Mountainfilm in Telluride
Encyclopedia
Mountainfilm in Telluride is America’s premier festival celebrating achievement in adventure and activism, culture and environment, held annually over Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado
since 1979.
In addition to screening leading independent documentary films from around the world, the festival includes a full-day symposium on a pressing contemporary issue such as energy (2007), water (2008), food (2009) and the extinction crisis (2010). In addition to films and speakers, the festival includes art exhibits, book signings, student workshops and a forum for other non-profit organizations aligned with Mountainfilm’s mission and programming.
Founders include Royal Robbins
, Lito Tejada-Flores, then president of American Alpine Club
Bob Craig and Bill Kees with help from former Climbing magazine owner/publisher Michael Kennedy and Patagonia
founder Yvon Chouinard
.
In the intervening years, Mountainfilm has hosted such notables as Wade Davis
, Sir Edmund Hillary, Richard Holbrooke
, Diane Feinstein, Galen Rowell
, George Schaller
, Phil Borges
, Frans Lanting
, Lynn Hill
, David Brower, Pete Athans, Timmy O'Neill, Subhankar Banarjee, David Breashears
, Norman Vaughan
, Martin Litton, James Balog, Maurice Herzog
, Gretel Ehrlich
, Timothy Treadwell
, David James Duncan
, Julia Butterfly Hill
, John Grunsfeld, Angela Fisher, Rick Ridgeway
, and Carl Pope
.
Some of the past films screened include Gasland
, Sergio, Waste Land, The Cove, Taxi to the Dark Side
, The Story of the Weeping Camel
, Travellers and Magicians
, Genghis Blues
, Murderball
, Who Killed the Electric Car?
, and Grizzly Man
.
Not to be confused with Telluride Film Festival
, another festival held annually in Telluride over Labor Day weekend.
It was Lito Tejada-Flores, fresh from screening his now classic adventure and mountaineering film, Fitzroy, at the Trento festival in Italy, and Bill Kees, a local climber and avid outdoorsman, who inaugurated Mountainfilm in Telluride. Over three nights, at the historic Sheridan Opera House, they screened a dozen films, all about mountains: mountain sports, mountain cultures, mountain issues. During the days, the audiences took to the mountains themselves, climbing the thirteen and fourteen thousand-foot peaks surrounding Telluride, with skis on their backs, kayaking the San Miguel River, swollen with snowmelt, and engaging in spirited dialogue about the importance of wild places, adventure, art and action.
The first festivals attracted leading names in mountaineering and exploration – Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard and David Breashears, among others. With their help, the Memorial Day weekend event quickly became a not-to-be-missed tradition for an ever-expanding circle of pioneers in diverse fields, from athletes to environmentalists and from scientists to poets. Mountains soon became as much a metaphorical theme as a literal one and, as the festival expanded in size and recognition, its programming readily stretched to the leading edges of critical contemporary issues.
In 1999, Mountainfilm significantly grew the scope of its operation with the introduction of Mountainfilm on Tour. By taking festival films to theaters all across the country, and internationally, Mountainfilm accessed large and diverse new audiences that would otherwise have had no window into the filmmakers’ unique and important work.
Today, the Mountainfilm festival occupies dozens of venues in Telluride and Mountain Village and fills the two towns with inspiring thinkers and doers. In addition to showcasing leading independent films and filmmakers, the festival now includes symposia and panels, gallery exhibits of art and photography, book-signings, breakfast talks, student programs, music and street parties. The essential combination that first set the festival apart, though – friends, adventure, passion and powerful ideas – remains firmly intact.
Telluride, Colorado
The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...
since 1979.
In addition to screening leading independent documentary films from around the world, the festival includes a full-day symposium on a pressing contemporary issue such as energy (2007), water (2008), food (2009) and the extinction crisis (2010). In addition to films and speakers, the festival includes art exhibits, book signings, student workshops and a forum for other non-profit organizations aligned with Mountainfilm’s mission and programming.
