2011 Mountainfilm in Telluride: New Website launches Festival

20 May 2011 Mountainfilm in Telluride: New Website launches Festival

Multimedia Site Lights the Way to 33rd Annual Weekend and Beyond

In the midst of preparing for its biggest-ever festival, Mountainfilm in Telluride completely re-made its website. Mountainfilm executive director Peter Kenworthy says the timing was just right.

“To be able to unveil our new site just as we announce this year’s film list is perfect,” says Kenworthy. “It will mean immediate exposure. Right away we will engage our audiences as never before in our world. We couldn’t be happier. It made this winter a little busy but a spring launch is ideal.”

Kenworthy says the project took many hands, both internally and externally. He extols Mountainfilm’s staff, its social media partner, Under Solen Media, and, most especially, its design and development partner, VentureWeb.

“We wanted a site that aesthetically and architecturally would allow us to really express who we are. And who we are is complex because of the breadth of our programming and the multiplicity of issues that we think matter. VentureWeb completely got our vision. And then they made it happen extremely efficiently.”

The new site is designed and built with multimedia and especially social media at its core. Kenworthy credits Mountainfilm festival director David Holbrooke with the vision of what the site could be and do.

“David saw this site in his mind. He envisioned a vibrant, very alive web presence with lots of stories and movement and meaning. He wanted to create a rich landing place for all the images, words and action that are central to Mountainfilm – a place full of current information about the people and themes and issues connected to Mountainfilm – and to have it be easily updated, accessed and shared.”

Kenworthy cites two primary aspects of the new site that help realize Holbrooke’s vision. “The mechanics of the site are very fluid and allow collaborative users to deliver fresh content extremely quickly, even from remote locations,” he says. “And navigation for users is equally fluid. Rather than build a traditional linear approach, VentureWeb was able to organically link all our related parts and pieces. This makes for seamless transitions throughout the site and allows our visitors to dig deeply without getting lost or coming to a dead-end.”

Summing up the new site, Kenworthy says, “It’s just what David imagined and we wanted – a powerfully dynamic tool sheathed in a very clean modern aesthetic. It will open Mountainfilm to the world, and the world to Mountainfilm, in a completely unprecedented way.”