What is Mountainfilm: Just Another Film Festival or More?

By Lucia Stewart, 5-23-08

Inspirational films of endeavors that push limits, telling tales of remote explorations and discoveries, and conversations among mountain-minded people gathered in Telluride, Colorado under the spectacular breath of the San Juan Mountains. But having never been to Mountainfilm, I may just be naïve in my notion of what Mountainfilm is.

There is a hint of excitement and discovery as I flip though the Mountainfilm guide on one of the many town’s benches, surrounded by hundreds of blowing in prayer flags. And the newly fallen snow (yes, it continues) seems to bring the already towering mountains just a little closer.

Friday morning opens with the Moving Mountain Symposium. This year’s discussion: Water — a topic I’m thoroughly fascinated with from growing up in the West, being a river-running junkie and believing fresh water is more of our future’s crisis than oil.

Missoulian Doug Hawes-David will be here with his new film Brave New West. Jennifer Lowe-Anker, a Bozeman resident, will be here with her new book, “Forget Me Not”, her tale of life with Alex Lowe, her and her three boys loss, and finding solace and happiness with Conrad Anker.

On Saturday, a documentary The Unforeseen, produced by Robert Redford, tells the story of a priceless piece of open land where a developer wants to build McMansions, how locals try to stop it and the legal attacks and disputes that ensue.

On Sunday, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, will be showing in 3D, (pretty cool!, but probably not as good as the real thing), along with an intriguing round-table conversation about the future of the Southwest’s water.

There will be high-adrenaline films, where playing with gravity is just another daily pastime.

Red Gold will be screened, a powerful tales of Bristol Bay, the world-richest sockeye salmon run, current threats from mining the surrounding mountains for a potential $600 billion in gold and copper.

As well as films about the indomitable spirit, reviving lost dreams and wisdom from remote and distant cultures.

I will be keeping my articles relevant to our region here in the New West, but know there is more to MountainFilm then what’s on these pages.

This year, there are also multiple in-depth roundtable conversations about our foreign policy to include: CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, Human Rights Watch director Ken Roth and journalist Roger Cohen.

Also in attendance will be Nando Parrado telling his tale of surviving the December 1972 Andes plane crash with his fellow Ugandan rugby players, following the new documentary Stranded: I’ve come from a plane that crashed on the mountains, that tells first-person stories from the 16 survivors.

And so much more… Visit Mountainfilm.org for more information, or discover for yourself over the next few days here on NewWest.Net.