May 5, Trento, Mountain Films Festival. Report N3.

Otta mille

Arco in the morning, films in the evening, beer at night, Arko in the morning. Bubu, Haston, bogus film, real Messner, Hillary and "the young".

The last memory of that night was the bare ass of Mauru Bole ("Bubu"), a charming man, short, skinny, mousy, smiling to all and sundry. Every minute you were waiting for something extraordinary from him.

By half past two, when everyone had been filled with beer up to the brim and Cristof Profite, head wet with bear, moved sadly to the exit, "Bubu", instigated by the crown of the drunken celebrities (the Russian way of getting drunk does not imply beer, yet that was in Italy...), chose the climbing wall opposite the main entrance as a stage for a male strip-tease show. (At last I have had this experience!).

Free of cloth climbing

Yet "Bubu" is famous not only for his "free" (of clothes) climbing and night brawls. At present he is one of the hardest ice climbers of the world. It is he who uttered the remarkable phrase that, having found a place for his ice-hook, he will find it for his axe as well.

Incidentally, they showed yesterday "Wild Ñlimbs: Colorado": about an English climber, Stevy Haston, having a go at the hardest ice route of the world, "Reptile", and making it in the dry-tooling style (i.e. using only axes). The film turned out to be impressive. Its 29 minutes consist of climbing and commentaries, before and after, and also of constant "beep-beep-beeps" (it seemed Stevy had not spared strong words and many other body's reactions while moving up). His wife Laurence, who shared with him the rope, is one of the leading ice climbers. She defines (I think, rightly) her husband's style as "bulldog's". He will never let loose what he clings to. His high class acrobatics up there, spiced with colorful language and commentaries, were a good show and true cinema.

"BUBU"

Contrary to this, "Pamiro-Alay: Climbing the Big Walls", which had intrigued us with its title proved to be false. There a bunch of young Italian climbers decides their life will be lost if they do not go to wild mountains in a wild country and do not get to the top of Slesov peak. The film is made in the style of the most boring climbing films, i.e. according to the fixed rules: here we are to land, here we are to board our truck, here are the aboriginals to meet us, here we are on the summit and at last back at home. And so on and so forth. The music is most doleful and does not belong with the climb itself, the shooting has been made with an amateur camera and that stands out sharply against the other, professionally shot, films.

Somehow, my opinion was not shared by the Jury. The film has got the special prize of UIAA! Despite all this, our mountains are most appealing there!

R.Messner

The acme (and dessert) of the Festival was the event officially called "The mountaineering history of eight-thousanders", held on the last evening. It was conducted by the Great Man of the climbing world, Reinhold Messner. The hall was crammed with audience. Many were keen on taking pictures of the celebrities who had gathered here, so the flashes were blinding. For us more likely than not there would be no other possibility to see them again.

On the stage were giving place to each other Edmund Hillary, Fausto de Stefano, Kszistof Welizky, Kurt Dimberger, Carlos Carsolio...Many of the Great were just sitting quietly in their seats, like Audrey Salkeld, surrounded by photographers and seekers of autographs.

Carlos Corsolio

Nives Meroi

Fausto de Stefano

The idea of the event was to make meet three things: Messner's narrative, recalling the climbing history of 14 eight-thousanders, fragments of historical films (part of the retrospective series), and the appearing on the stage in body of the heroes of that history.

Edmund Hillary was met with an explosion of applause. Much taller than Messner, he looked impressive and it was he who narrated the climbing history of Everest, and with many details and slides the story of the first ascent, in which he had taken part nearly 50 years ago! Sir Hillary seemed to turn out to be the main instrument, which played the major part in that evening.

