Competition
 | Everything Has ChangedItaly - 2007 - Mini DV - Colour In 1901, a man is murdered in mysterious circumstances in the Lessinia and so begins a never-ending nightmare. The film reflects upon the desertion of the small hamlets of the Lessini mountains and accuses the "ancient object predators" (those who go into the abandoned houses robbing them of traditional objects and - more significantly - the identities of their former occupants) of expediting their demise. In a visual collage vascillating between the dream-like and the real, we see tragic evidence of the abandonment of the hamlets. We are also shown the poetry that, for those who seek out these local beechwood forest hamlets, awaits. |
Native of AlpujarraSpain - 2007 - DV-Cam - Colour Immediately following the Spanish Civil War, an elderly gentleman in the company of his loyal mule departs his native village in order to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the assassination of his son. His own journey will reveal itself to be as tragic as that of his son. The film employs non-professional actors and evokes an atmosphere of the 1930-40s, including the courageous choice to "age" the video imagery. It is based on a true story that occurred in Granada, in the region of Alpujarra, in 1939. |
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 | BellavistaAustria - 2006 - Digital Betacam - Black and white Bellavista (meaning lovely view), is the name of many hotels found in the mountains, including one in Sappada, a linguistic enclave in the Carnic Alps on the border between Italy and Austria. Giuliana, Piero and Diana's only daughter, lives abroad for many years before coming home to live with her aging parents and to help run the family's hotel with her brother. Two terrible accidents and the death of another brother precipate Giuliana's return. As she works in the hotel kitchen, Giuliana studies the dialect she spoke as a child-Plodar, or Sappadino. The film accompanies Giuliana on her visits to the elderly inhabitants of her native village as she comes to terms with the ups and downs of her own life. This is an intense and melancholy portrait that stimulates reflection on life in the mountains and how one can be made to feel a prisoner of this existence. |
Gold of the Himalayas - The nomad life in LadakhGermany - 2006 - Digital Betacam - Colour Changpa. Only a very few people live at this altitude, in an landscape sculpted by air and wind, where the soil is arid and animals fight over the smallest patch of grass on which to feed. The film tells the story of 19-year-old Norbu, who returns home from the capital of Ladakh to introduce his parents to his young girlfriend. Forming the backdrop of this and other stories are breathtaking panoramas, from the frozen streams of early spring, to the winter snowfall that forces the animals to huddle together for warmth to survive. |
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 | Veal in the Cow and Grain in the Coffer. A Year in the Life of the Mountain Farmers of Val d'UltimoGermany - 2006 - Digital Betacam - Colour The Oberhof is one of the last mountain cabins found deep in the Val d'Ultimo. For centuries, the Schwienbacher lived here, calling these huts "Oberhofer". Luis and Wascht, brothers who live with their elderly mother Zilla, set off at the end of June with scythe and rake, moving to the Tufer refuge at 2000 meters. In August, they cut the fields, taking care not to miss a single blade of hay. In winter, the hay is loaded onto sleds and tied with cords made by the brothers (under the watchful eye of their mother) from cowhide. The descent into the valley is cause for celebration. Once, young girls would choose the boy with the most attractive sled to dance with; no one dances any more, because there are no longer any girls.
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The king of the Alps returnsGermany - 2005 - Digital Betacam - Colour Like no other animal, the mountain goat occupies a unique place in Alpine imagery, legends, beliefs, superstitions, culture, and popular medicine. Its strength, elegance, and impressive set of antlers have always fascinated people. The best examples of mountain goats are found in the Gran Paradiso National Park, where this species enjoys special protection (granted by the House of Savoy in 1856). The mountain goats have found an ideal habitat here in which to reproduce. The film documents the life of these animals and offers incredible images of their mating rituals in addition to exciting footage of male competition for female attention. |
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 | Better Known as 'Vero' - A Room for MarozinItaly - 2007 - Mini DV - Black and white The subject of this film is the "mythical Marozin", partisan commander better known as "Vero" and native of Arzignano. "Vero", a pragmatic man who obstinately pushes through the period between 1943-45, is busy on the Lessinia mountains, where he tests his resolve and like every man who has seen war, sees his future shrouded in tragic ambiguity. An episode of secondary importance recounted without interviews or witnesses. Like an epistolary dialogue, the film invokes memory from nature and looks at the ideological resonance of official documents. |
Diary of the UnheardItaly - 2007 - Mini DV - Colour The place, Sottosengia, located near Fumane in the Lesssinia. The object, a local inhabitant’s diary, dating to the first half of the last century, found intact. The pages, written in “par roèrso”, or backwards, was a common technique of ciphering once used by mountain villagers. The diary reveals the unqiue genius of Giuseppe Marconi, known as Bepi Pessa, born in Cona. Though Pessa emigrated to Argentina, he returned seven years later and lived in total isolation, dedicating himself to an obsessive search for and recording of the earth’s hidden sounds. Filmed entirely in the Lessini mountains, the film is based on a story by Roal Dahl. |
