glaciologists on pioneering scientific expeditions to and into the Greenland ice sheet. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Jason Box and Alun Hubbard are all working to collect new crucial data that can help us answer some key questions of our time: how fast is the ice melting? How quickly are sea levels rising? How much time do we have left to change the course of these events? The scientists are caught in a dilemma: while they collect new evidence to an inconvenient truth, people in power are not prepared to take action to prevent the earth from dying. The film brings us breathtaking images from a place that soon will be lost as we know it now.

Тържествена зала/Turzestvena Hall

 11:30  / 12:50 – Dear Werner: Walking on cinema, 2020, Spain, Pablo Maqueda, 79`

In 1974 Werner Herzog walked from Munich to Paris, an act of faith to prevent the death of his mentor Lotte Eisner. In 2020, a young filmmaker walked following in Herzog ́s footsteps in an act of love to one of the best filmmakers of our time. A journey through villages, nature, loneliness, and cold, looking for the meaning of filmmaking. Including fragments of the book “Of Walking in Ice” by legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog narrated by himself exclusively for the film, DEAR WERNER (Walking on cinema) is a We love cinema production, with the collaboration of La Cinémathèque Française and Werner Herzog.

 12:50 / 13:30 – break

 13:30 / 14:05 – Cervino – la cresta del leone / Matterhorn – the lion ridge, 2021, Italy, Hervé Barmasse, Alessandro Beltrame, 35`

“MATTERHORN – The Lion Ridge; Discovering the Queen route of the Alps with Hervé Barmasse; ; A breathtaking journey to the summit of one of the world’s most iconic mountains. Viewers are guided along the route by the accomplished Italian alpinist Hervé Barmasse as he tells the fascinating history of the Matterhorn’s first ascent.; ; The Matterhorn is one of the world’s most striking and instantly-recognisable mountains. Seen from Switzerland, it stands elegant, slender and graceful, whilst from Italy it rises, mighty, rugged and imposing. It is, without a doubt, an unmistakeable peak, as well as being a difficult mountain to climb. Even today it is one of the most coveted climbs in the Alps, as Hervé Barmasse knows all too well. The film follows the alpine guide and extraordinary storyteller as he leads viewers up the Italian normal route, aka the Lion Ridge—the queen of Alpine routes.; Hervé explores the history of the Matterhorn’s first ascent and shares tales of its protagonists as he guides viewers step by step along this challenging route all the way to the mountain’s 4478m summit.; ; Hervé Barmasse is an alpinist and film-maker who has completed major ascents all over the world. With the Matterhorn on his doorstep, he has put his name to more feats on this mountain than any other climber in history, including new routes, first winter ascents and first solo ascents. His first book, La Montagna Dentro, was published by Laterza. Since 2016 he has been a regular guest presenter on the TV programme Kilimangiaro, introducing viewers to the world of the mountains.”

14:05 / 15:34 – CHADDR – A River between us, 2020, Germany, Minsu Park, 89`

17-year-old Stanzin is about to graduate from high school in Ladakh, in the Kashmir region, India. She is the last generation who has to follow a dangerous mountain pass to get from her home village to school. Global warming and technological progress in the region change the lives of people rapidly. A lot is at stake for Stanzin, who undertakes her last way to school before taking her final exams and leaving her home town forever.

15:34 / 15:44 – Монолог 2, 2022, Австрия, Нилс Ролинг, 10` / Monolog 2, 2022, Austria, Nils Roling, 10`

Christoph Schoefegger is skiing longer than he can remember, it’s his biggest love and his whole life circles around it. But what happens if somehow you loose the foundation of this passion? What happens when you don’t go skiing for yourself anymore but because of competitions?, Chris was in that state of mind and needed to relocate the basics of his passion. Right at this time a friend with a Monoski crossed his way and from there on nothing was like before again!, Monolog 2 is his way out of this personal crises and with the movie he hopes to inspire others to just going out and having fun in the snow. No matter if you ski or snowboard, or Monoski!