Messner, Cassin, Humar, Hillary

The hectic Festival and that special evening were so rich and kaleidoscopic, that at this very moment, drained of all strength, I fell asleep and nearly off my seat (I am not so good in Italian language:-). I came to just in time to catch Messner's speech, annotating the "Gold Gentian" prizes (a gentian is a small flower with blue petals, growing only in mountains). The prizes were to be delivered to the climbers of two generations, to those who had done "The climbs of the century". Sir Hillary was to hand the prizes. And who do you think got the flowers? One was taken by Sir Hillary himself, and the other was given to Tomas Humar, which aroused a wild uproar and applause (caused either by joy or anger, I could not make out). The last Tomas' great ascent had been the soloing of the south wall of Dhaulagiri. A film about this climb ("Dhaulagiri express") had been shown at the Festival. One could feel the film had been worked upon a lot by professionals and this mere fact could make it a bit dull for the lay public. Humar's heroic deeds had aroused certain controversy, yet this climb is a fact. The wall had been done at least two times before him: by his compatriots-Slovenes (their line is not far from his one) and by our guys. Yet both ascents were not mentioned neither in the film, nor in the press-release... Humar's handshake is as extraordinary as his climbs. Everyone who happened to be close enough to witness this, could not withhold a horror grimace at the sight of this Slovene bear, trying to break or disjoint the arms of those who sought to rub shoulders with him. Somehow I managed to dodge this ordeal... :-)

Tomash Humar

What to say about the grandiose personality of Messner? It is obvious that the way the Western public see him as a climber and just person differs absolutely from that of the Russian one. For the former he is a well known and esteemed part of the established system, for the latter he a legend.

We could touch The Legend, yet disregarded the possibility. Were we right? Nonetheless, our camera has preserved this bearded never changing face (and its owner is 56 now). Many think his life has been commercialized. His next in turn project, Antarctica by Sheklton's route, together with Conrad Anker, having been successfully finished, he, as one of the Great, can never stop at any reached point.

Incidentally, Messner also got his "Gold Gentian" from the hands of the Grandfather of the Italian mountaineering, Riccardo Cassin, who himself, along with Hillary, spent the evening on the stage, representing the Golden Epoch of mountaineering. At his 92 the man is very live, with a good kindly smile.

Genziana

After the official part had finished, the public moved to the huge tent in the center of Centro Santa Chiara. We were sitting at the large table, beer was flowing like a river and everyone was trying to pry out of beautiful Antonella Chicogna, Chief of the Press Office, the information on the winners. "So, the Winner is?:", and a next glass of beer would appear on the table before her...

But she turned out to be a hard nut to crack!

The results will be announced on the 6th of May, at 11.30.

Claude Gardien

As our friend Claude Gardien, a journalist and photographer for "Vertical" magazine, has said: in Trento the routine is as follows - morning all climb in Arco, evening watch films, night all are in the binge until a new morning.

RISK Online, Trento.

Translated by Yuri Kolomiets

Report N2. May, 4

SMART in Trento!

Unlike weather in Moscow, it is full summer in Trento, and sometimes, stuck in some cafe on Cathedral Square, you do not have any desire to move further. The sun, cappuccino, huge pavilion "Mountains in books" and time-table of the evening film shows... Like all small Italian towns, Trento is marvellous in its quietness and its blend of age-old and modern motifs.

What is it all about, though? About the Festival.

Unlike last year's situation, the Russian mountaineering cinema is represented by just one film, "Desert for dessert". In English it sounds fairly good. 13 minutes, colour, made by the Urals TV Agency (UTA). The main character of this dynamic film, Gleb Yakushev makes free-fall jumps from a plane with a bike. One gets the impression that only in the Urals they make good "extreme" films.

It is a pity that "Thalay Sagar" (Ekaterinburgh, UTA) has missed the festival (was too late), even though in my opinion the quality of the video material and montage is lower than those of the western films shown. One of the Festival's nominations is the retrospective show of films about the Great Himalayan ascents. In this line are such films as "Makalu" (1955) about the French ascent led by Robert Paragot by the West Ridge (you remember his book "Straight as an arrow"?); "Manaslu"- the Japanese climb of 1980; "K2"- the Italian ascent; "Nanga Parbat"- Germany.