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 | The Wildflower MeadowGermany - 2005 - Digital Betacam - Colour Hundreds of animals live in a wildflower meadow. These oceans of color offer a home to insects that live in the soil and fly among the flowers. At one time, these meadows were completely wild and changed according to natural rhythms. Today it is Man who - through the annual mowing of these fields - prevents trees from growing in them, which in turn permits their survival. The film reveals an incredible natural microcosm and through graphic animation illustrates the evolution of this ecosystem from the glacial period to the modern age; a magic journey through time, with many surprises. |
Expedition into the Bavarian ForestGermany - 2006 - Digital Betacam - Colour A few kilometers from the Tegernsee mountains, heavily visited by mass tourism, lies one of the last of the wild Bavarian forests. Following in the steps of ancient Bavarian lumberjacks, the film shows how man left no visible trace of his presence here, except for the ancient and now abandoned wood dykes found along the streams. Enormous trees, hundreds of years old, are the true protagonists of this wild and fascinating place, where the forest renews itself. The mere fact that an area this untouched can be found so close to civilization is proof that it is possible to explore and discover wonderful places without traveling to exotic, faraway lands. |
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 | Gesäuse - The Roaring MountainsAustria - 2005 - Digital Betacam - Colour The mountainous region of Gasäuse, in the heart of the Austrian Alps, is one of the wildest regions of Europe. Rocky walls, rushing streams, and majestic forests are part of a preciptiously steep terrain whose roaring water has inspired the name of these peaks, Roaring Mountains. Generations of climbers have tried to scale these mountains but the first to do so were the Benedictine monks of the Admont Convent, home to the world's largest monastic library. The monks were explorers and great scholars of the region's flora and fauna. The film recounts the story of these monk-explorers from the time of widespread deforestation in the 16th century to the current classification of these mountains as a National Park. |
The Fadaric BrothersSwitzerland - 2007 - Digital Betacam - Colour The small village of Germanionico, deep in the Val Malvaglia, seems to hang miraculously from a stretch of land at an altitude of 1500 meters. Approximately 20 houses and stalls - hundreds of years old - were built from local wood and stone. Everyone calls the Scossa brothers - Baggi, Emilio, and Gino - the Fadaric brothers. They live in Germanionico year round, coming down only to visit the doctor, go to city hall, or stop by the sheep market. The film recounts the life of these elderly brothers and their close contact with animals and nature. Theirs is a radical lifestyle, some would say too radical; indeed, the story of two men elicits profound melancholy. |
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 | Ifugaos. Mountain SculptorsFrance - 2005 - Mini DV - Colour In the heart of the mountains of the Philipines we find the famous Banané terraces for rice cultivation. Due to their spectacular beauty they have been called the "eighth wonder of the world". This landscape was created more than 2000 years ago by the Ifugaos, an ancient population of headhunters. The film recounts the windy trip to Banané, a destination even Spanish missionaries and mass tourism never reached. What results is a realistic account of the miserable conditions - hay huts built alongside the water terraces - in which the villagers live. |
Once Upon A Time... The Delicacies of a Small WorldItaly - 2006 - DV-Cam - Colour A retired couple, Erminio and Attilia, live in Arnad, a small village located in the Valle d'Aosta in the heart of the Alps where they speak dialect and share the same passion for traditional mountain cooking. Together with their grandchildren Paul and Sofia (and their loyal cat Furbino) they gather the wild greens, seasonal fruit and vegetables cultivated in their garden. The couple shares their knowledge of this traditional cuisine, strictly tied the land, in a world revolving around the rhythm of the seasons and simple pleasures. |
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 | The Great SageItaly - 2007 - Mini DV - Colour Set in the Lessini Mountains in the 1950s, the film tells the story of a young man from a mountain village and the rural surroundings in which he grew up. The film's protagonist is strongly tied to this slowly disappearing world. The innate and fertile poetic tendencies of the young man, fed by his profound contact with nature, lead him to a difficult choice: an opportunity to either build a future elsewhere, or remain in the place that he was raised. In the painful retreat from his native land, the young man will be helped by the “Great Sage” of the forest. |
Other WorldsSlovakia - 2006 - Betacam SP - Colour
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 | The Desert Island of the Charcoal BurnersItaly - 2007 - DV-Cam - Colour Since the second half of the 20th century, the job of charcoal burner has slowly disappeared. The film explores this traditional discipline as narrated through the voices of two coal burners of the Val Lemina in Piedmont and shows, with meticulous attention, the various aspects of coal production from its mining to combustion. Through the tales of coal vendors and images of forests, valleys and hamlets, we discover a ghost town of sorts, a deserted territory in which man is utterly absent, even if traces of man's original presence, eventual disappearance and possible return are implied. |
