Telluride Mountainfilm: Locals On The Silver Screen

24 May Telluride Mountainfilm: Locals On The Silver Screen

Telluride Mountainfilm takes place over Memorial Weekend, starting Friday, May 27. For a full schedule, go here and click on the day for a roll out.  

Read on to find out about a few of the films featuring the work of locals or returning locals.

Not true what Tom Wolfe famously said (in the novel, “You Can’t Go Home Again,” published posthumously in 1940).

You can return home again.

And sometimes in triumph.

Always in triumph if you are Kim Havell.

Still from “equal Footing,” courtesy Mountainfilm.

Named by Outside, “Preeminent Female Ski Mountaineer of our Time,” (2012); by Backcountry as “37 Most Important Women in Backcountry,” (2014); and by The Active Times, as #23 among “The World’s Best Athletes, (Fall 2015), Kim Havell is now based in Jackson, Wyoming, but she started her illustrious career as an alpine ski coach in Telluride.

Today Kim remains one of only a handful of females to have major ski descents on all seven continents, including first descents on four. During her travels, she has climbed and skied big peaks in the Himalaya and the Karakoram, the highest mountains across the U.S., with 1st descents both at home and abroad including the Arctic and Antarctic.

Kim has been featured in numerous ski films over the years, and when not skiing and climbing, has written for Outside Magazine, Powder, Freeskier, ESPN, National Geographic, The Ski Journal, and more. She is also currently a ski guide for Exum Mountain Guides, Jackson Hole Ski Resort Alpine Guides, and Ice Expeditions.

And Kim is one of two stars in a short featured at Telluride Mountainfilm 2016.

Kim Havell

Ever wondered what it might be like to be am alpha woman in the traditionally male-dominated pursuit of climbing”

Directed by Dan Holz and Eric Elofsen, “Equal Footing” is a film that, according to Telluride Mountainfilm, follows alpinist Kim and Julia Heemstra as they reflect upon life, love, and loss during a trip into Wyoming’s Wind River Range.  

“Equal Footing” screens at High Camp/Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village on Saturday, May 28, 9:30 a.m. and again on Sunday, May 29, 9:15 a.m. at the Michael D.Palm Theatre.

Kim, image, Kaare Iverson photography

For a preview of Kim, an Osprey Packs athlete, watch this video featuring the athlete as she tours Telluride terrain.

Award-winning filmmaker Lindsay Branham lived in Telluride when she was in the fifth and sixth grades. Not long, but those years made a strong impression:

I have very fond memories of getting skis out of my locker in the elementary school and heading to the mountain in the afternoons with my classmates. I remember going on a cross- country skiing field trip, competing in gymnastics, working for the ski mountain during the summers to have free ski passes for the winters. I remember a lot of Baked in Telluride, cleaning out the Free Box, and hundreds of after-school hours spent in the library, having my mind expanded. I treasure the nurturing, alive, natural, and connected community of Telluride, Halloween parades down Main street, and adventures along the frozen San Miguel River.

I forever hold my years in Telluride as a gift and it is such an honor to return to Telluride to show my film. That the most beautiful place in the world can host heart and mind expanding art from all over the world is a paradox I absolutely love.

Director Lindsay Branham & friend, courtesy Indiewire.

Lindsay grew up to become co-founder of DTJ, an organization that creates localized media to protect children in war. Focusing specifically on children in armed conflict in Central Africa, Lindsay has helped raise awareness about the sectarian conflict in the Central African Republic and the violence perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Lindsay developed and implemented interventions in LRA-affected areas through localized narrative film. She created and produced “They Came at Night,” which won Film of the Year at the New Hampshire Film Festival; the Palm d’Or at the Lower East Side Film Festival in New York City; and premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Lindsay covered the issue of child soldiers for CNN; was an associate producer for CNN’s “Rescued”; and directed dozens of short films featuring the stories of children around the world.

She is now finishing a virtual reality documentary about the Rohingya minority in Myanmar and a film intervention to combat modern-day slavery in India.

Lindsay Branham returns to town as director of “Nascent,” a featured Telluride Mountainfilm short, which she co-directed with Jon Kasbe.

From “Nascent,” courtesy Mountainfilm.

“Nascent”screens Friday, May 27, 6:30 p.m. at The Palm and again on Sunday, May 29, 9:15 a.m. at High Camp/Telluride Conference Center.

About “Nascent” from the director:

My film is a poem – an ode to the surrealist experience of children caught in a maelstrom of violence.

I set out to make a film that focused on a visual exploration of survival, connection, and ultimately, transcendence. “Nascent” is a documentary that leans entirely on the interviews of two children on opposing sides of a brutal civil war, whose stories of survival and fear come to life through poetic imagery, the gulf between them disappearing through a visual dance that culminates in their meeting face to face. 

“Nascent” was created to incite inter-religious dialogue in communities affected by ongoing tit-for-tat revenge violence in Central African Republic, while also capturing the imagination of a global audience to ask the central question if enemies can become co-conspirators for peace.  

“Nascent” was produced and shot on location in Bangui, Central African Republic after a recent wave of violence swept the capital, reducing the Muslim population to a fraction of what it once was. 

In December, 2015, Central African Republic successfully completed its first democratic elections since the civil war began in 2012. The questions the children ask in “Nascent”mirror the most pressing and important discussions being held around the world about the future of this small African nation.

This nascent potential for peace inspired the film.

Deep thanks and gratitude to Bintou and Gaus, the two small beams of wisdom and revelation whose personalities and essence are the soul of this film.

For a preview, watch the trailer:

Another project redolent with local talent is director Wes Coughlin’s  short feature “Heaven’s Eleven.”

From Mountainfilm on “Heaven’s Eleven”:

Still from “Heaven’s Eleven,” courtesy Mountainfilm.

Matthias Giraud — aka Super Frenchie — is a pro skier and BASE jumper who was the first person to ski BASE the Matterhorn. Six years ago, he skied off of Ingram Peak in Telluride and returned to do the same on the Heavens Eleven in 2016. The line, which can be seen from the top of Lift 9, features a narrow, rocky, hairy descent, made even more so when the egress of choice is flying.

Local filmmaker Brett Schreckengost worked on this film with local skier Herb Manning, who guided Giraud into the Elevens.

“Heaven’s Eleven” screens three times at Mountainfilm: Friday, May 27, 10 a.m. at the Sheridan Opera House; Saturday, May 28, 3:45 p.m. at High Camp/Telluride Conference Center: and again at the Opera House, 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 29.