Founders include Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins
Royal Robbins is one of the pioneers of American rock climbing. After learning to climb at Tahquitz he went on to make first ascents of many big wall routes in Yosemite...
, Lito Tejada-Flores, then president of American Alpine Club
American Alpine Club
The American Alpine Club, or AAC, was founded in 1902 by Charles Ernest Fay, and is the leading national organization in the United States devoted to mountaineering, climbing, and the multitude of issues facing climbers...
Bob Craig and Bill Kees with help from former Climbing magazine owner/publisher Michael Kennedy and Patagonia
Patagonia (clothing)
Patagonia, Inc. is a Ventura, California-based clothing company, focusing mainly on outdoor clothing. The company is a member of several environmental movements. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1972....
founder Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard is a rock climber, environmentalist and outdoor industry businessman, noted for his contributions to climbing, climbing equipment and the outdoor gear business. His second company, Patagonia is known for its environmental focus...
.
In the intervening years, Mountainfilm has hosted such notables as Wade Davis
Wade Davis
Edmund Wade Davis is a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants...
, Sir Edmund Hillary, Richard Holbrooke
Richard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker....
, Diane Feinstein, Galen Rowell
Galen Rowell
Galen Avery Rowell was a noted wilderness photographer and climber. Born in Oakland, California, he became a full-time photographer in 1972.-Early life and education:...
, George Schaller
George Schaller
George Beals Schaller is an American mammalogist, naturalist, conservationist and author. Schaller is recognized by many as the world's preeminent field biologist, studying wildlife throughout Africa, Asia and South America. Born in Berlin, Schaller grew up in Germany, but moved to Missouri as a...
, Phil Borges
Phil Borges
Phil Borges is a social documentary photographer and filmmaker.For over twenty five years Phil Borges has documented indigenous and tribal cultures around the world. Through his exhibits, books and multimedia projects, he strives to create a heightened understanding of issues faced by people in...
, Frans Lanting
Frans Lanting
Frans Lanting, is a Dutch photographer specializing in wildlife photography.Lanting was born in Rotterdam and later emigrated to the United States after being educated in the Netherlands. He now lives in Santa Cruz, California and operates a studio and gallery, as well as a stock photography...
, Lynn Hill
Lynn Hill
Lynn Hill is a United States rock climber, known as a top sport climber of the 1980s and famous for making the first free ascent of the Nose Route on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley....
, David Brower, Pete Athans, Timmy O'Neill, Subhankar Banarjee, David Breashears
David Breashears
David Breashears is an American mountaineer and filmmaker. In 1985, he became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest twice...
, Norman Vaughan
Norman D. Vaughan
Colonel Norman Dane Vaughan was an American dogsled driver and explorer whose first claim to fame was participating in Admiral Byrd's first expedition to the South Pole...
, Martin Litton, James Balog, Maurice Herzog
Maurice Herzog
Maurice Herzog is a French mountaineer and sports administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition...
, Gretel Ehrlich
Gretel Ehrlich
Gretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, poet, and essayist.Born in 1946 in Santa Barbara, California, she studied at Bennington College and UCLA film school. She began to write full time in 1978, living on a Wyoming ranch, after the death of a loved one. Ehrlich debuted in 1985 with The Solace...
, Timothy Treadwell
Timothy Treadwell
Timothy Treadwell was an American bear enthusiast, environmentalist, amateur naturalist, eco-warrior and documentary film maker. He lived among the coastal grizzly bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska, USA, for approximately 13 summers...
, David James Duncan
David James Duncan
David James Duncan is an American novelist and essayist, best known for his two bestselling novels, The River Why and The Brothers K...
, Julia Butterfly Hill
Julia Butterfly Hill
Julia Butterfly Hill is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a -tall, roughly 1500-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 and December 18, 1999...
, John Grunsfeld, Angela Fisher, Rick Ridgeway
Rick Ridgeway
Rick Ridgeway is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, author, photographer and environmentalist, of outdoor adventure related projects from Ojai, California. Ridgeway has achieved many adventures in his life including being a member of the first American team to summit K2...