Luis Trenker: Prodigal SonItaly - 2006 - Betacam SX - Colour Luis Trenker, director, and much more: multidimensional figure, Alpine guide, ski instructor, climber, architect, actor, writer, mischief-maker, violinist, and painter. Though he may not have excelled in each of these disciplines, he made an impressive showing in each. Using footage from Trenker's films, this documentary concentrates on the impact he had on the seventh art. The intent of this work is above all to ask why a person of such obvious stature has been marginalized in the collective imagination of the people of his native land, the Alto Adige. |
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 | Chestnut seasonSpain - 2005 - 35mm - Black and white A visual and auditory reflection that investigates “time passage” and “time meta-passage”. The film was shot in the Spanish mountains of the Caurel. The black and white imagery is accompanied by the sounds of the mountain: work, nature, rain, and the calm following a storm. These sounds can be defined as the silence of the mountain, a silence that amplifies the poetic beauty of the illuminated forests at the first ray of morning sun or the crackling of chestnuts on an open fire. These images tell a story of the mountain in all its evocative power. |
BoreasTurkey - 2006 - 35mm - Colour In an old house in the heart of the mountains, a young girl lives with the elderly members of her family, observing with reticence the routines of daily life. In an atmosphere of endless waiting, where long silences are broken only by the contrasting glances of the old grandmother and her young granddaughter, the mysteries of life and death are revealed. A walk - hand-in-hand along the river in the midst of a majestic mountain backdrop - seems to suggest the path of life after death. |
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 | RevolutionSwitzerland - 2005 - Digital Betacam - Colour The 1968 revolution left its mark on the Swiss canton of Grigioni. But where did the ex-revolutionaries who fought against the establishment and who wanted to change the world end up? How do they see today's world and have they remained faithful to their ideals? The film recounts the story of "dropout" and farmer Niculin Gianotti, who lives in the town of Bidogno (in Ticino) along with his wife Evelina and their daughter Mattea, the bookseller Anna Ratti, the artist Not Vital, and the politician Andrea Hammerle, all friends from the 1960s. «If I had to do it all over again I would make the same mistakes» claims Niculin, and watching him spread manure over the fields of Ticino, it is easy to see how this statement, too, is its own form of revolution. |
Shadows of the the desert - Salt caravans in NigerGermany - 2006 - Digital Betacam - Colour Niger, land of salt caravans. Djibrilla, a 12-year-old boy and member of the Kel Ewey clan, is for the first time in his life allowed to accompany the Tuareg on their annual trek across the Tenéré desert, a trip leading from the Air Mountains to the Oasis of Blima. Here the clan purchases salt, subsequently selling it in order to survive. The Tuareg walk takes 30 days and covers 600 kilometers. Djibrilla is guided on this voyage by "Madugu" Adoua. Sitting around the campfire on cool desert nights and en route amidst the sandy terrain, Djibrilla tests his courage before reaching the oasis. The salt will be loaded and eventually sold in the mountains, following the ritual offering made to the gods. |
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 | Siachen. A war for iceSwitzerland - 2005 - Digital Betacam - Colour The history and daily events surrounding one of the least known but most absurd wars on the planet. Since 1984, at the extreme northern border of India and Pakistan, a war is being waged for control of the Siachen glacier (at 5000-7000 meters). The film, shot in 2004, documents for the first time in video the terrible war being fought for a few hundred square kilometers of ice and rock, in the heart of Karakorum. The places and unfortunate protagonists of this terrible war are viewed realistically and without tragic irony, even if the marches, war games, and advancing positions of the two armies all seem like absurd, terrible, staging. |
Christmas in TibetFrance - 2006 - Mini DV - Colour Several thousand Tibetan catholics live in the Tibetan region of Yunnan, in southwestern China. Converted by 19th century French and Swiss missionaries, they have been persecuted as both Tibetans and catholics by Chinese communists. Despite this, they continue to observe their faith, even in the absence of priests. The film recounts the surprising experience of a Christmas celebrated in the heart of Tibet with the same rituals and rites used in Western Europe: the holy manger, midnight Mass, and Latin services. The protagonists share their happy memories of time spent with the missionaries, as well as terrible memories of their persecution in the Chinese gulags. |
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 | Valgrande, Sanctuary of SilenceItaly - 2007 - Betacam SP - Colour Reclusive, aristocratic, even a little bizarre, the National Park of the Valgrande is perhaps better suited to the individual than to large masses of people. Though it is the largest wilderness preserve in Italy, this nature sancturary remains, in large part, inaccessible and seemingly jealous of its many treasures. It can be generous, though, with those tenacious enough to seek them out, slowly, among its many paths. The film recounts a "worldly civility" through the places and people of the nearby villages of Ossola, Verbano, Val Vigezzo, Val Intrasca, and Cannobina. |