Visitor Information Centre Hall

 13:00 / 13:15 – The Arlberg Effect, 2022, Austria, Timm Schröder, 15`

The Arlberg is a hot spot for off-piste and off-piste skiers & Riders; ; Freeriding has a long history on the Arlberg and the terrain is the source for many world class athletes. ; We spend a winter with Lorraine Huber, Nadine Wallner, Stefan Häusl, Dino Flatz, Sebastian Mall and Mikaela Holsten in their home and dive into the riders’ perspective.; ; Sport has always been the linchpin of the culture and development of the ski town. ; What does that mean for the locals at Arlberg and what drives them?; ; The Arlberg Effect is not only  picturesque, but above all an authentic impression of the freeride community on the Arlberg. ; ; The film is produced by snowboarder and filmmaker Timm Schröder and experienced backcountry ski photographers/filmmakers Daniel Bear and Alex Fuchs during the 21-22 season.
; ; The film title “Arlberg Effect” is an expression in freeride jargon and means that the avalanche warning level can generally be assessed as half a level lower in the frequently used areas near the slopes. The Arlberg Region is the origin to this affect’s name due to the heavy traffic of Freeriders in it’s terrain, traffic that actively change the conditions of the mountain.
 Of course, the avalanche warning level must always be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

13:15 / 14:43 – North 6, 2021, Germany, Frank Kretschmann, Tom Dauer, 28`

They are considered as the six greatests of the Alps: the north faces of Grosser Zinne, Piz Badile, Matterhorn, Eiger, Petit Dru and Grandes Jorasses. Almost 70 years ago, the French mountain guide Gaston Rébuffat already wrote about the shady escapes in his classic “Stars and Storms”: “A dream fulfilled gives birth to a new dream, and now I wanted to conquer all the great north faces.” Mastering them all is a lifetime goal for many mountaineers, the Grand Slam of alpinism. The Swiss Roger Schäli and the South Tyrolean Simon Gietl have climbed all six walls several times. But they, too, have a new dream: their goal is to climb the iconic walls nonstop and to cover the distances between the summits under their own power. When they set out on a cool autumn morning, they have an almost impossible undertaking ahead of them: 1100 kilometers of distance, 30770 meters of ascent and 29470 meters of descent, which they plan to accomplish on road bikes, on foot, on ropes and by paraglider. This is also a special mountain trip for the experienced exceptionalists. Cause they know all that the Great North Walls should only be approached with caution and humility.; a film by Frank Kretschmann and Tom Dauer

14:43 / 15:30 –  Doo Sar. A karakoram ski expedition film, 2022, Poland, Jakub Gzela, 46`

Two peaks, two friends, and two ski descents. Andrzej Bargiel and Jędrek Baranowski roam through Karakoram to create their own history. This movie is a skiing journey told by friends, full of passion and love for high mountains and skiing over 6000 meters.; The Karakoram Ski Expedition aimed to climb and ski down two six-thousands – located in the Ghidims-Dur Valley, Yawash Sar II peak (6,178 m above sea level) Laila Peak (6,096 m above sea level) situated in the Hushe Valley. Both peaks are in the Pakistani Karakoram, the second largest mountain range after the Himalayas. The other goal of the expedition was to explore new areas in terms of potential goals of future travels. The journey was completed with double success. Both peaks were conquered just ten days apart and skied down.; The first of them – the virgin peak of Yawash Sar II was climbed by Andrzej Bargiel on April 30th, 2021, as the first man in history. After reaching the peak, Andrzej Bargiel skied down to the base. Although the assumption of this part of the expedition was only partially realized. Andrzej climbed the summit on his own while Jędrek Baranowski waited in the middle of the mountain height due to insufficient acclimatization. Skiing down a heavily icy summit cone was achieved with the help of ropes. The summit attack took place after less than one day at the base camp and the setting up an advanced base camp at the foot of the mountain.; The second – Laila Peak, was conquered jointly by Andrzej Bargiel and Jędrek Baranowski on May 10th, 2021, as the first Poles in history. Due to snow conditions and icing in the summit cone, skiing was not possible from the very peak. Therefore, they decided to leave the skis 150 meters below the summit, from where the ski descent to the base began.; This film is not only a story about mountain struggles. It is primarily a story of an adventure related to getting to know the local culture and meeting many interesting people, spending time together with friends during many hours of trekking.; The expedition was a part of the Hic Sunt Leones project (in Latin, “Hic Sunt Leones” means “here are lions”, and it’s a Latin phrase used to describe unexplored and unknown territories), a unique ski project initiated by Andrzej Bargiel himself. Inspired by his previous experiences, he demystified the stereotype of a “martyr” climber and used his knowledge to organize expeditions individually. This project’s primary goal is to make ski descents of the highest mountains in the world and prove that skiing is possible even at the Top of the World. The project’s opening expedition was Shishapangma Ski Challenge – the first Polish ski expedition to the Himalayas. Its main goal was the quick ascent to the Shishapangma summit (8,013 m a.s.l.) and then ski descent.