The Telluride weather forecast looked good when I went to bed Friday night, so I woke at 0530. The clear, windless sky was all the encouragement I needed to leave my comfortable bed, get dressed and ride my bike to town to watch the Telluride Balloon Festival launch. By the time I got to the Telluride Town Park, most of the hot-air balloons were filling with warm air from their gas burners.
by Mountainfilm staff
Mountainfilm in Telluride announces a new granting program, the Mountainfilm Commitment. The initiative provides up to five grants of $5,000 each year to filmmakers, photographers, artists and adventurers whose projects are intended to move audiences to action on issues that matter. Individuals who are producing film, video, photography, book, art, and multimedia projects that can be presented in theaters and galleries or, more broadly, on television and online, are eligible. Mountainfilm will also work with grantees to ensure that their stories are heard as widely as possible. Grants will be awarded in the inaugural cycle of the program to individuals who have either participated in a Mountainfilm in Telluride festival as a filmmaker or special guest presenter or have been recommended by participating filmmakers or presenters.
This weekend, Mountainfilm in Telluride and SquidShow Theatre present "War of the Words: A Murder Trial, Endangered Language vs. English. The dramatic event takes place Saturday, May 29, 9:15 p.m. @ The Masons.
After bringing Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History to life last year, SquidShow Theatre is excited to pair up with Mountainfilm again, this time creating an original play based on the Festival's theme: extinction.
“Festival Director David Holbrooke approached us about creating an original play, because he wanted to incorporate theatre and live performance in this year’s Festival again," said Sasha Cucciniello. "After several conversations about what we might write about, David mentioned language extinction. After doing some research, the choice was made. Being a writer, I was blown away by the subject, the impact language extinction is having on our world and the implications for the future of language.”
By D. Dion
Greg Stump’s “Blizzard of Aahhh’s” (1988) is perhaps the most beloved movie ever made about skiing. (Skiing Magazine ranked it #1 in its Top Ten Ski Movies of All Times, and a VHS recording of the film sits on the shelf of every self-respecting ski bum over the age of 30.) The movie also holds a special place in the heart of Telluriders, because it features lots of local footage from the 80s, from powder runs down Mammoth in neon-colored, one-piece ski suits to dreadlocked reggae musician Rasta Stevie waxing philosophical about his stint in Telluride politics and the vibe of the ski town.
It’s fitting, then, that the preeminent filmmaker would preview his newest work in progress, the ski flick “Legend of Aahhh’s,” here in his old Stump-ing grounds, at Telluride’s Mountainfilm festival this Memorial Day weekend. “I spent every winter from 1983 through 1988 in Telluride, with my brother Geoff. I really like it there,” says Stump.
The name "Holbrooke" is listed in the Telluride phone book. It is also gets top billing on the marquee of the world stage.
Telluride's Jagged Edge is more than a store. It a gathering place for like-minded folks, from hardcore adrenaline junkies to weekend warriors with day jobs. It is the retail outlet those who support Mountainfilm in Telluride love to support.
By D. Dion
When Sender Films brings their superior brand of climbing flicks to Mountainfilm in Telluride, they know they are getting an appreciative audience—often one full of climbers and adventurers who have been through the ascetic conditioning of sleeping in the cold at high elevations, burdened with just enough food and water to make the journey possible, or who have scars on their hands from jamming them into a crack as they ascend a wall. Sender has managed to dazzle these likeminded folks at past festivals, winning awards for films like “King Lines,” “Return to Sender” and “The Sharp End.”
But the mountaineering world isn’t the only one sitting up and taking notice of Sender: National Geographic International contracted Sender to produce a television series based on the film company’s popular work “First Ascent.” The film company has finished the six-part series and will show four of the programs at Mountainfilm in Telluride this weekend. “In the past we’ve done a lot of television stuff, but we’ve never produced our own series. It was different working for National Geo, but also similar, in that a lot of our films are sort of episodic. But it was a much bigger budget, more storyline, and we were creating a product that wasn’t just for mountain film enthusiasts and the climbing community,” says Nicholas Rosen, who co-produced the series with his partner Peter Mortimer.
Mountainfilm in Telluride, May 28 – May 31, features about 75 extraordinary films about extraordinary people, places and things, among them, the 2009 Oscar winner for Best Feature Documentary, director Louie Psyihoyos' "The Cove."
Written and directed by Andrew Gregg, "Tattoo Odyssey," follows Mountainfilm in Telluride regular, photojournalist/author Chris Rainier, as he travels the world to connects the dots, if you will, from past to present – from the tribes of the ancient world to the newly-tattooed aficionados of the West – to reveal the hidden symbolism of marks on the body as ways to express identity.