, and Carl Pope
Carl Pope
Carl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune...
.
Some of the past films screened include Gasland
Gasland
Gasland is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Josh Fox. The film focuses on communities in the United States impacted by natural gas drilling and, specifically, a stimulation method known as hydraulic fracturing.-Synopsis:...
, Sergio, Waste Land, The Cove, Taxi to the Dark Side
Taxi to the Dark Side
Taxi to the Dark Side is a 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced by Eva Orner and Susannah Shipman, which won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature...
, The Story of the Weeping Camel
The Story of the Weeping Camel
The Story of the Weeping Camel is a 2003 German docudrama distributed by ThinkFilm. It was released internationally in 2004. The movie was directed and written by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni. The plot is about a family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi desert trying to save the life of a...
, Travellers and Magicians
Travellers and Magicians
Travellers and Magicians is a 2003 Bhutanese Dzongkha language film written and directed by Khyentse Norbu, a reincarnate lama of Tibetan Buddhism, who is also known as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche. The movie is the first feature film shot entirely in the kingdom of Bhutan...
, Genghis Blues
Genghis Blues
Genghis Blues is a documentary film directed by Roko Belic. It centers on the journey of blind American singer Paul Pena to the isolated Asian nation of Tuva due to his interest in Tuvan throat singing....
, Murderball
Murderball (documentary)
Murderball is a 2005 American documentary film about tetraplegic athletes with partial arm function who play wheelchair rugby. It centers on the rivalry between the Canadian and U.S. teams leading up to the 2004 Paralympic Games. It was directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, and...
, Who Killed the Electric Car?
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Who Killed the Electric Car? is a 2006 documentary film that explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the mid 1990s...
, and Grizzly Man
Grizzly Man
Grizzly Man is a 2005 American documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell. The film consists of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with grizzly bears before he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear...
.
Not to be confused with Telluride Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
, another festival held annually in Telluride over Labor Day weekend.
The History of Mountainfilm
The Mountainfilm festival began in 1979, a time when Telluride was completing its transition from a hard-rock gold and silver mining community to a destination resort and ski town. The new era would usher vital new energy and economic life into Telluride’s breath-taking box-canyon but, as they had been since the days of the Ute Indians, the changeless, rugged mountains would remain the leading attraction.It was Lito Tejada-Flores, fresh from screening his now classic adventure and mountaineering film, Fitzroy, at the Trento festival in Italy, and Bill Kees, a local climber and avid outdoorsman, who inaugurated Mountainfilm in Telluride. Over three nights, at the historic Sheridan Opera House, they screened a dozen films, all about mountains: mountain sports, mountain cultures, mountain issues. During the days, the audiences took to the mountains themselves, climbing the thirteen and fourteen thousand-foot peaks surrounding Telluride, with skis on their backs, kayaking the San Miguel River, swollen with snowmelt, and engaging in spirited dialogue about the importance of wild places, adventure, art and action.
The first festivals attracted leading names in mountaineering and exploration – Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard and David Breashears, among others. With their help, the Memorial Day weekend event quickly became a not-to-be-missed tradition for an ever-expanding circle of pioneers in diverse fields, from athletes to environmentalists and from scientists to poets. Mountains soon became as much a metaphorical theme as a literal one and, as the festival expanded in size and recognition, its programming readily stretched to the leading edges of critical contemporary issues.
In 1999, Mountainfilm significantly grew the scope of its operation with the introduction of Mountainfilm on Tour. By taking festival films to theaters all across the country, and internationally, Mountainfilm accessed large and diverse new audiences that would otherwise have had no window into the filmmakers’ unique and important work.
Today, the Mountainfilm festival occupies dozens of venues in Telluride and Mountain Village and fills the two towns with inspiring thinkers and doers. In addition to showcasing leading independent films and filmmakers, the festival now includes symposia and panels, gallery exhibits of art and photography, book-signings, breakfast talks, student programs, music and street parties. The essential combination that first set the festival apart, though – friends, adventure, passion and powerful ideas – remains firmly intact.