The nominations are as follows: The Himalayas - their mountaineering history; Feature films; Mountains - nature and people; Climbing; Sports and adventures; Research and development; Swiss cinema - here and always - the retrospection. What surprises you among other things is feature films. It is a talk apart though. "Himalayas". Wide screen, Dolby sound, fiction! It seems for some reason it is going to be the winner. More details later.

Yet the Festival's life does not consist of film shows only. Each evening in the book pavilion they hold meetings with the heroes of the eight-thousanders. Yesterday the meeting was attended in person by Sir Edmund Hillary. After the official opening all moved into the small banquet-hall where the two climbing generations mixed. Among the oldest Edmund Hillary, Riccardo Cassin, Cesare Maestri and Bruno de Detassin were noted. The younger generation was represented by Carlos Carsolio, Kszistof Welizky, Silvo Karo, Tomash Humar, Eric Shvab, Christoff Profit, Nives Meroi, Fausto de Stefani and many others. The informal atmosphere was good for mixing. The official slogan for that meeting had been "The meeting of generations", yet we could not find more appropriate words than "a warm party". That was great: the old and the young were huddling in four rooms and, vying with each other, were recalling routes done, were discussing plans, kids, weather. I wish we could organise such meetings! Talking about people, we will come again to Silvo Karo and Nives Meroi. More details later.

Films for today: Pamiro-Alai, Big Wall climbs (Italy); Climbing in Colorado (UK) and others.

In the nearest future wait for more: Jury; Prizes; Meeting with Reinhold Messner.

It is a great pity one cannot have time to come to every event: photo exhibition, party with the old, books presentation. I wish I could! A regular life feast! Not to mention the fact that actually we have come here to see films.

Translated by Yuri Kolomiets.

"RISK Online" report N1, 03.05.

The 48th Mountain Films Festival, "Citta di Trento", has started on the 30th of April.

Each day they hold three film shows in accordance with the nominations. Each show consists of three films. A total surprise for us was feature films with Dolby sound and all the professional tricks one can imagine. The Festival's catalogue is a thick book annotating all the films in four languages.

Of special interest are the so called "old cinema", i.e. films, fiction ones including, about the nature, history of the development of mountain areas, building tunnels and roads, about people's life there.

Apart from films, there is a program "Events of Festival", which include meetings with well known mountaineers of many countries and climbing epochs, presentations of books (it turns out that lots and lots of books about mountains have been put out).

For instance today journalists writing about mountains have a meeting and also do the owners of mountain refuges. On May 3 took place an event dedicated to the climbing history of the legendary Civetta. It was honoured by the presence of Riccardo Cassin (92 now) and Maestri. By and large this Festival is assigned to the climbing history of eight-thousanders. So the Himalayan theme takes a large part of the program: meetings with high-altitude climbers, active and "retired", representing the live history of the conquering of the Himalayas. The program "Eight thousand" is conducted by Reinhold Messner.

To be continued...

Translated by Yuri Kolomiets.

79 films accepted

The Selection Committee has accepted 79 for the 48th International Film Festival in Trento, Italy.

201 film submitted to the selection.

19 countries candidate for the "Genziana d'oro Grand Prize", Citta di Trento France, Italy, Great Britain, United States, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa and Norway are all possible candidates for the gold "Genziana d'oro Grand Prize".

The various categories include

• Mountain Films,
• Mountaineering,
• Exploration,
• Sport and Adventure.

A careful assessment

"The selection process was not easy and required a careful assessment" explained Antonio Cembran, a member of the Selection Committee and Director of the Festival.

"This theme of this year's Festival is a quest, for the mountaineering and exploration documentaries are based on historical facts. "The world of mountaineering is represented through historical reconstructions, so as to re-establish a historical perspective, not just from poetic point of view, but also from a concrete standpoint" explains Cembran.

"Through the cinema the mountain finds a vehicle of expressing not only its dreams, made real through their beauty, but also the often harsh reality. Man intrudes, and on stopping on this fragile balance is indispensable."

Information provided by Mnet.