AWARDS AT THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL
One strong message from many of the films we watched was about the fragile state of our mountain environment. It is threatened both physically and culturally by war, the modern world and man’s habits.
Two further notes about the judging. We judged each film within its category and on its own merit despite length, apparent budget and achievement. This is important because it is all too tempting to reward outstanding technical or expedition achievement and to overlook a film’s true qualities, or lack of them, or to be swayed by an enormous production filmed on an unfathomably large budget. The second thing to say is that we judges came to unanimous decisions on all categories of prizes.
And now we come to the prizes:
Before we mention the prizes listed in the programme we would like to pay homage to the late Alpinist and film-maker Aleš Kunaver for an exceptional historical document, shot in 1962, which would have brought for that time extraordinary images to Europe. Today it is a precious look at the Land of the Sherpas. It shows that he was not only concerned with mountains but widened his horizons to take a sympathetic snapshot of life in Nepal forty years ago. The rediscovered film was sympathetically completed in the manner of the author by Matjaž Žbontar. Please can Dušica Kunaver come up to receive this additional award?
Main Award of the City of DomŽale
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The film we chose depicts a strange world of passion, danger, damp and history. It is a world that few know but which in this film is beautifully and sympathetically brought to the surface. There are no desperate heroics, no individual achievements but a strong collective aim. It is a portrait of the subterranean world of speleology in all its intricacies. The winner of the award for Best Film is
l’Abisso
by Alessandro Anderloni.
Alessandro Anderloni
3. L’Abisso /The Abyss
Italy, 2005; 75′
Mountain Sports and Adventure
The film shows the impressive environments of the pits in Spluga della Preta, starting with the first one, the so called “131â€, which is considered one of the most beautiful and most fascinating pits in the world. For the first time in history, a video camera went down to the Black Room, at 800 m of depth, in the hardest zone of the abyss. You can watch “live†new explorations and new discoveries made by a group of young speleologists at 700 m of depth, trying to find new ways and perhaps a second way out of the abyss. Finally, thanks to the testimony of some of the speleologists of the last 50 years, we can report the exploration history and understand the charm, the beauty and the mystery of Spluga della Preta.
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